Children's Consumer Behaviour Research Articles

Impact of Television Advertising on Children's Consumption: A Parental Perception Study

The impact of television advertising on children's buying behavior is an important topic of study, particularly in the context of Karachi. This study utilizes applied research methods to investigate the role of parental perception as a moderator of the impact of advertising and peer influence on children's purchasing decisions. While previous research has focused on parental influence in a broader sense, this study fills a gap by specifically examining the moderating effect of parental perception. The study collects data from parents in Karachi to assess their perceptions of advertisements and their influence on their children's purchasing decisions. The findings reveal that parental perception plays a significant role in shaping children's buying behavior. Specifically, parental perception moderates the impact of advertising and peer influence on children's purchasing decisions. This finding emphasizes the importance of understanding the role of parental perception in shaping children's consumer behavior. This paper contributes to the literature on children's consumer behavior by highlighting the importance of parental perception as a key factor in understanding the mechanisms that shape children's purchasing decisions. Furthermore, the empirical evidence provided by this study offers insights for practitioners seeking to develop effective marketing strategies targeting children and their parents in Karachi. By understanding the moderating role of parental perception, marketers can develop strategies that are more effective in influencing children's buying behavior.

The influence of advertising on children's buying behaviour: a case study in Slovakia

Advertising is an essential tool in influencing the customer's buying behavior. However, customers tend to have various levels of understanding and decoding advertising messages. Even though children do not have purchasing power themselves, they still create a key customer segment that can influence the purchase decision of the whole family. The paper focuses on how media usage by children and their attitudes towards advertisements determines their buying behavior. The main purpose of the research is to present and describe how children's advertising literacy develops and its connection with the concept of the theory of mind. The relevance of the decision of this scientific problem is that according to several types of research, children are increasingly targeted through various advertising media. Even though their advertising literacy is not fully developed yet. However, nowadays, there is a growing importance of media in our lives and a need to socialize children as consumers because they represent a huge market for advertisers. An empirical study was carried out by designing a questionnaire filled by Slovak children between the ages of 11 and 15. The advertising impact and the degree of impact of the selected types of advertising media on children's consumer behavior were evaluated. The study involved the online method of computer-assisted web interviewing to investigate the influence of advertising media. The authors assessed the degree of the disruptive effect of the selected advertising media on children and the perception of a chosen medium within gender. The most and the least influential type of media were identified. The findings showed no significant difference within gender in the case of advertising media perception by children. The research empirically confirmed and theoretically proved commercial messages aimed at children through different kinds of traditional and electronic media. According to the results, children's buying behavior is mostly influenced by advertising on social media platforms. This type of media mostly integrates sponsored content which has a huge influence on decision making and forming future preferences. The research results can be helpful for further research of commercial messages of social media aimed at children and how those messages affect the whole family and children's future preferences.

Methodological approaches to determining the consumer motivation of children regarding nutrition in educational institutions

The article considers approaches to the analysis of consumer motivation as a factor that affects on the model of consumer behavior. General scientific methods of cognition and special methods were used: analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, grouping, a survey method for collecting primary data, methods of statistical analysis of the results obtained, a graphical method for visualizing the data obtained, a matrix method for assessing the source and reference point of motivation. The proposed methodological approach to the definition of consumer motivation as an internal factor of consumer behavior is described, which involves the determination of the importance of individual factors of motivation based on the respondents' indication of their priority; characteristics of these motives, taking into account the source of occurrence (external stimulus / internal motives) and the orientation of motivation (fears / striving for achievement); grouping of motivation factors by belonging to the source of motivation and its reference point in the form of the «Source-reference point of motivation» matrix, which provides for the determination of the total value of the frequency of mention; building the consumer's motivational field on the basis of the «Source-benchmark of motivation» matrix, which characterizes the key vector of consumer motivation and serves as a guide for business entities to develop a strategy for marketing activities in the market segment. Based on the proposed approach, an analysis of the motivation of school-age children in the market of food products and services was carried out on the results of the survey. Changes in the child’s motivation in the process of growing up have been proven. These results indicate that children weigh their desire to enjoy food with other values, often not understanding what they can oppose to their own desire to enjoy food. The priority vector of children psychological motivation direction is a reference to internal fears and their own desire for achievement. Based on the results of the research of children consumer behavior in the market of food and food services in educational institutions, a methodology for determining the key characteristics of consumer motivation in the consumer goods market by assessing the source and reference point of motivation and building a motivational field was substantiated. It is advisable to use the proposed methodological approach to characterize the motivation of individual segments of consumers in the consumer goods market in order to further planing the marketing activities of business entities.

