Motivation research up to now perceive managers as a homogeneous group and do not include numerous individual differences. Age differences between people are an important factor which influences their motivation altogether. Motifs are not static but dynamic categories and structures which, among other things, also depend on a person's experience during person's development. This work's objective is first of all to define whether a real marketing manager's motivation profile in Croatia today corresponds to their expected or supposed profile? In this work secondary and primary data resources are used. Field examination of marketing manager's motives and motivation was conducted by a structured questionnaire on an intended occasional sample of 60 examinees (N=60) from the whole Croatia, the very same being marketing managers (marketing service managers), sales managers (sales service managers) and tourist community directors. We divided the group of 60 examinees into three homogeneous age groups: :'A' (n = 20), aged to 35; 'B' (n = 20), aged between 35 and 50; 'C' (n = 20), aged over 50. Examinees' registered motives were classified into four groups: direct material motives (Ms); job safety and job (work) promotion motives (Mt); professional improving and profession promotion motives: gaining new knowledge, abilities and skills (Mc); work climate and atmosphere, and other similar motives (Mp). Authors entered this research with belief that younger managers will be mostly motivated for professional improving and gaining new knowledge and skills; we expect middle aged managers to be mostly motivated for safety and job promotion, and managers in an advanced age should probably be mostly motivated for direct income and earnings.