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Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics
Volume VI Number 2, 2014
T. Balcarová, J. Pokorná, L. Pilař
Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic
Anotace
Článek zkoumá vliv dítěte na kupní chování rodičů v České republice. Dosavadní výzkumy tvrdí,
že jsou čeští zákazníci při nákupu potravin pouze slabě ovlivněni marketingovými nástroji, jakým je i obal
produktu. Vzhledem k tomu, že jsou děti stále častěji těmi, kdo ovlivňují nákup a spotřebu, vyvstává otázka,
zda rodič podléhá žádosti dítěte a s ní spojenému nátlaku. Cílem článku je zhodnotit vliv dětí při výběru
a nákupu potravin v samoobsluze. Dílčím cílem je: identikovat způsoby nátlaku vyvíjené dětmi; identikovat
reakci rodiče na nákupní tlak dětí v oblasti potravinářských výrobků; identikovat preference dětí u obalů
potravinářských výrobků. Primární data jsou pořízena prostřednictvím elektronického dotazníku určeného
rodičům. Komplexní faktory jsou identikovány s využitím explorativní faktorové analýzy. Faktorová
analýza odhalila 4 faktory: (1) “snaha dítěte ovlivnit nákup”, (2) “dětské preference designu obalu”,
(3) “preference nezdravých potravin”, (4) „nákup zdravých potravin s dětmi“. Výsledky testování odhalily
silnou závislost u způsobů, kterými se dítě snaží ovlivnit nákup nátlakem a vyhověním jejich požadavkům
a provedením nákupu.
Klíčová slova
Marketing potravin, druhy potravin, potravinové produkty, děti, kupní chování dětí, nátlak, zákaznická
socializace.
Abstract
The article examines the inuence of a child on the buying behavior of parents in the Czech Republic.
Previous studies claim that Czech consumers are only slightly inuenced by the marketing tool of the product
package when purchasing food. Whereas children are increasingly becoming inuencers of consumption,
the question arises, whether or not the parent succumbs to their requesting through their pester power.
The main goal of this article is to evaluate the inuence of children during deciding and purchasing the food
in a supermarket. A secondary goal is to identify the techniques of pester power used by children and
to identify the reaction of parents to children’s food product requesting; to identify children’s packaging
preferences for food products. The primary data have been collected through an electronic questionnaire
for parents. Complex factors are identied using exploratory factor analysis. Factor analysis explored 4 factors:
(1) “The effort of the child to inuence shopping”, (2) “Children’s preferences in package design”,
(3) “Preference of unhealthy foods”, (4) “Buying healthy foods with children”. Results of hypotheses testing
revealed a strong dependence relating to techniques of pester power, accommodating their requests and
transact the purchase.
Key words
Food Marketing, Foods, Food products, Children, Children’s Purchase Behavior, Pester Power, Customer
Socialization.
[11]
Introduction
Present shift of consumption trends leads
to healthy foods that not ranks among the HFSS
category (High Fat, Salt and Sugar foods) (Ogba,
Johnson, 2010). This happens due to the general
growth of obesity, especially in children (Ogba,
Johnson, 2010). Due to changes in the lifestyle
of the population, the demand for food,
not belonging to HFSS categories, as well
as information of the composition displayed
on the food packaging increases (Ogba, Johnson,
[12]
2010). In the Czech Republic, the consumption
of the majority of agricultural products distributed
to consumers, which is meant as food products,
has not changed too much (Stavkova et al., 2007).
Previous studies showed increase in consumption
of cereals, dairy products, fruit, mineral water
and soft drinks, can indicate positive changes
in the lifestyle of Czech population. Buying decision
is mostly inuenced by product attributes (such
as price, quality, brand, discounts and package),
habits, advertisement, recommendation of other
people, innovations etc. on the one hand and
demographic/ economic ones, i.e. income category,
settlement size, age, education, and profession
on the other (Stavkova et al., 2007).