Children's Perceived Value: Conceptualization, Scale Development, and Validation

Perceived value among children is an important concept in consumer decisions, yet surprisingly no research has operationalized value for this consumer group. To address this omission, and following the guidelines of DeVellis (2016), this investigation reports the findings of a seven-stage process to develop a valid and reliable instrument for measuring perceived value among children aged 8–14 years. Value for children is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct capturing perceptions of what is received and what is given up, which differs from adult measures in terms of its composition and complexity. A 24-item scale is developed that shows internal consistency, reliability, construct validity, and nomological validity. We also demonstrate the validity of the new scale beyond an existing adult perceived value measure. Directions for future research and managerial implications of the new scale for studying children's consumer behavior are discussed.

Children and “junk food” advertising: Critique of a recent Australian study

AbstractA field experiment by Australian public health researchers Norman, Kelly, McMahon, and others allegedly demonstrated that primary school children's physical health is threatened by exposure to “junk food” advertising. Their study was published in the international health journal Appetite and was clearly intended to influence government regulatory policy. The methodology of the study was taken, without acknowledgement, from an earlier American study in the Journal of Consumer Research and much other research on children's consumer behavior, including pioneering studies conducted by the present author‚ was ignored. Also, quite unforgivably, the researchers neglected to cite Australia's already strict regulatory controls on and guidelines for advertising directed to children. The present author sent a rejoinder to Appetite pointing out the many problems with Norman et al.'s research and recommending that their article be withdrawn, but the editor insisted I revise it to remove almost all the criticisms, which I naturally refused to do. Instead, by publishing this article in JCB, the present author is hoping to make consumer researchers aware of the sort of poorly performed and ideologically influenced research relating to marketing and consumer behavior that is appearing in the health journals. The present article also contributes more generally by exposing problems that must be avoided in experimental research on consumer behavior.

'I saw Santa drinking soda!' Advertising and children's food preferences.

The influence of advertising on children's food preferences is well documented in the research literature. In this study we aim to examine the ways in which food advertising propels children's consumer behaviour and to investigate how food advertising affects the frequency of unhealthy food consumption. Data were drawn from a sample of elementary school children in the region of Thessaly (Greece). Three scales were used to measure children's lifestyle patterns, food consumption frequencies, and their response to advertising. Univariate and inferential statistics were used to answer the research questions. The analysis revealed that a significant proportion of children (47.4%) frequently consume unhealthy foods. Children who have little understanding of the persuasive intent of advertising rate advertised foods as healthier and more nutritious. The frequency of unhealthy food consumption is influenced by the entertaining dimension of advertising and the level of the motivational arousal after children's exposure to food advertisements. Food advertising impels children's consumer behaviour through four different modes. First, advertising engenders expectations, which raise purchase motivation. Second, the purchase of advertised foods is accompanied by positive feelings (happiness, satisfaction). Third, the entertaining dimension of advertising generates pleasant mood, which positively predisposes the evaluation of advertised foods. Fourth, children do not always possess the ability to recognize the persuasive nature of advertising.

Low-Income Child Consumers across Cultures: An Investigation of Children's Consumer Behavior in Three Diverse Communities in North America

Children are exposed to many commercial messages in a given year. Yet, not all child consumers are the same. The purpose of this study was to explore children's consumer behavior, aged 3 to 8, in three diverse low-income communities. One set of children were from western Canada, one from rural Appalachia and the last from the urban northeast of the United States. The study tested whether there were differences across groups for parent-reported purchase requests and purchase related conflict. The results showed wide differences between these three sets of communities. Children from Canada made significantly fewer purchase requests and engaged in less conflict with parents, while the children from the urban northeast made the most purchase requests and experienced the greatest amount of purchase related conflict. The study further tested whether secondary variables accounted for this difference (e.g. television exposure, age). These variables could not account for the differences between communities.

Methodological aspects of children's consumer behaviour research

The children market gains in its economic potential constantly. Therefore, companies are more ready to invest their resources in research of children's consumer behaviour and attitudes. Even though the researchers mostly use methods and techniques that have been developed for research of consumer behaviour of adults, when researching it applied on children, some specifics and limitations of researching this age cohort must be taken into consideration. Those limitations are mostly related to ethics, accessibility of respondents, legal regulation and the stage of the children's emotional and cognitive development. Some qualitative and quantitative methods are also taken into account in this paper. .

