Relationship between Parental Overindulgence and Buying Behavior in the Context of Invasive Marketing: A Comparative Study of Two Cultures

Abstract

This scientific investigation adopts a cross cultural perspective in studying the relationship between parental overindulgence and perception of parents regarding the influence of children in bringing in awareness, creating interest, desire and influencing final purchase decision of packaged food products. Child rearing practices differ from culture to culture and can be an important factor influencing the buying behaviour of families.Parenting styles in two cultures (American & Indian) were studied to gauge the level of influence of children to the four levels of AIDA(Strong 1925). The sample size was 117(40 American parents and 77 Indian parents). The results indicate that there exists no significant difference in the two cultures regarding the contribution of children in bringing in initial information, creating interest and desire about packaged food products in the family but the two cultures differed significantly in terms of the contribution kids have in influencing the actual buying decisions regarding packaged food products. The influence of American children was lower in final purchase than Indian children. Indian parents showed higher level of indulgence (M=3.33, Seoul Journal of Business Volume 14, Number 1 (June 2008) * Main Author, Professor, Apeejay School of Management (msthakur_iitd@ yahoo.co.in). ** Coauthor, Professor, Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University (pujakhatri12@gmail.com). S.D. =1.7) than American parents (M=2.02, S.D. =1.86).The level of indulgence was found to regress on actual buying behavior of parents. The study points at the shift of Indian parents towards over indulgence as a result of invasive marketing practices targeted at the children. The study has implications for marketers, social agencies, and parents and attempts to highlight the growing in marketing influence in the socio cultural fabric.