The role of packaging can be more or less important
depending on the type of product, for example,
buyig home accessories is not strongly inuenced by
its packaging (Novotný, Duspiva, 2014). Although
study conducted by Stavkova et al. (2007) claims,
that Factors “Advertising”, “Brand” and “Package”
were not important when buying food and the level
of their inuence was considered as low for Czech
customers, question is, to what extend the package
inuence customer - parents implicitly through
purchase preferences of their children? According
to previous studies, children are considered
to be main inuencers of family decision-making,
therefore can food marketers target on children
as on a specic market segment using both above and
below the line techniques to affect the preferences
of children and thus mediate the family purchase
decisions. (Ogba, Johnson, 2010). Among other
promotional tools used at point-of-sale (e.g. trays,
woblers, product sampling), product packaging
is substantial communicating tool, providing
information to consumers about attributes, content
and branding. Thus comply with children-oriented
marketing due to the use of lettering, iconography
and themes of interest to children, and cross-
promotions, tie-ins, competitions and premium
offers that appeal to children (Silayoi, Speece,
2004; Berry, McMullen; 2008).
In their study, Ogba and Johnson (2010) claim, that
marketers purposely target more at children than
parents when designing the package of the product
as they are maintaining children´s interest
to inuence parents’ buyer behavior. As Ogba,
Johnson (2010) stated, there are other studies
arguing that due to children’s lower abilities
to process information, they are likely to assess
products and their packaging mainly on a visual
level. Marketers, therefore, tries to use the children‘s
visual imagination, the ability to recognize different
characteristics, colors and design for enhancing
children‘s interest in products. Such child-
targeted marketing includes bright colors, shapes
of packages, cartoon or movie characters,
desirable box color schemes, free gifts, stickers,
etc. (Ogba, Johnson, 2010; Berry, McMullen,
2008). Customer socialization can be dened
as a process wherein children acquire knowledge and
opinions on products and services, as it can be seen
by their parents within their consumer behaviour.
Consumer behaviour is determined as a decision-
making process of those who purchase items
according to their personal consumption (Šrédl,
Soukup, 2011; Zámková, Prokop, 2013). Children
and young people learn by copying the behavior
of their parents (Turner et al., 2006), but
also exert pressure in the opposite direction,
to inuence behavior of parents in making purchases
in three fundamental categories – toys, clothes and
food (Nicholls, Cullen, 2004). This study aims
at parents without gender differences, however
Turčínková et al (2012) stated, that women are
more likely to buy impulsively various goodies
mostly for children.
McNeal (1999) dened 5 stages of children
consumer socialization. The rst stage is specic
in that the child accompanies parents on shopping
trips and just observes. In the second phase,
the rst requests take place through pointing, talking
and gesturing (Lee, Colins, 2000). This behavior
is known as “pester power”, or the “nag factor”
(Nash, Basini, 2012). Children enter this phase
at approximately 24 months of age. In the third
stage, the child accompanies parents on shopping
trips, but already participates in the selection
of foods, which are subject to parental approval.
In the fourth stage, independent purchasing
takes place, which is still partially accompanied
by parents. In the nal, fth, stage, full independence
takes place, where the child shops independently.
Nash, Basini (2012) dene “pester power”
as a child-parent game, where natural interaction
takes place. This engenders greater understanding
in the parent-child relationship, and involves
a positive process, where it is necessary
to understand a complex process of a child’s
behavior, using various tactics with the goal
of causing the desired feelings in a child. This
study was a reaction to previous research
(Bandyopadhyay et al., 2001), which denes pester
power as a phenomenon, which has a negative
affect on the family. Consumer organizations
The Inuence of Children on the Parents Buying Behavior: Food Purchase in the Czech Republic
[13]
and the media in general, benet from the pester
power and believe that promotions stimulate
pestering resulting in purchases on the basis
of creating indirect pressure through children
(Pilgrim, Lawrence, 2001). On the basis of these
studies, it can be said that the pester power is not
a negative phenomenon, as long as
the parent is aware of it and is able to use
of the appropriate tools to managethe consumer
socialization of a child. Currently, the need
of children pester power coping arrises,
as the modern concepts of buying goods (shopping
trips) give leisure and entertainment value
to the whole family (Wanninayake, Chovancová,
2012).
Aim of the study
The main aim of the contribution is to evaluate
the inuence of children during deciding and
purchasing the food in a supermarket assuming
the direct children participation. The secondary
goal is to: identify techniques of pester power
used by children; identify the reaction of parents
to children’s food product requesting; to identify
children’s food product packaging preferences.
For this purpose, 4 hypotheses are formulated.
Hypotheses
The formulation of following hypotheses is based
on the previous studies conducted in the eld
of food marketing to evaluate the inuence
of children on buying behavior and the packaging
aimed at children:
H1: The ways of product requesting have impact
on the parents purchase transaction.
