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Chapter 6
Children’s Consumer Behavior
Blandína Šramová
Additional information is available at the end of the chapter
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69190
Provisional chapter
© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
10.5772/intechopen.69190
Children’s Consumer Behavior
Blandína Šramová
Additional information is available at the end of the chapter
Abstract
Children’s consumer behavior is a eld that has lately been given aention by market-
ing, psychology, sociology, and pedagogy. The reason is the understanding that a child
is an important part that has an inuence on family’s shopping. At the same time, there
is a concern about the abuse of natural child naivety and trustfulness. That is why the
experts turned their focus on the knowledge about child’s cognitive development and
all manners of consumer socialization and economic socialization. It is possible to accept
protective measures to ensure the safety of the child consumer only when we know how
the consumer develops. The chapter is therefore focused on these essential topics, and
the research demonstrates the consumer and economic socialization of the children in
preoperational period of the cognitive development from the perspective of the children
and their parents.
Keywords: consumer behavior, consumer socialization, economic socialization,
children, marketing, advertisement, media
1. Introduction
The marketing and media communicators’ interest in child consumers has been increasing
recently. The idea of marketing to young consumers is not new but the ways of integrating
children into the marketing place are [1]. Marketing includes not only the product, its price,
and point of sale but also the promotion and package design. According to Young, most of the
people do not dierentiate between advertising, marketing, and promotional activity [2]. In
any case, the marketing in Western countries began to focus on children mainly in the 1960s
[3]. This is understandable, given the fact that children and young people are known to be an
important consumer group. Marketers began to be aware of the increasing children’s power
of persuasion on their parents’ buying behavior. Children and the youth, not being a strong
and economically powerful group, are aractive for the marketers for their ability to convince
© 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
and persuade their family environment. In developed economies, this fact is certainly tied to
suciency of money in the families, to the vast range of merchandise available on the market,
as well as to children’s own nancial resources (pocket money, gifts, and summer jobs).
However, it was not always the case when, for instance, advertisements for child toys were
designed to t adult TV viewers, not children (e.g., in 1950s, in Ref. [4]). It does not mean
that children in that era did not inuence the purchase behavior of their parents, and as the
author points out, it rather means that marketers were to discover the marketing value of chil-
dren later. This knowledge was displayed in massive marketing pressure, using children and
youth, on consumer behavior in households. Cradle-to-grave marketing is therefore highly
spread because marketers are aware that the sooner the child is “caught into their nest,” the
sooner they start to raise their future loyal customer [5]. This strategy proved to be cheaper
than the strategy of building a loyal customer in the adulthood or in the senior age. In this
context, marketers often use knowledge of cognitive and social development of child [6, 7]
and the communication strategies are adapted to this knowledge (more in the theoretical
foundations).
Therefore, this chapter is focused on the process of the child becoming a customer (i.e., how
they learn the consumer behavior). We will discuss the main sources inuencing a contempo-
rary child in their socialization behavior, economical behavior, which psychological theories is
marketing communication mainly based on, and so on. Moreover, the research part is focused
on ndings of the main social factors inuencing the consumer socialization of preschool
children. Knowledge of these factors serves us not only to concentrate beer on the child
consumer but also to protect them against the negative eects of consumerism. Literature
provides a large source of studies warning against this negative inuence on children. The
negative eects mainly concern the relationship between food marketing and child obesity,
between online activity and passivity in lifestyles, between game violence and aggression, and
nally between commercialization of childhood and bad parent-child relationships [1, 8, 9].
However, we have to stay aware of the fact that correlational relationship between observed
variables does not indicate causal relationship. Let us take the example of the relationship
between obesity and food marketing. It is clear that adverts for products with no nutritional
value are tempting for children. Nevertheless, children obesity is not inuenced purely by
food marketing but also by insucient physical activity, undesirable eating habits prevailing
in the child’s family, and so on [10]. Noble et al. propose “the paradox of modern parenting,”
by which they mean that parents know what is good for their child but provide them with
less healthy options [11].
A large part of the debate on marketing to children has focused on advertising which is prop-
agated mainly by TV and online. Marketers nd themselves in dichotomy in order to increase
the focus on child consumer and to serve as an educator and adviser. Commercial organiza-
tions are integrated in programs focused on consumer literacy [12], they bear moral messages
in social marketing, and so on.
Another reason why it is necessary to look at the child consumer is the fact that while the mar-
keting develops, the consumer develops as well. Communication channels that were valid in
the past are becoming outdated and no longer address consumers. Society-wide development
Consumer Behavior - Practice Oriented Perspectives92
contributed greatly to this situation. The development includes globalization, open market,
24/7 online service, growth of social sites, new communication technologies that enable per-
sonalized marketing approach, and many more.
