Identification of consumption patterns: an empirical study in millennials

Abstract

Purpose: Societal changes and technological development have brought about drastic lifestyle change in the past decades. This drastic change is evident when comparing the lifestyle and general characteristics of generations who have been born immersed in this technological context to those of other generations. The objective of this paper is to analyze brand image (BI) as determinant of brand attitude (AB), and the moderating effect of brand equity (BE), in the use of online information among millennial shoppers from Colombia. In general, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to existing literature related to the importance of generational membership in classifying individuals regarding brand perception (BI, AB and BE) and association with the use of shopping channels between different generations. Design/methodology/approach: A hierarchical regression model is estimated with a sample of university students in Colombia who are considered potential coffee consumers, and who were classified as millennials based on their age. Findings: The results support that BE effect has a greater impact on AB when consumers have a good BI. Millennials also use more online communication sources to create brand perceptions. Originality/value: Nevertheless, few studies have concurrently analyzed the characteristics of brand building and types of sources of information (online vs offline). This paper attempts to analyze the behavior of millennial consumers and the use of information channels online vs offline to manage brand and analyze BI, AB and BE.