H2: The type of requested food product has impact
on the parents purchase transaction.
H3: The level of childrens´s inuence
of the purchase has impact on the parents purchase
transaction.
H4: Packaging has impact on the children´s product
preference.
Materials and methods
Primary data are gathered by the surveying
using an electronic questionnaire. The electronic
questionnaire is intended for parents who at least
sometimes shop for groceries with their children.
The basic set consists of parents with children
from 1 to 18 years old. Due to large base of potential
respondents, the questionnaire is circulated
through community websites and social networks.
The questionnaire is based on the research
of Ogba, Johnson (2010), contains 26 core questions
and is structured into 4 sections: (1) identication
questions, (2) inuence of food packaging on child
preferences, (3) inuence of the child on the buying
behavior of parents (4) probability that the parents
comply with children´s request. The attitudes
of the respondents are recorded on a 5-degree Likert
scale in the range of “strongly agree – somewhat
agree – half and half – somewhat disagree –
strongly disagree”. A questionnaire structured
in this way enables evaluation of data through
factor or correlative analysis. To determine
the inuence of children on the nal purchase and
the inuence of food packaging on the preferences
of children, the Pearson correlation coefcient is
used. In terms of the factor analysis suitability,
individual variables are tested with the Kaiser-
Mayer-Olkin level (KMO). The KMO coefcient
ranges in the interval <0.1> and its value should
exceed 0,5. In case of this research, the KMO value
can be considered good at 0.834. Latent factors
are found using the main components method
with the Varimax rotation of factors. The number
of factors is selected to ensure that the value
of Eigen values of the identied latent factors is
higher than 1. Exploratory factor analysis was
performed in the statistical program SPSS 19.
The structure of factors is analyzed in the SPSS
AMOS program.
The sample size is 246 respondents. The sample
consisted of 80 % women (20 % men), evaluated
is the behavior of their child (59 % girls and
41 % boys) in an average age of 6 years and
2 months. The majority of respondents live in cities
with populations over 100,000 (46 %), 24 % live
in cities with 10,000 – 100,000 thousand residents
and 30 % in cities under 10,000 residents. Most
frequently, the respondents shop for groceries
2 - 5 x weekly (64 %), 1 x weekly (24 %),
5 - 7 x weekly (12 %), together with children
the most often shop 2 - 5 x weekly (40 %),
1 x weekly (36 %), 1 x in 14 days (11 %),
1 x monthly (10 %) and 5 - 7 x weekly (3 %).
Results and discussion
Results of testing the hypothesis focused
on identifying the ways product requesting
affect the parent’s purchase transaction (H1) are
evident from table no. 1. For all variables, a strong
to medium impact on the parent’s purchase
transaction is found for the way of product
requesting, at a signicance level of 0.01.
The Inuence of Children on the Parents Buying Behavior: Food Purchase in the Czech Republic
[14]
The Inuence of Children on the Parents Buying Behavior: Food Purchase in the Czech Republic
The strong impact is identied for verbal requests
(r = 0.754) and pointing to the product (r = 0.732).
A medium impact is found with reaching for
items (r = 0.669). The lowest value measured was
for placement of the product in the shopping
cart / basket (r = 0.531). From graph no. 1 it is
evident that it is verbal requests, which are stated
by each respondent/parent for all age categories
of their children as the most frequent way
of inuencing purchase, whereas this type of pester
power escalates with increasing age. A minimum
share is recorded for the youngest category
of children, aged 1 to 3 years, and that is 36 %.
For the oldest age group, verbal requests are made
by 53 %.
When evaluating the impact between the level
of parents purchase transaction in the store and
the type of foods requested (H2), a medium impact
on buying of sweets (r = 0.617), is identied.
A medium level of impact between parents purchase
transaction in the store and the type of food required
is found in yoghurt (r = 0.433) and Lunch foods
(snack foods) (r = 0.416) and at a signicance level
of 0,01 for all three variables as seen in table no. 2.
In evaluating whether a signicant impact can
be found resulting from the inuence of a child
on shopping and whether parents transact a purchase
(H3), a medium dependency on the inuence
of the child is identied for the nal purchase
of products preferred by children (r = 0.464)
at the signicance level of 0.01 (table no. 3).
Source: own calculation, questionnaire survey, 2014
Table 1: The ways of product requesting have impact vs. parents purchase transaction.
