Physical appearance is one of the most important cues
that an individual uses in forming an impression of another
person. Researchers have found that perceptions of age are
negatively related to perceptions of physical attractiveness.
Because salespeople are influential in affecting a store's
sales, especially for nondurable goods (Undell, 1972),
consumers' perceptions of salespeople may influence the
store's image and sales outcomes. The purpose of the present
study was to investigate consumers' perceptions of salespeople
of different ages and to determine if differences in these
perceptions were related to consumers' age and salespersons'
age.
Two groups of subjects were investigated - younger adults
(between 18 and 28 years of age) and older adults (55 years of
age and older) . Younger adult subjects were recruited from
university classrooms (n = 41). Older adult subjects were the
recipients of Oregon Horne Economics Extension Newsletter (n =
46). The total sample size was 87. A questionnaire was used
in the present study to investigate a consumer's perceptions.
The questionnaire included three parts questions on the
respondent's shopping patterns, a consumer shopping scenario
which included the salesperson's age manipulation, and
questions asking demographic information. Three dependent
variables were measured in the questionnaire: perceptions of
the salesperson's fashionability, product knowledge, and job
performance. The data were analyzed using the chi-square
statistic and content analysis.
Results indicated that consumers' perceptions of a
salesperson's fashionability was related to the age of the
salesperson. Perceptions of a salesperson's fashionability
was also related to the age of consumer and the age of the
salesperson. Perceptions of the salesperson's product
knowledge and performance were not related to the age of
salesperson nor to the age of the consumers. / Graduation date: 1992
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/37294 |
| Date | 05 February 1992 |
| Creators | Cho, Shi Jean |
| Contributors | Burns, Leslie D. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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