Age Influence on Product Involvement and Expertise for Vegetable and Herb Transplants

Drucker wrote that changes in demographics are one of the easiest ways for a business to remain innovative, yet few business managers follow or act upon demographic changes (Drucker, 2002). Generation X and Generation Y are two distinct age groups that are of concern to the horticulture industry because of their apparent lack of horticultural purchases. Experts are individuals who know more, solve problems faster, and use their information in a different manner (Herling, 2000) compared to individuals lacking expertise (Tanaka and Taylor, 1991) and product expertise affects purchase decisions. Product involvement is another important influence on the purchase decision (Maoz and Tybout, 2002; Park, 1995; Park et al., 2007). We developed an online survey instrument that consisted of questions regarding involvement with herbs and, separately, vegetables and expertise with those products. The online instrument was active from 14 May until 16 May 2014. We screened for potential respondents who had made > 0 plant purchases in the six months prior to the study and attempted to achieve a sample with ~33% Baby Boomers (≥ 50 years of age), ~33% Gen X (ages 30 to 49 years) and ~33% Gen Y (ages 18 to 29 years) in order to have a sufficient respondents with which to make comparisons between age cohorts. Our factor analyses on the herb and vegetable related items yielded 4 discrete factors and were tested for reliability as independent scales. Factor 1 of the herb-related items emerged as an 18-item scale and was labeled “herb expertise”. Herb-related Factor 2 emerged as an 8-item scale and was labeled “herb involvement.” Factors 1 and 2 of the vegetable-related items were identified as 20-item and 6-item scales labeled “vegetable expertise” and “vegetable involvement,” respectively. Comparing the involvement and expertise levels of the three age groups, we found differences for 3 of the four factors. Both Gen X and Gen Y participants had higher mean herb expertise compared to Boomers. We also found that Boomer participants had lower herb involvement than both Gen X and Gen Y. With regard to vegetable expertise, we found that both Gen X and Gen Y had a higher mean score compared to Boomers. However, we found no difference in mean score for vegetable involvement. Marketers can take these differences into account in their marketing strategies to different age cohorts.