It is not possible to look at the child consumer through the lenses of adult consumer behav-
ior, as the child has specic needs, requirements, values, and aitudes. Similarly, the char-
acterization of consumer behavior of children and young people should reect the present
day, meaning the time where these individuals grow up and by which they are formed. It is
known that each generation has its own unique collection of values and that they are shaped
by cultural and political environment where they grow up and which is then reected in their
values, aitudes, and opinions. In this context, we talk about the generation’s approach to the
consumer behavior. The current generation of kids and youths has access to beer health care,
beer education, higher quantity of toys, and beer toys [13] and also to wide variety of pro-
fessions, unlimited access of information, and fast connection to the whole world. This is the
Generation Z (people born after 1993) also as called the Global Generation. This generation
is consisted of so-called digital natives [14] that cannot live without new technologies. They
are also often described as Gen Google as they use this site to look for any information and
do not think about context and links between the facts and events. On the other hand, it is a
generation that uses these modern technologies for their personal growth and education [15].
Brands are an integral part of contemporary childhood, especially in the case of Generation
Z [16]. Thus, it is not surprising that the advertising budget of fast food and drink products
aimed for children has increased in the past few years [17]. Studies show that a child is able
to recognize the brands at a very early age (18 months–3 years) and later aribute a meaning
to them [18, 19]. Orientation in brands increases more considerably when the child becomes a
part of the social environment lled with their peers (e.g., in kindergarten). The inuence of the
peers is very strong and can be explained in the context of consumer culture theory. The pres-
sure of the social group has an impact on how the child perceives what is cool and refuses the
products that are labeled as “minging” by the group. Members of the Generation Z (especially
young teenagers) are idealistic, ecologically and socially sensitive [2], what we can observe on
various portals and social sites. They are not afraid to “ght” the political structures and those
with power when they witness injustice done to someone else or to the environment.
One of the rst social links is family. Thus, in consumer socialization process, it is important
to observe the child-parent relationship. Parent-child relationships are less confrontational
and more collaborative these days. Advertising reacts to that and puts the parent in a position
of an adviser (e.g., when choosing a bank to open an account). Moreover, in some countries,
we witness a decrease of commercials focused on products linked to obesity and unhealthy
lifestyle (e.g., fast food, snacks, products high in sugar, breakfast cereals) and an increase of
commercials promoting alternative products: fruit juice, water, fresh fruit, and vegetables
[3]. However, the aforementioned decrease could be related to the restrictive measures in
these countries. For instance, in the United Kingdom, there was no advertising of products
high in fat, sugar, or salt on children’s TV channels [3, 13, 20]. Where such restrictions are not
in order, we do not observe a step forward in the process of promoting healthy lifestyle but
quite the opposite [21]. Based on what we have mentioned so far, we formulated the following
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research question: what are the main social factors of the consumer socialization of children in
the preoperational period of development?
2. Theoretical foundations
2.1. Children, consumption, and consumerism
Consumer socialization is a part of the overall socialization that takes place in the develop-
ment of the individual. Socialization is an expression of the gradual integration of the individ-
ual into the society by acquiring social norms and rules. Consumer socialization is a gradual
learning of the rules, norms, and habits in consumer and purchase process. The result is a con-
struction of consumer behavior paerns. According to Ward [22, p. 2], the consumer socializa-
tion is “the process by which young people acquire skills, knowledge, and aitudes relevant
to their functioning as consumers in the marketplace.” While in overall socialization we talk
about a person being a member of the society as the result of the process, consumer socializa-
tion results in the individual being a member of the purchase and consumer processes, thus a
part of the marketing. Consumer socialization is important for understanding how the cultur-
ally induced social norms are perceived by the consumer and how the consumer adapts and
transforms them into the consumer behavior.
According to numerous statistics, marketing focused on children is very nancially lucrative.
Income from the products designed for children and youth ranges in billions of dollars in the
USA and pounds in the UK [8, 13]. Here, we also must take into notice the income from the
products not directly issued for children (e.g., clothing, drinks, toys, fast food, sweets, maga-
zines, movies, music and computer software, breakfast cereals, family cars, computers, house,
holidays) but in the purchase of which they have an important say [23–27]. That is the reason
why many studies over the years paid aention to the consumer socialization of children
and adolescents [28–30]. Socialization is a life-long process touching equally the children and
their parents [31]. The process of socialization demonstrated by the acquisition of new social
roles and statuses that takes place in the development of the children is equally present in the
adulthood. Even though we often nd generalizing information in literature that should be
true for every child, we should know that each child is unique [32] and that this fact is dem-
onstrated in the consumer socialization.
