Age 2.0: Motivations and Brand Engagement

• Autor(a) principal: Miranda, Sandra
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Machado, Ana Teresa, Antunes, Ana Cristina, Gama, Ana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/12648
• topic: Aging; Social media; Motivations; Brand engagement

The demographic winter that is widespread throughout Europe, along with the spread of network society, has brought to contemporary societies a striking new world of opportunity and challenge. The growing adherence of the senior population to Information and Communication Technologies, with a focus on digital social networks, is perceived as a positive sign of inclusion and digital literacy. In this context and given the potential of this segment as a marketing target, brands need to understand the interests, motivations, and profiles of these users to achieve greater interaction and proximity with this audience. Taking into account two countries, Portugal and Spain, the aim of this research is 1) to discuss the role of social networks in promoting active aging; 2) to understand the level of importance and how this senior segment interacts with the brands on social networks and 3) to compare the results among the two sociocultural realities. Methodologically, an exploratory qualitative investigation was carried out based on the realization of a Focus Group in which users of social networks residing in Spain and Portugal participated. Results point out that more than seeking and get information about brands, seniors navigate the social networks in search of affiliation, support, and socialization not only broadening their network of contacts in the virtual world but mainly by networking with their "acquaintances" to retrieve memories and strengthen bonds of friendship. As little research has been undertaken so far into the ways that older consumers are adopting or rejecting new digital technologies, this study contributes to the academic literature regarding this subject. Furthermore, for marketers, it is important to tailor their strategies and to convey appropriate messages as there is evidence that seniors have still to be pushed to join and use pages of brands on Facebook as a platform to interact with brands.