Knowing the child consumer: historical and conceptual insights on qualitative children's consumer research

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to offer a selective and necessarily truncated history of the place and use of qualitative approaches in the study of children's consumption in order to provide some depth of understanding regarding differences between and commonalities of approaches employed by academic market researchers, social science researchers and, to a lesser extent, market practitioners.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines key research statements about children's consumption beginning in the 1930s to ascertain the underlying conception of the child informing the work.FindingsIt is argued that there has been a displacement of psychologically oriented, developmental conceptions of the child with sociological and anthropological conceptions resulting in an acceptance of the child as a more or less knowing, competent consumer. This shift has become manifest in a rise and acceptance of qualitative research on children's consumer behaviour by social science and marketing academics as well as by market practitioners such as market researchers.Research limitations/implicationsMethods – here qualitative methods – must be seen as enactments of theories about conceptions of the person, rather than simply as neutral tools that uncover extant truths.Practical implicationsAttending to how one “constructs” the child may usefully inform debates about the harmfulness or usefulness of goods and messages directed to children.Originality/valueThis paper helps in understanding the long history of children as consumers, how they have been understood and approached by market and academic researchers interested in consumption and various ways conceptions of ‘the child’ can be used.

Understanding and preventing childhood obesity and related disorders—IDEFICS: A European multilevel epidemiological approach

The environment of children has drastically changed in Europe during the last decades as reflected in unhealthy dietary habits and sedentary lifestyle. Nutrition obviously plays a part in the development of overweight in childhood. However, dietary factors and physical activity are also involved in the development of metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, and postural deformities like scoliosis, effects related in part to excessive weight gain. To stop the resulting epidemic of diet- and lifestyle-induced morbidity, efficient evidence-based approaches are needed. These issues are the focus of IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of dietary- and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants), a five-year project proposed under the sixth EU framework. The IDEFICS consortium comprises 25 research centres and SMEs across Europe. The planned prospective study will identify risk profile inventories for children susceptible to any of these disorders with emphasis on obesity and its co-morbid conditions. Genetic and non-genetic factors, psychosocial factors and social settings will be considered. The project will devise tailored prevention strategies that are effective, easy to implement and that account for the needs of different social groups. Population-based studies will investigate the impact of sensory perception and provide results concerning internal and external triggers of food choices and children's consumer behaviour. The ethical implications of a “right not to know” of genetic factors will be addressed. We will propose knowledge-based guidelines on dietary and lifestyle activities for health promotion and disease prevention in children for health professionals, stakeholders and consumers.

The development of a child into a consumer

This paper presents a descriptive model of the development of children's consumer behavior from infancy to 12 years of age. Although there is no single definition of consumer behavior in the literature, those that have been employed seem to entail at least four characteristics. A consumer is able to (1) feel wants and preferences, (2) search to fulfill them, (3) make a choice and a purchase, and (4) evaluate the product and its alternatives. The authors argue that the development of consumer behavior occurs in four phases, and that in each phase, one of the four characteristics of consumer behavior emerges. By drawing together a number of theories and ideas currently in the literature, the authors discuss each of the phases of consumer behavior and explain why particular characteristics of consumer behavior emerge at particular ages.

Chinese Children's Consumer Behaviour: A Review

China's population of children is the largest in the world. It is the largest in terms of numbers in spite of its limitation of one child per family. Soon it will be the largest children's market in terms of economic clout. Since marketers tend to use a simple fortnula for determining market potential of a geography, that is, People X Dollars = Markets, these facts are causing China's children to receive increasing attention from Western marketers. Brands such as Lego, Barbie, Nestle, M&M, Pepsi, Kraft, Crayola, Johnson & Johnson, Nike, and McDonald's are in head‐to‐head competition with many of China's major producers and retailers for a share of this market. Consequently, information about the children's market in China is needed.

Consumer Behaviour Patterns Among Chinese Children

Explores the consumer behaviour patterns of urban Chinese children as a primary and an influence market. Examines, as primary customers, their income, spending and saving pattern. Finds that they have two different types of income, save over half of it, and spend the rest on snack items, and the largest portion on school‐related items. Analyses their influence on the spending behaviour of their parents and grandparents among 25 product categories and the results reveal that they influence around two‐thirds of parents' purchases. Also considers role of age and gender on children's consumer behaviour. Discusses some marketing implications.

Children's consumer behavior in a store with unattractive merchandise: The “caveat emptorium”

Eight- to ten-year-old children received $4.00 and were allowed to shop in an experimental store. Half received the money as payment for work while the remainder received it as a present. In an orthogonal manipulation, for half the children the store contained attractive merchandise while for the remainder the merchandise was unattractive. In addition, mothers responded to some questions about their children's economic socialization. We examined the effects of work condition, store condition, gender, and several variables derived from mothers' responses on amount of money spent in the store. Based on the results of earlier research, we predicted that children who received an allowance at home (vs. those who did not) would be “better” consumers, i.e., less likely to spend on unattractive merchandise. These results were found and were interpreted in terms of trust and expectations of responsibility communicated by the giving of allowance and their effects on economic socialization.