Professor Cabrini Pak, Assistant Professor of Marketing, has been published in the Journal of Business Strategy for her work on the sandwich generation. The sandwich generation is defined as adults who are providing some kind of care for their children, grown or not, and at least one parent or parent-in-law.
Her paper presents a marketing framework tailored to the sandwich generation (SG) demographic, aiming to cater to the needs of these consumers and their families. Based on research from business, sociology, healthcare, and industry sources, the study identifies four major needs of SG members across their intergenerational families: financial management, social support, healthcare, and wellness. To address these needs efficiently, businesses can incorporate specific enablers, such as human resource benefits, resource allocation tools, time management tools, and technology/services.
The practical implications for managers involve maximizing value for SG members and their families by focusing on three key principles: helping them save time, leveraging age-friendly marketplace adjustments, and embracing universal design principles.
Two Busch School alumni, Cameron Kroberger and Taylor Mansure were acknowledged in this piece for their valuable feedback on previous versions of her work. Both are former students of Professor Pak who had researched the sandwich generation for their marketing projects.