The objectives are to identify product categories for which children’s influence is felt most by the parents on the purchase decisions made by them and to identify the role that parents feel children play in such purchase decisions.
A Stratified Random Sampling style using Age of the Child as a Stratification Variable has been used, the sample size being fifty.
A Questionnaire has been used as the instrument for Data Collection, which has been facilitated by ‘Facebook’ and ‘Email Post’ of “Survey Monkey” as also through the offline mode. Using Descriptive Statistics, the following conclusions have been arrived at.
Cornflakes, Chocolates, Biscuits, Namkeen Indian Snacks are among the Product categories for which children’s influence is felt most by the parents on the purchase decisions made by them and majority of the parents feel that for most product categories covered in the study, children play the role of ‘Initiators’.
Keywords
Parents, children upto eleven years, influence, purchase decisions, product categories
Introduction
Marketers today are constantly facing new challenges. One such challenge is understanding the role played by children in the purchase decisions made by the parents. Here, newer perspectives such as product categories, for which parents tend to allow the influence of children, on the purchase decisions made by them and what role does the child play in the purchase decisions made by the parents may be explored, especially with reference to Understanding Consumer Behaviour, i.e. the role of an initiator, an influencer, a decision maker or a user, which may be played by children.
The role of the child in the purchase decisions of the family is prominent and increasing over the years. Children today are seen to be exerting influence on products, which are meant not only for their direct consumption, but also on those which are generally infrequent and high involvement products that may be purchased by the family (Pollay, 1968).
It means that children are not just influencing purchases made by the family, in products such as chocolates, school stationery, health drinks but also in products such as cars, investment products etc., which are high involvement products, purchased by families (Sethi, The Kid in the Driver's Seat, 2011). This can also be witnessed by the growing trend of television advertisements of these products targeting children.
The present study is aimed at understanding the influence of children, on the purchase decisions made by parents and also at identifying product categories for which children’s influence is felt to be the most by parents on the purchase decisions made by them. As per the data available on the U.S. Census Bureau, Children in
India, in the age group of up to eleven years, constitute approximately one-fourth of the population, as in the year 2012 available on The United States Census Bureau, 2012, Mid- year Population by Single Year Age Groups – Custom Region – India
http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/regio n.php (Accessed on 25th June, 2012)
Age wise population composition in the year 2012
Source: The U.S. Census Bureau, International Database
As seen through the graph above, children in the age group of up to eleven years constituted nearly twenty five percent of the Population of India, in the year 2012, which is a sizeable market.
Research Questions
Literature Review
Children constitute an important target market segment and merit attention from a marketing perspective. The role that children play in making decisions concerning the entire family unit has attracted researchers’ attention.
The general findings of a study, conducted in Nigeria, suggest that children’s influence on family decision making in Nigeria is limited to products of direct use to children. Findings also reveal that children are more influential in need recognition, where to buy, when to buy and which to buy sub-decisions. On the other hand, parents perceive children as having very little influence on family decision making, as they (parents) state that they themselves are the most influential units of family decision making. Thus, the study also suggests that parents underestimate the role of children in family buying decisions. (Akinyele, 2010).
According to the statistics arrived at by the Indian Television (2006), children drive 84 to 96 percent of the purchase decisions for themselves and their family, for the products like ice creams,
candies, books. Generally, the products covered here are low value products, which children tend to consume more often, and mothers claim that they consult children or let children choose for themselves and the family. Source: Indian Television.com, 2006, Market Database, Demographics http://www.indiantelevision.com/marketdatabase/demographic s/kidpower.htm (Accessed on 6th July, 2012)
The work in the broad area of Consumer Behaviour with respect to Children in India is relatively scarce. In one such study (Swati Soni, 2007) the focus has been on three areas - rising consumerism in children, owing to the flood of new TV programming, premature brand learning that plays an important role in future brand selection behaviour and children’s culture, which is over dominated by technologically mediated entertainment and advertising. The findings of the study have been as follows - kids are emerging as a homogenous consumer cluster of their own with the peer group factor and mass media exerting an overwhelming impact on their brand choice, consumption behaviour and consumption patterns. Kids are always experimenting; they do not take anything for granted and want to learn, while having fun. There is no stickiness, no brand loyalty, ultimate materialism and consumerism, in sync with the latest trends and fads.