VAR00004 VAR00005 VAR00006 VAR00007
VAR00003 Pearson
Correlation ,732** ,754** ,669** ,531**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0000
Source: own calculation, questionnaire survey, 2014
Graph 1: Types of product Requesting According to Children’s age.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
1 - 3 4 - 6 7 - 9 10 -12 13 -17
0.24 0.19 0.19 0.17 0.15
0.36 0.38 0.41 0.46 0.53
0.3 0.28 0.24 0.2 0.12
0.1 0.15 0.16 0.17 0.2
Putti ng into tro lly
Reaching for Items
Verbal Request
Pointing
Source: own calculation, questionnaire survey, 2014
Table 2: The type of requested food product vs. the parents purchase transaction.
VAR08 VAR09 VAR10 VAR11 VAR12 VAR13 VAR14 VAR15 VAR16
VAR03 Pearson
Correlation ,617** ,309** ,302** ,433** ,191** ,146* 0.122 ,416** ,270**
Sig.
(2-tailed) 00000.003 0.022 0.055 0 0
[15]
The Inuence of Children on the Parents Buying Behavior: Food Purchase in the Czech Republic
Source: own calculation, questionnaire survey, 2014
Table 3: The level of childrens´ inuence of the purchase vs. parents purchase transaction.
VAR03 VAR25
VAR03 Pearson Correlation 1,464**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0
Source: own calculation, questionnaire survey, 2014
Table 4: Packaging vs. children´s product preference.
VAR00018 VAR00019 VAR00020 VAR00021 VAR00022 VAR00023
VAR00003 Pearson
Correlation ,554** ,428** ,423** ,437** ,516** ,326**
Sig. (2-tailed) 000000
The results of testing the impact of packaging
on the children’s product preferences (H4) show
a medium strength impact, especially
for the overall inuence of the package
(r = 0.554), further, by interesting shape
of package (r = 0.516). A signicant impact is also
identied for pictures associated with a specic
product (the Nesquick Rabbit, Bebe Brumík, etc.),
(r = 0.437), further for bright colors used
on packaging (r = 0.428) and for familiar characters
displayed on packages (Spiderman, Hello Kitty,
etc.) at a value of (r = 0.423). All variables are tested
at the signicance level of 0,01 and the results are
shown in table no. 4.
For the identication of factors determining
children’s preferences leading to purchase
of foods, an exploratory factor analysis is performed.
Original 26 variables were reduced to 22 usable.
Four factors exceeded the recommended value
of the Eigen value. The latent factors include
variables with an absolute value of a coefcient
of factor weight in an interval of < 0.511; 0.863
> and cumulatively explain 59 % of the total
dispersionof monitored variables. The rst group
of variables represents 20.2 % of the total dispersion,
includes a factor weight in the range of 0.679 - 0.802
with an Eigen value of 4.85. The rst factor found
can be interpreted as (1) “The effort of the child
to inuence shopping”. This group characterize
the ways which the child tries to inuence
purchase, such as reaching for items, pointing
at them, or verbal requests. The second group
of variables found (2) “Children’s preferences
in package design” focuses on the characteristic
elements of packages attracting a child’s interest
such as bright colors, package shape or display
of familiar characters. This factor represents
16.4 % of the total dispersion, a factor weight
in the range of 0.720 - 0.863 and the value
of the Eigen valueis 3.94. The third group
of variables (3) “Preference of unhealthy foods”
includes children’s interest in salty foods,
sweet drinks, avoring such as ketchup, etc.
(12.8 % of the total dispersion, factor weight
0.511 - 0.688, Eigen value 3.07) or the preferences
of free gifts as part of the package. The fourth
group of variables (4) “Buying healthy food
with children” includes the interest of children
in foods such as yoghurts or fruits and vegetables,
the pleasure of parents shopping together
with children and purchasing the food requested
by children (9.50 % of the total dispersion, factor
weigh 0.515 - 0.728, Eigen value 2.28).
For analyzing the correlation between latent
factors, the structural modeling method is used.
The factor structure of individual latent factors is
taken from the results of exploratory factor analysis.
The highest correlation (0.706) is identied
between the factors (1) “The effort of the child
to inuence shopping” and (2) “Children’s
preferences in package design”. This indicates
that package design and all of its determinants
(bright colors, display of familiar characters, etc.)
has a close relationship to the effort of the child
to inuence the purchase. The second highest
relationship was found between the factors
(3) “Preference of unhealthy foods” and (2)
“Children’s preferences in package design” (0,510).
