Exploring the role of family communication and brand awareness in understanding the influence of child on purchase decisions: scale development and validation

Abstract

Understanding children's influence in purchase decisions is an area in need of further research especially in Indian context. To address this need, this research proposes a theoretical model with focus on family communication, brand awareness and demographic variables as important factors which affect the influence of children. The research further develops scales to measure family communication, brand awareness and to measure child's influence. These scales are developed through literature review, focus groups, in-depth interviews and surveys of 329 pair of mother and child. The scales are shown to demonstrate adequate internal consistency, construct validity and discriminant validity. Segregation of the child's influence with respect to different product category is the unique contribution of this study. In total six scales have been developed and validated. Future research suggestions and limitations are also discussed.