About this Special Issue

Volume 42, Issue 7-8, 2026

Free Access Editorial
From old to new: re-thinking and reconstructing ageing consumers
Carolyn Wilson-Nash, Anna Schneider-Kamp & Paolo Franco
Ageing is too often narrated from a deficit perspective, where a problem of decline and dependency invites managerial fixes and narrow segmentation. This JMM special issue encourages marketing scholars to reconsider how our field frames ageing consumers – conceptually, empirically, and managerially – and to question the taken-for-granted connection between old age and the constant requirement to ‘solve a problem’ or ‘fulfil a lack’…
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0267257X.2026.2641338

Article
Consumers living with dementia: a scoping review of overlooked marketplace experiences
Valentina Primossi, Linda Garcia & Michael S. Mulvey
Consumers living with dementia (CLWD) represent an emerging segment with distinct needs, yet they remain underrepresented in marketing research. Through a scoping review, 77 publications from 1990 to 2024 met our selection criteria which included being related to older adults living with disabilities, including dementia and focusing on consumer-centric terminology. Our analysis reveals four factors that influence the reporting of the experiences of CLWD…
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0267257X.2025.2545538

Open Access Article
Indeed a ‛silver bullet’ – improving the measurement of ageing in consumer behaviour using the characteristic age approach
Robert Zniva & Daniela Weber
The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the status quo of measuring age in older consumer behaviour research and to identify new research avenues by introducing approaches from gerontology and demography. The study is based on a review of 211 papers on the behaviour of consumers at an advanced age…
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0267257X.2025.2559922

Open Access Article
A scoping review on ageism in marketing: towards age inclusiveness
Jessica Darveau, Catherine Paquet, Aida Faber & Valériane Champagne Saint-Arnaud
Based on a corpus of 75 studies published over the last 5 decades, this scoping review delivers a descriptive and analytical account of ageism in marketing. The literature reviewed highlighted the presence of different manifestations of ageism (non-, under- and mis-representation) across all marketing functions, especially in advertising and product offering…
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0267257X.2025.2562327

Article
Not just for the young: older consumers and experiential consumption
Michelle I.C. Yang & Ai Ming Chow
Existing research on experiential consumption has often focused on youthful, able-bodied consumers; this approach has rendered older consumers invisible or marginalised when discussing experiential consumption. This paper challenges this dominant narrative by developing a conceptual framework that repositions older consumers as active participants in experiential consumption…
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0267257X.2025.2572969

Article
Journeys of empowerment: the case of widowed older solo female travellers
Michelle I.C. Yang & Ksenia Kirillova
This paper explores how older women achieve empowerment through solo travel after the loss of a spouse. Using a case study netnography, the research examines how online communities of widowed older women engage in solo travel for healing, identity reconstruction, and empowerment. The study identifies three key journeys to empowerment…
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0267257X.2025.2579743

Article Commentary
Ageist marketing as systemic exclusion: towards a framework for age-inclusive marketing
Bernardo Figueiredo
Demographic ageing is reshaping global marketplaces, yet marketing continues to marginalise older adults. Ageist marketing is not a set of isolated practices but instead a systemic set of marketing practices embedded in discourses, structures, and ideologies, through which older consumers are framed by the deficit logics of decline, dependency, or burden, resulting in their exclusion from full participation in markets…
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0267257X.2025.2604228