Economic socialization is a part of the consumer socialization. It is important to notice the
children’s knowledge, understanding, and behavior in the economic world. Economic social-
ization is a process which goes through stages as the child grows up and is not created only
in the specic educational environments. In literature, the term “naive economics” is used,
denoting the economics non-specialists [33]. Still, it is important to know that whether we
want it or not, children are pulled into the macroeconomic world from the very early age.
As they are a part of the family where they grow up, they share its social-economic prob-
lems such as unemployment, low income, ination, economic crisis of the country, and so on.
Furthermore, the family teaches them the value of money, how the bank account works, what
the credit and debit cards are for, and so on. As was already mentioned above, a child from
Consumer Behavior - Practice Oriented Perspectives94
economically advanced country plays an active part in the economic world because they have
their own money they can spend. Whether the money come as a gift from the relatives, from
holiday or part-time jobs, or in the form of pocket money is not important.
Economic socialization includes processes by which the individuals develop their competence
in dealing with the economic world [34]. The author highlights that this competence is gained
through their experience of using money to purchase items, as well as through persuading
others to buy or exchange a product, so the child learns to beer understand the importance of
the budget. Therefore, economic socialization represents not only knowledge, but also behav-
ior, opinions, and aitudes that are necessary for the world of economy [34]. Numerous evi-
dence points to the fact that if a child learns to work with money (e.g., by having their own
pocket money they can use according to their needs), they learn to understand the value of
money [34, 35]. If they desire something they have to save up money for, they learn to put
money aside for future purchases and not spend it immediately. Furthermore, a child owning
a (ctional) credit card spends more money than if they have (ctional) money [35].
Evidence conrms the predictions that nancial education depends on the social class, age,
social-cultural background, and gender. The middle-class children are more familiar with
banking vocabulary and professional prestige in comparison with children from the working
class [34]. Girls are more active in shopping and activities linked to consumption than boys
[36]. It is therefore in place to stress the importance of the economic education in the family
environment, as well as in the school. This is what is missing in the Slovak educational sys-
tem, although the public would welcome economics as a school subject.
A number of studies documenting children´s economic socialization focused on how children
understand the economic world of adults [34, 37, 38]. Moreover, we can nd studies that were
focused more on the explanation of the children´s economic behavior through observing how
children solve economic problems [39, 40]. However, P. Webley warns that lile is known
about bargaining, bartering, and swopping, which are present with children and are in direct
connection to the economic socialization [41]. It is widely known that children exchange foot-
ball cards, games, books, toys (e.g., from Kinder Surprise, McDonald’s Happy Meal), or toy cars,
sweets, and stamps and this custom perpetuates collecting, as well. Swopping is a typical
activity of middle childhood but it can be seen in preschool age, too. There are three reasons
explaining this behavior, according to Webley: (1) swopping is enjoyable; (2) friendship sup-
port; and (3) economic justication (it is beer, cheaper, and so on) [41].
2.2. Theories and consumer development
In this section, we present the main theoretical concepts forming the basis of marketing com-
munication focused on child consumer. Although theories such as Piaget’s theory of cognitive
development [6], behaviorist learning theory, theory of social learning [7], or cultural and
historical approach according to Vygotsky [42] did not explain consumer development, their
theories have found their place in the marketing theory.
Purchase and consumer processes are dependent on the level of mental and physical devel-
opment. Thus, to understand consumer socialization of children and young people, it is
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important to consider psychological developmental theories. These theories enable the under-
standing of development of children’s abilities as consumers.
The cognitive-developmental approach of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget is often applied to
economic thinking of children [6]. Piaget explains the development of cognitive functions as
the process of adapting to the outside world [6]. This process of adaptation is composed of two
processes: accommodation (adaptation of the organism to the environment) and assimilation
(organism adapts the environment to t its needs). The author studied children’s understand-
ing of physical world through children’s experiments via direct interaction with the environ-
ment. According to Piaget, there is a transactional process during the development, in other
words, equilibration which links children’s cognitive stages to their experience of the world
[6]. This process produces a balance between the cognitive level of child at a specic moment
of the child stage and their experience of the environment.
When we look at the development of the consumer and economical socialization through
Piaget’s theory, it is clear that the child embraces information and organizes it into particu-
lar contexts dependent of the level of child’s cognitive development. We can say that the
consumer behavior begins at birth and the consumer behavior paerns develop in stages.