A study undertaken in India indicates that Indian children love watching the television and prefer it over social interaction and physical and developmental activities. It also indicates that television advertisements provide children the knowledge about products and brands. It argues that children demand more of the product, whose advertisements they like. (Manish Mittal, 2010)
In a study undertaken by Lewis A. Berey and Richard W. Pollay, related to the role of the child as an influencer of consumer decisions, purchase behaviour by the mother of a child’s preferred packaged cereals was related to the child’s assertiveness and the mother’s child-centeredness (Pollay, 1968). It was found that though child-centeredness of the mother may increase her receptivity to influence by the child, for cereals there is apparently a stronger effect of the mother being in strong disagreement with the child over what brands to purchase. Awareness of the strength of this “gatekeeper” effect has some strong implications for marketing firms, where a child is involved. Given that the mother is not only a purchasing agent for the child, but also an agent, who superimposes her preferences over those of the child, it is clear that a lot of advertising would be well directed towards the mother, even if the mother is not a ‘consumer’ of the product. Without such advertising, the child’s influence attempts may be largely ignored, if the mother thinks that the desired brand is an inferior one.
Based on a study, conducted by Berey and Pollay, Scott Ward and Daniel B. Wackman have studied children’s attempts to influence mothers’ purchases of various products and mothers’ yielding to these attempts (Wackman, 1972), the focus of their study being television advertising’s influence on intra-family interaction and behaviour. In their study, mothers were asked to indicate the frequency of their child’s purchase influence attempts. The twenty- two product categories covered, were heavily advertised, but varied in price, frequency of purchase and relevance to the child (direct consumption or use by the child versus consumption or use by other family members). Analysis indicated that children frequently attempted to influence purchases for food products, but these attempts decreased with age. Mothers of younger children (five to seven year olds) indicated frequent influence attempts, in game and toy purchases, while mothers of older children (eleven to twelve year olds) indicated frequent purchase influence attempts in clothing and record albums. As regards parental yielding, across most product categories, the older the child, the more likely mothers are to yield to influence attempts, perhaps because olderchildren generally ask for less. Thus, while parents may receive more purchase influence attempts from young children, they are more likely to act on them, as the child grows older.
There has also been a study indicating that no unique characteristics or set of characteristics increases the likelihood of a mother’s yielding to her children’s influence attempts. Rather, the data suggests that variables, which increase the likelihood of parental yielding, are product specific. (Sunil Mehrotra, 1977)
In his book, Children as Consumers: Insights and Implications, James U. McNeal (Becker, 1987) has affirmed that children are consumers and do, in fact, constitute a ‘market’. His concern, emphasised throughout the book, is that children should be both better educated about their consumer roles and better served by the businesses that seek them as customers. However, the larger issue on a child not only being a ‘consumer but also a human being’ has not been tapped enough in the book.
There are other books such as Kidfluence : The Marketer's Guide to Understanding and Reaching Generation Y -- Kids, Tweens and Teens by Anne Sutherland and Beth Thompson and Why we Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill, among other titles, which the researcher aims to review as a part of this study.
As per an article by Leonhardt David (1997), covering the market in USA, marketers had long ignored children, but are now systematically pursuing them – even when the tykes are years away from being able to buy their products. In the article, there is a mention of various non-traditional marketing programmes, loyalty programmes etc. As per the article, at age 7, collectibles is the attraction. It states that, ‘Already avid consumers, these kids are way past merely wanting everything they see. Now they have cravings, created in part by the ads they see and the toys their friends amass. Shopping has become a competitive sport; from Beanie Babies to Barbies, they want more of them.’
As per a newspaper article, based on a study conducted by Insight Instore, which is into Trend Research and Retail Shopper Marketing Consultancy (Sethi, 2011), “What is quite interesting is that apart from sectors that are directly related to children – like games, toys, apparel etc. – they are also influencing categories that do not relate to them directly, like which car to buy, their Dad’s mobile or even the cosmetics their mother uses. But then, should such awareness be surprising? With early maturing and awareness comes opinion, which is encouraged and heard by parents. Brand pundits for some time now have been talking about the KGOY generation – Kids Getting Older Younger. (Seybold, 2005). “The urban nuclear family relies on each other to accomplish tasks at home”, says Sheetal Jayaraj of the Bangalore based marketing consultancy - Insight Instore. “Children today seamlessly merge the physical and digital. They learn early on how to heat their food, when their parents are late from work, how to get the washing machine going and so on….this participation has an impact on the decision making process.”
