Determinants of Children's Influence on Family Purchase Decisions in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to find out the amount of children influence on family purchase decisions. It considers product types as being the influencing agents that enhance children’ s influence to family purchase decisions. The paper acknowledges children as being consumers in their own right and not an extension of their parents. Therefore the amount of children influence in this paper is direct influence which is characterized by other family members taking the child into account when going through the purchase decision process. This therefore implies that, consumer roles being played by family members are seen as being of equal measure, such that children are equal participants of family decision making just as parents. This is opposed to the child passively influencing the decision itself as is in the domain of majority of Kenyan families. The study was based on an extensive literature review and qualitative and quantitative study designs. Using a questionnaire, a survey was conducted with parents of children aged 8-12 year olds in Nairobi Kenya. The sample size was 200 parents. Findings – The study confirmed a positive and significant linear relationship between family purchase decisions and product types. The findings of this research indicate that children’ s influence on family purchase decisions vary across different product types, whether the product is for a child’s own use or weather the product is used by the whole family. The study will benefit advertisers in formulating policies that improve service delivery, by addressing the identified factors and following the researcher’ s recommendations. Marketers will benefit from the acquired knowledge when directing their marketing efforts at families. Knowledge about children's influence on the idea generation and choice stage should be used to attract children's awareness of new products and to focus on specific products in order to impact children.