Piaget’s theory denotes the following four stages of cognitive development:
1. the sensor-motor period of development lasts from birth to age 2. Children in this stage of
development do not have symbolic representations yet but so-called schemas or mental
structures that are based on children’s actions. However, near the end of this stage, chil-
dren start to develop a general symbolic function, which means that they know that a doll
represents a person, for instance [34]. Children explore the world around them, thanks to
grabbing and looking, and they become egocentric individuals [2];
2. the preoperational period (age 2–7) is typical of formation of the concept of the world sur-
rounding the child, based on what the child likes. They look at the world from their point
of view. Young points out that this stage is dominated by appearance [2]. Additionally,
symbolic thinking and language develop [34]. Similar to the rst stage, the child in this
stage is egocentric and convinced that everyone has the same view of the world as they do.
They are also convinced that everything is possible, even acting against the laws of nature.
They perceive TV commercials as funny, entertaining, and trustworthy and demand the
advertised products [5, 43];
3. A child in the concrete operational period (age 7–11) understands that other people may have
dierent views on things. Thinking is in a concrete and demonstrative position. The child
starts to apply negotiation and persuasion in social interaction with others. Children are
critical and distrustful of advertisements [5]. New forms of advertising such as product
placement, or suggestions from bloggers and vloggers, are however not perceived as ad-
vertisements by the children in this stage, so it can have control over them;
4. The last stage of cognitive development, the formal operational period (age 11 and older), is
characteristic by the child being able to think systematically and to work with abstract terms.
In other words, they are capable of all forms of abstract thinking. Even though residual
Consumer Behavior - Practice Oriented Perspectives96
egocentric thinking is still present, allocentric behavior (i.e., behavior centered on others)
starts to develop [2]. A child in this stage can already understand the persuasive content of
advertisement. They tend to have a critical and even rejecting aitude toward traditional
forms of advertisements (especially TV, billboards, and so on). However, new forms of
advertising, like product placement in video games and recommendations from inuen-
tial people (e.g., bloggers, vloggers, sportsmen, singers), have more power to engage chil-
dren’s aention. These means of advertising are used not only by commercial marketing
but also by social marketing.
According to J. Piaget, all children pass through four stages of cognitive development in the
same order but at dierent speeds [6]. Thus, the cognitive development approach to children
stresses intraindividual dierence as the child grows up [34], although it is criticized for not
taking the individual variability into consideration. It is important to remember that indi-
vidual variability is conditioned by the structure of the personality and also by the social and
cultural environment where the child grows up.
The cognitive development approach can also be found in the context of the brand percep-
tion. A study from New Zealand showed that while 7- and 8-year-olds perceive the product
itself (i.e., its perceptual features), and 10- and 11-year-olds orient themselves more on the
brands (i.e., perception in symbolic level is in process) [44]. It is evident that the development
of brand perception is closely related to the cognitive development. Therefore, we can easily
understand how the brand perception develops in child from feature-based appreciation of
logos and product features to the understanding of the brand symbols that are linked to cer-
tain social stereotypes.
Economic thinking, meaning the understanding of the world of economy, requires the logical
structure of the mind that is dependent on the economic knowledge. Economic thinking devel-
ops in accordance with the development of the cognitive processes. Economic information
that the child acquires during the development is organized into relationships by the child.
Economic thinking is the basis of economic knowledge. To understand the world of economy,
the child needs to reach the abstract level of cognitive processes. During the development
of the children’s economic socialization, the following information sources are essential: (1)
active information (purchasing or choosing a school orientation); (2) entertaining information
(advertising, news, lms, TV series); and (3) social information (peers, friends) [45].
Behaviorist learning theory on the other hand stresses the eects of the environment on chil-
dren’s behavior [7], and the given model describes interindividual variations in children of
the same age [34]. This theory explains the behavior of the individual. The child gains expe-
rience and skills through positive reinforcement of their behavior by being rewarded and
through avoiding punishment (related to negative emotion) for their behavior. A functional
behavior of children is imitated because it is reinforced.
Other authors add to the cognitive approach the impact of the social environment on the
development of the individual, which also manifests in the acquisition of the consumer
behavior. Some of the authors are [38] who argue that children are active agents in the process
of learning the economic behavior. Moreover, economic socialization is the process by which
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the child assimilates knowledge about the consumption practices and economic world. The
understanding of the economic notions depends on the cognitive apparatus of the children,
as well as on their methods of interpretation of the marketplace.
