Childrens Buying Behavior
Children are a very large market. Spending by children aged 4 to 12 was estimated to be over $24 billion in 1997 an increase of almost 300 percent from 1991! On average, 10 year-old children receive over $6 per week as allowance and a slightly larger amount from earning money for doing chores and from gifts.
McNeal's research indicates that the children learn to shop, at least in part, by going shopping. Retailers are developing programs based on these learning patterns. A&P has installed child-sized shopping carts in 100 of its outlets. The objective is to occupy the children and make their visit to the store fun (which will also increase the parents' pleasure) and to get the children involved in the shopping process. Piggly Wiggly is starting Piggly Wiggly Pals Club in many of its outlets. Children can get their membership cards stamped at the store and receive such items as the earth pals kit, which includes tree seedlings.
Here are some of the significant buying behavior of children based on McNeals
Mini-Miny Mo. This is the selection procedure of children. Actually getting an item off the shelf like grabbing marketing displays like bookmarks without assistance is the first act of an independent consumer. At its simplest level, a childs desire is triggered by an item in his or her immediate presence and this item is selected. Soon, however, children begin to remember the store location of desirable items, and they are allowed to go to those areas independently or to lead the parent there.
Children begin to do this almost as soon as they can walk. Some are in this stage as one-year-olds, but the median age is three and half years.
Buy me Mommy. Most children learn by observing [modeling] that money needs to be given in order to get things from a store. For instance, when they ought to buy some bookmarks for his books, of course they will ask some money from their parents before going to the store. Some children just know how to buy at the exact price in the tag. They dont know yet how to get some discount by buying cheap bookmarks rather than high priced ones. But some learn to value money given to them by their parents and others as a means to acquire things. Soon they are to select and pay for items with their own money. They are now primary consumers. Some enter this stage as early as two, though the median age is five and a half years.
Ill be the one to buy. Making a purchase without a parent to oversee it requires a fairly sophisticated understanding of value as well as the ability to visit a store [or a section of a store] safely without a parent. Most children remain in stage IV a long time before their parents allow them to move into the next stage. Thus, the median age of entering the next stage is eight years.
Marketing to children is fraught with ethical concerns. The major source of these concerns is the limited ability of younger children to process information and to make informed purchase decisions. There are also concerns that marketing activities, particularly advertising, produce undesirable values in children. Result in inappropriate diets, and cause unhealthy levels of family conflict.
Knowing these stages, being a parent you should know how to influence your childrens buying behavior for them to grow more competitive and wise individuals when purchasing.
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