Categorising Products Strategically Basis Children’s Influence in Urban Indian Household

Abstract

Among all the factors that influence a buyer’s behavior, the single most influential group in the consumption behavior pattern of an individual is the family. In a household’s purchase decision making, since different family members pose as decision makers for different products, identifying the decision maker is of utmost significance to the marketers. Consumer behaviourists have oversimplified the classification of family or household purchase decisions into three / four groups: husband dominated, wife dominated, joint and autonomic; largely overlooking or understating the role played by the child consumer in these product purchase decisions. This paper aims to study the extent of children’s influence in an urban Indian household’s purchase decision making and examine the variation in this influence orientation across select products with the ultimate aim of creating a novel categorisation of products into decision categories; basis select variables. The study concluded that that the relative influence of children varied significantly across majority products and variables. Results led to the creation of four decision categories basis children’s relative influence: couple dominant, husband / wife dominant, children dominant and participatory. Interestingly, most products expected to be in the parents’ domain were observed to have progressed to the participatory domain or the children’s sole domain. This paper is a novel attempt towards creation of decision categories and categorisation of products therein; basis children’s influence and other key variables which impact purchase decision making.