On the other hand, an insignicant relationship
was found between the factors (2) “Children’s
preferences in package design” and (4) “Buying
healthy foods with children” (table no. 6).
[16]
The Inuence of Children on the Parents Buying Behavior: Food Purchase in the Czech Republic
Source: own calculation, questionnaire survey, 2014
Table 5: Rotated Component Matrix.
F1 F2 F3 F4
VAR01 – happy to take my child shopping with me 0.515
VAR03 – child inuences the purchases 0.779
VAR04 – inuence by pointing 0.723
VAR05 – inuence by verbal requests 0.802
VAR06 – inuence by reaching for items 0.8
VAR07 – putting in my trolly 0.679
VAR08 – purchase of confectionary 0.682
VAR09 – purchase of sweet drinks 0.562
VAR11 – purchase of yoghurts 0.589
VAR12 – purchase of avoring 0.655
VAR13 – purchase of fruit and vegetables 0.586
VAR14 – purchase of frozen food 0.511
VAR15 – purchase of snack food 0.6
VAR16 – purchase of salty food 0.805
VAR18 – inuenced by the packiging 0.788
VAR19 – inuenced by bright colors 0.863
VAR20 – inuenced by characters licensed 0.803
VAR21 – inuenced by famous characters 0.762
VAR22 – inuenced by shape 0.72
VAR23 – inuenced by free gifts 0.688
VAR24 – taking my child´s preferences into consideration 0.728
VAR25 – buying products that my child requests 0.66
Source: own calculation, questionnaire survey, 2014
Table 6: Correlation between factors.
Estimate S.E. C.R. P
F1 <--> F2 0.706 0.104 7.929 ***
F1 <--> F3 0.467 0.071 5.011 ***
F1 <--> F4 0.264 0.026 2.258 0.024
F2 <--> F3 0.51 0.068 5.319 ***
F2 <--> F4 0.193 0.02 1.95 0.051
F3 <--> F4 0.496 0.026 2.568 0.01
The results of statistical signicance testing
revealed a large dependence, in particular
of the ways by which the child attempts to
inuence the purchase transaction. The study of
Ogba, Johnson (2010) is dedicated to the strength
of the inuence of a child on the buying behavior
overall, and the testing reported in this research
shows signicant differences in individual ways
of purchases inuencing. The results therefore build
on McNeal (1999) stages of consumer socialization.
There is a weak impact on the purchase transaction
by the level of children inuence on the buying
behavior revealed from the results of verication
of the 4th hypothesis. This assumption can be further
expanded by the structure of the ways of inuencing
parents, where the most signicant ways are verbal
request and pointing to the product.
The results also conrm previous studies,
where the child attempts to inuence
the purchase, in particular, of sweets, which are
among the foods that are not in accordance
[17]
The Inuence of Children on the Parents Buying Behavior: Food Purchase in the Czech Republic
with a healthy lifestyle and are among the HFSS
foods (Ogba & Johnson, 2010; Marshall et al., 2007).
It was also conrmed that the package inuences
the level of pressure of the child on parents.
The results also conrmed theses of Ogba
& Johnson (2010) and Berry, McMullen
(2008), that children are mostly inuenced
by the shape of the product, characters associated
with a concrete product and weakly, also by colors,
and does not agree with the research of Marshall
et al. (2007), which states that the color acts
as the most signicant factor.
Exploratory factor analysis extracted 4 factors
determining children’s preferences leading
to the food purchase transaction. The performed
research is based on the work of Ogba,
Johnson (2010) as they conducted the research
in the UK. In the Czech environment the number
and composition of factors arising from the same
questionnaire and factor analysis varies. In the case
of submitted research, similarity can be found,
in particular, within factors (1) “The effort
of the child to inuence shopping” and (4) “Buying
healthy foods with children”. A dominant factor
of the British researchers is “the inuence
of packaging on children”, which in meaning
corresponds to the factor (2) “Children’s
preferences in package design” and was expanded
only by the preference of an interesting package
shape. Agreement also occurred in the case
of factor (4) “Buying healthy foods with children”
and the British third factor “the likelihood
the parent is to yield to child inuence”. In this
submitted research, purchasing of foods requested
by children is further associated with the willingness
to take child shopping and the interest of the child
in healthy foods. Contrasting with healthy
shopping with children is our factor (3), which is,
on the other hand, associated with the interest
of the child in unhealthy foods, often supported
with a free gift.
