Marketing medium impact: differences between baby boomers and generation Xers in their information search in a variety of purchase decision situations

It has been suggested that differences may exist in how members of two generations respond to various marketing mediums. The conventional wisdom is that a new medium will either replace the old medium or it will not amount to anything. A third possibility, not yet entirely explained, is an interaction effect between the mediums. This third possibility suggests a correlation between the usage of different mediums. The personal computer provides easy access to the resources of the Internet and therefore has the potential for interaction and correlation with other mediums. The research reported here examines the differences in the utilization of different media as sources of information for a variety of purchase decisions. Data collection methods, analytical analysis and test results are reported herein. The authors suggest future research to clarify several issues identified in this study.