Children’s Engagement with Brands: From Social Media Consumption to Brand Preference and Loyalty

Abstract

Digital content consumption provides a new scenario for children’s relationships with brands. The objective of this research is to study the process by which children interact with social media networks and the effect on brand preference and loyalty generated by this interaction. Specifically, the objectives of this research are focused on empirically verifying the process of consumption, contribution, and creation of children in social networks, and confirm the effect they can have on the relationship between children and brands. A great amount of research has focused on adult consumers and has projected the methodology onto children. This paper will take into account the particularities of children who are one of the most important groups in the purchase decision process of many categories (travel, food, toys, technology, fashion, etc.). For this reason, a theoretical model was built and validated with a sample of boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 14. The results show that the interaction of children with digital media (social networks) has a very important effect on increasing and generating brand preferences and loyalty. Although the effect is general and is not dependent on the age of the child, a more intense effect was observed in children between the ages of 12 and 14.

Specificities Introduced by Mobile Phones in the Relationship Between Children and Commercial Content

“…Despite displaying a coincidental attitude of rejection toward advertising which leads them to avoid it (Livingstone et al, 2014;Martínez, 2019), the minors who participated in this study held positive attitude towards mobile phone messages that they felt were personalized and entertaining (Boyd, 2014;Burroughs, 2017;Castelló-Martínez & Tur-Viñes, 2020;Feijoo et al, 2020b;Ito et al, 2010;Pires et al, 2019) or had been prepared by influencers (Feijoo & Sádaba, 2021;Núñez-Gómez et al, 2020).…”

“…This would point to the fact that individuals are more likely to pay attention to an advertisement if it perceived as entertaining, especially while being exposed to online games and videos (Boyd, 2014;Burroughs, 2017;Castelló-Martínez & Tur-Viñes, 2020;Feijoo et al, 2020a;Ito et al, 2010;Pires et al, 2019). The emerging phenomenon of influencers has also captured the attention of researchers (Del Moral et al, 2016;Feijoo & Sádaba, 2021;Núñez-Gómez et al, 2020) for their ability to benefit from the closeness of the relationship that is established through mobile phones. In the search for the most attractive combination to reach children, brands include games and entertainment and in doing so call upon emotions with ties to social experiences rather than rationality (Nairn & Fine, 2008).…”

The Relationship of Chilean Minors with Brands and Influencers on Social Networks

“…With regards to this statement, it could be argued that the strategies implemented by companies to reach children in the digital environment, which use hybrid formats and generate positive experiences with a high social component, can more easily contribute to the creation of these memories [13,14]. In addition, the degree of intimacy with which some of these devices are used and content is accessed, particularly in the case of smartphones, could also make it easier for these experiences to leave a deeper imprint on users and lead to reinforcing the bond with brands [15].…”

Cooperation between Final Purchasers and Offerors in the Online and Offline Environments vs. the Benefits Derived by Active Purchasers

“…Admittedly, in the literature, researchers focus mainly on the joint creation of material products [23,24] and non-material products, including services [25,26], less frequently analyzing extra-product elements of the offer, although these, of course, can also be jointly created by final purchasers. The extra-product elements include both tangible elements, such as product packaging, promotional activities, etc., and intangible elements, including product and/or offeror brand [27,28], product and/or offeror image, etc.…”