A Study of Children’s Influence in Family Purchasing Decisions: Parents’ Perspective

Abstract

Purpose: Child consumerism is a topic that has been given prominence and attention by the fields of marketing, psychology and sociology recently. Children are at the center of family decision-making. As a result of the socialization process, children have gained a depth of knowledge and are able to bargain with their parents for a variety of products. Thus, the main motive of this study is to explore the influence of children’s involvement in family purchasing decisions. Design/methodology/approach: The study established a qualitative design, with the participation of parents who have children aged between 5 years to 11 years. Accordingly, 20 parents who have shopping experiences in two leading supermarkets in the Anuradhapura District were selected based on convenience and purposive sampling techniques. Furthermore, throughout the store's opening hours, data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. Then the findings were analyzed using the thematic analysis approach. Findings: According to the findings of the survey, the children have been exposed to the field and become more aware of products and services through different agents of socialization. They used negotiation strategies like exchange tactics, coalition tactics, inspirational appeal, and consultation tactics to persuade their parents. But this persuasion can be varied in reference to the child’s age, gender, family income, and structure. Furthermore, children’s perspectives of selecting items are mostly formed on the extent of colorfulness and the physical shape of products rather than what is contained inside. Also, they mostly demanded sweets, toys, stationery items, and instant products. Notably, children’s preferences are given more consideration and priority in the matter of purchasing items. Moreover, the children hold a positive sense towards shopping tasks according to the parents’ point of view whereas the parents hold a negative attitude on children’s involvement. Originality: The study has contributed to the body of knowledge about Sri Lankan children as consumers. Furthermore, this study identifies the impact of the store environment as a socializing agent, which has received less attention in prior studies. The findings could aid businesses in better understanding the shopping habits of Sri Lankan children. Implications: Overall, it can be mentioned that the outcome of this study provided important implications for consumers, marketers, and policymakers. Keywords: Family buying behavior, child involvement, socialization agents, persuasion, negotiation strategies.

Parental Perception of Alpha Kids’ Influence in General Buying Decisions During the COVID-19 Pandemic in India

“…Literature has revealed that children are no longer passive observers but are important participators who exert considerable influence in their families' buying decisions (Ghouse et al, 2020;Senevirathna et al, 2022;Chaudhary et al, 2018) and are increasingly becoming an important distinct consumer segment for various industries (McNeal, 1992). Therefore, to increase the market share in the segment of consumer goods, companies are increasingly directing their marketing campaigns toward children (Sellers, 1989) along with/without parents.…”

“…Therefore, to increase the market share in the segment of consumer goods, companies are increasingly directing their marketing campaigns toward children (Sellers, 1989) along with/without parents. Children's participation in family buying decisions is often supported by parents who want to spend more quality time with their children (Senevirathna et al, 2022;Castro et al, 2021;Tabassum and Nabi, 2021;Pratap, A, 2020;Gram, 2007). Parents are also becoming 'curling parents', who try to do everything possible to please their children, and hence, they let their children decide in most cases (Rao, 2020).…”

“…Previous studies have also examined the impact of various child demographics on the influence exerted by children in family buying decisions (Ghouse et al, 2020;Senevirathna et al, 2022;Ali et al, 2013;Chaudhary et al, 2018). The most commonly investigated child demographics are children's age, gender, and siblings.…”

“…In these studies, children too are observed to exert considerable influence in family buying decisions for a wide array of goods and services, and this influence is increasing exponentially over time (Tabassum and Nabi, 2021;Ghouse et al, 2020;Madhavi et al, 2004;Chavda et al, 2005). Children's influence on family buying decisions is positively related to various factors such as the age of parents (older), family size (smaller), education facilities (better), socio-economic (slightly wealthier), availability of time to parents for children (lesser), the impact of external socialization variables (higher), life expectancy (higher), media exposure (greater), Internet consumption (greater), cultural mix (more diverse), ownership of mobile phones per member per family (higher), thereby, graduating the children from being mere observers to influencers to deciders in the family purchase decisions (Senevirathna et al, 2022;Manouchehri and Burns, 2021;Tabassum and Nabi, 2021;Rao, 2020;Chaudhary et al, 2018).…”

“…"Generation Alpha", a term coined by sociologist McCrindle (2009) for children born/to be born between 2011 and 2025, is a growing and lucrative consumer market (Senevirathna et al, 2022;Rao, 2020;Chaudhary, 2015) across the world irrespective of their place of birth. Alpha kids are not only spending billions of dollars out of their own pocket money but are also having a strong influence on the shopping behavior of their parents who are equally willing to spend a lot of their resources on their children (Castro et al, 2021;Fluxtrends, 2016).…”