The author Millward Brown, along with other authors, including a team of 500 people, has conducted the world’s most extensive study on tween attitudes and their relationship to brands (Seybold, 2005). In this book, he has written about the KGOY – (Kids grow up Young) generation. It has been stated that the present generation has been tagged as the ‘age of compression’; it is a 24x7 generation, expecting 24x7 brands. Given the literature review, though brief, it has been found that there has been no specific study on identifying product categories, for which children’s influence is felt most by the parents, on the purchase decisions made by them.
Through this study, there is an attempt made to address this issue.
Contribution of the study
The present study is aimed at understanding the influence of children, on the purchase decisions made by parents, while also identifying product categories for which children’s influence is felt most by the parents, on the purchase decisions made by them. This study aims at a creating a headway in the area of the influence that children have on the purchase decisions made by parents, and would be one of the initial studies in the Indian context, which will identify product categories, where parents tend to allow the influence of children on the purchase decisions made by them.
Research Design and Methodology
Sample Size: About 50 Parents
Sample Type: Parents having at least one child in the age group of up to eleven years.
A Stratified Random Sampling style, using Age as a Stratification Variable, has been used for the purpose of data collection.
Based on the facilities available in the ‘Basic Account’ of Survey Monkey, the world's leading provider of web-based survey solutions, a Questionnaire was been designed by the Researcher, covering the required questions, including demographic information of the respondents. These questions have been prepared, based on the Research Questions stated earlier. A four point or five point scale has been used for all questions, except in the context of the demographic information of the respondents.
Data Collection was planned through the online and offline means. The researcher planned the online data collection process, with the help of Survey Monkey. Their basic product has been used and data has been collected, with the help of sending ‘email invitations’ and ‘Facebook posts’. Data was also collected offline, by circulating printed questionnaires among the respondents. Telephonic interviews were also conducted.
After scrutiny of the questionnaires, only those which have been completely filled in have been considered as usable responses.
Such usable responses have been considered for further analysis. The data, which was collected, as mentioned above was entered in SPSS 15.0 for analysis.
With the help of mean values, the influence of children on the purchase decisions made by parents was analysed.
As per the findings noted above, it can be understood that as per the parents, their children do play the role of an initiator for majority of the products, listed as part of the study, as against the role of an influencer, which is played for determining the holiday destination etc. But children are not seen to be playing any role in deciding or buying any of the categories listed as a part of the study.
Implications of the study
The present study is aimed at understanding the influence of children on the purchase decisions made by parents and also at identifying product categories for which children’s influence is felt most by the parents on the purchase decisions made by them.
Having identified such product categories, they can be considered for further research, related to Understanding of Consumer Behaviour i.e. the role of an initiator, an influencer, a decision maker or a user, played by children for the selected product categories. Also, the reasons for their influence or the role played can be studied. The factors of the purchase decisions on which children do have an influence, according to parents, such as features, freebies, advertising etc. can also be studied in detail.
Acknowledgements
A special thanks to Mrs. Nayan Patra for the help she extended in the compilation of this work.
References
Authored by
Prof. Pallavi K. Mhatre
Small and Important?
Children aged 5-10 are gaining importance and attention from not just their parents but also from Marketers these days.
With new product launches that cater exclusively to this market, children’s aspirations are brought into limelight. There are various theories as to why children are drawing this attention, one such prominent one is by Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB). In its theory it proposes the reasons for continued spending by parents on their children. It proposes that Inflation may have hit the adult-on-adult spending but not the adult-on-child spending. The reason being, if the child is happy then parents too are happy.
So products such as perfumes, sunscreens, special light fixtures safely launch itself exclusively for this new and upcoming market. The bet would be to identify the sustainability of such a market, given the fact that Marico’s Starz range of merchandise in kids’ personal care space with its very ambitious move way back in 2007 could not manage the first mover advantage paving the way for other fresh ideas. So it’s time to watch if ‘Small but Fast Growing Market’ is merely a hypothesis or a fact.
Authored by
Prof. Pallavi K. Mhatre
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