According to the results of the structural equation
modeling, the effort of a child to inuence
the purchase of foods is determined by package
design. These results are also based on the conrmed
hypothesis H3. A child is inuenced in decision
making by the package, and, in particular, the shape
of the package, which builds on the previous studies;
however, the results of this research point more
to the inuence of the shape of the package,
over the color scheme, as stated by Marshall et al.
(2007). On the basis of other results of structural
equation modeling, the package design has more
inuence in the case of unhealthy foods, which
might indicate the effort of manufacturers to sell
these foods on the basis of pressure, which they
place on parents through the requesting of this
product. The results also show, that the signicant
impact on the buying decision has the actual way
of children´s product requesting. In correlation
with the development of the child, the structure
of pester power techniques changes. While
in the youngest category, children point
to a product, with increasing age the level
of verbal requests also increases. At the same time
it applies that with increasing age of the child,
pointing to and touching the product decreases and,
conversely, the independent placing of products
in the cart takes place. The highest impact as well
as the greatest level of consent of the parents was
measured for verbal requests. The results have
a growing character for individual age categories
of children, and that from minimum values
of 36 % (for the youngest category of children
between the ages of 1 to 3 years), up to 53 %
(for the eldest category of children between
13 to 17 years). The reaction of parents to a child’s
request increases with the growth of emphasis
in the expression of the request. That is,
if the child addresses the parent or points
to a product, this could indicate fear of a potential
conict at the shopping location. This is also
conrmed by the question of whether or not
the parent sometimes buys products, the child
wants, in order to avoid conict. 71.3 % of parents
agreed with this statement, where the average
value of positive responses was 1,25. In relation
to the previous studies (Nash, Basini, 2012;
Pilgrim, Lawrence, 2001), pester power cannot
be dened as a negative or positive phenomenon,
but a phenomenon which, from the perspective
of parents, must be understood and which they
must learn to direct by certain tactics. Negative
consequences may arise if we try to suppress this
phenomenon by acceding to the requests of the child
because we wish to avoid conict. This no longer
involves interaction, which leads to understanding
(Nash, Basini, 2012), but rather behavior
with possible negative consequences
(Bandyopadhyay et al., 2001).
Conclusion
Exploratory factor analysis extracted 4 latent
factors: (1) “The effort of the child to inuence
shopping”, (2) “Children’s preferences in package
design”, (3) “Preference of unhealthy foods”
[18]
The Inuence of Children on the Parents Buying Behavior: Food Purchase in the Czech Republic
and (4) “Buying healthy foods with children.
On the basis of structural modeling, weak to medium-
strong dependencies were found (0.264 - 0.706).
The greatest correlation (0.706) was identied
between factors (1) “The effort of the child
to inuence shopping” and (2) “Children’s
preferences in package design”.
From the perspective of package attributes, shape
can be indicated as the most important element,
generating child´s interest.
Submitted research shifts previous studies in view
of children´s pester power structure. Previous
research indicated the importance of packaging
within the marketing mix framework (Ogba,
Johnson, 2010). Research points to the high
impact of verbal requests of children, but also
reaching for food or putting it into the trolly/basket.
Inuencing parents’ shopping by putting food
into the trolley/basket escalates with the increasing
age of the child. The results of this research have
a signicance for marketing practicioners
in the food area. Not only the importance
of a package and its design as a part of the promotion,
but also the placement of the product at the point
of purchase is a key aspect to be considered. Despite
the ethical perspective (Piacentini et al., 2000),
results demonstrate the possibility of stimulating
pester power through placement of a product
at the child’s eye level and within reach of the child.
A starting point for further research could
be the fact that 71 % of parents purchase foods
requested by the child in order to avoid conict.
This fact indicates that the need of appropriate
techniques for guiding the pester power of a child
has to be managed. In the next phase, the research
could be expanded on the observation method
of children’s buying behavior directly where
shopping, and potentially conict, takes place.
Acknowledgements
The article originated as a part of the Internal
Grant Agency (IGA) of the Czech University
of Life Sciences in Prague, Registration Numbers
20131053 and 20131026.
Corresponding author:
Ing. Tereza Balcarová, Ph.D.
Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management,
Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6 - Suchdol, Czech Republic
E-mail: balcarova@pef.czu.cz
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