Innovativeness of Senior Consumers’ Attitudes – An Attempt to Conduct Segmentation

Abstract Research background: Ageing societies is a global phenomenon. In the media and the press, there strongly exists a stereotype of elderly people being poorly adjusted to social change, lonely, poor and not open to market novelties. However, an in-depth description of the senior consumer market segment shows their high degree of variety and differentiation in their approach to purchasing product innovations. Purpose: The aim of the article is to present a model of segmentation of older people according to the criterion of their attitudes towards innovation on the FMCG market. Research methodology: The source of information for building the typology was personal interviews conducted in 2018 with people aged over 60 in Greater Poland (the Wielkopolska region). The selection of respondents (the sample consisted of 1,451 people) was carried out using the quota selection method. The K-means clustering algorithm was applied to classify the respondents into clusters. Results: The research procedure allowed for the identification of different segments of senior consumers: reluctant conservatives, knowledgeable traditionalists, aspiring withdrawn/passive, unaware practical and rational innovators. Novelty: The results of the analysis of the segmentation of senior consumers confirm that people actively interested in product innovations on the FMCG market constitute a relatively small part of the elderly population (18.0%) and that there is a clear relationship between the attitude towards innovation and the characteristics of consumers in terms of economic, demographic and social variables.