Another important theory explaining how the child learns to recognize the world and to inte-
grate it into their experience and behavior is the theory of social learning [7]. Author describes
the process on the basis of two key phenomena: observation and imitation. Children adopt
new behaviors through imitating or modeling. They learn the consumer behavior through
these processes, which is called observation learning. Children imitate the consumer behavior
of the most relevant models: parents, siblings, peers, and idols from media. Children aempt
to reproduce what they observe in their environment [46]. Learning through observation is a
form of cognitive learning [47]. Social learning theory is therefore grounded in the knowledge
of behavioristic learning theory which works with the notions of reinforcement and punish-
ment. So, the children are active in the learning and the reinforcement of their new habits,
new paerns of behavior. We witness a reciprocal determinism, which is when the environ-
ment aects the child and the behavior of the child aects the environment [7].
The social role theory [48] explains dierent position of the genders in dependence of the his-
torical division of labor between women and men. From this viewpoint, the social roles that
the individual holds during the socialization process in the life play an important role in the
learning of the consumer behavior, as well. Thus, the child becomes a consumer by fullling
their social roles (e.g., pupil, daughter, son, sibling, granddaughter, and grandson). The main
sources of information in this educational process are believed to be parents, family habits,
peers, advertising, and the products.
Yet another approach explaining how children become active members of the consumption
is a view of participation of the children in sociocultural activities, especially of how they
take part in the consumption activities. The emphasis is put on social and cultural envi-
ronment that forms the individual in every regard with consumerism included [49]. Social
and cultural environment denotes the environment in family, school, or religion, which
forms the personality of the child, primarily their language and cultural meanings. The child
becomes a part of the society where they gain skills from participation in everyday social
life for the individual does not develop on their own, rather than in interaction with other
people and environment.
In this context, L.S. Vygotsky’s cultural and historical approach laid the basis of the study of
the individual. He puts stress on the features, language, and culture playing key roles in the
forming of awareness and thinking [42]. L.S. Vygotsky explains the developmental processes
as the result of social interaction, history, and culture of the particular environment where the
child grows up, while also considering the inuence of the natural (i.e., evolutional and bio-
logical) environment [42]. Through day-to-day activities, the child assimilates a conventional
language to consumption and acquires a set of social standards relating to consumption [50].
The authors argue that it mainly means an understanding of the concepts of brand, price,
quality, comparisons of products, mastered references, a search for identity, and membership
within a group. Furthermore, the child in social and cultural environment learns consump-
tion practices via interaction with other members of the society (relatives, peers, teachers, and
Consumer Behavior - Practice Oriented Perspectives98
so on). The child compares their experience with others and not only in face-to-face relation-
ships but also through institutional systems (i.e., distribution and retailing, carnivals, festi-
vals, sales techniques, and so on) [51].
In marketing, we can see cultural dierences of consumers in packaging, advertising, or taste,
which as a result have an impact on dierent consumer experiences of children growing up in
dierent social and cultural environments. Therefore, the child learns the consumer behavior
through dierent kinds of guidance (parents, peers) and also through dierent forms of semi-
otic tools (language, advertising, packaging, and so on) [51]. The child is not only a passive
recipient of tidings related to consumer behavior but also an active individual learning and
developing persuasion skills, language, and other social skills.
The answer to a question as to when does the consumer socialization begin must be from the
birth. The child acquires the rst consumer experience in the family through clothing, food,
toys, TV, or shopping with parents. In some sense, the child is a part of the social behavior
in family even before the birth. Future parents prepare for their role very responsibly. They
take care to pick product and services for the future mother (workouts, DVDs, clothes, food
supplements, and so on) and for the ospring (clothes, furniture in the baby’s room, and so
on). The parents can also choose to buy new, more spacious dwelling, or bigger and safer cars.
Moreover, the child gains consumer experience not only from siblings (e.g., by playing the
Internet games, seeing Internet advertising) but also from peers and relatives or family friends.
Consumers often use the same brands as their parents used [52], where we can see a connection
between the consumer model of the parents and their children. This fact is used by marketing
communication in the so-called upbringing and care of the loyal customer. Here we can see
the use of elements of nostalgia, that is, the return to the past, in commercials and packaging.
Evidence shows that similar to the inuence of parents on the consumer behavior of their
kids, the children have an impact on their parents, as well. Children inuence the consump-
tion of products for the family [53–55]. Their impact is notable in areas tied to new trends,
technologies, products, and brands, because they have beer orientation in these areas (also
thanks to the peers and the Internet) than their parents do. Thanks to new technologies, the
kids acquire technological skills faster and more eciently, so their technological compe-
tence is higher than the competence of their parents. The children’s inuence on the purchase
behavior of the parents can also be seen in the case when the parent buys the brands of daily-
life products that they know their child prefers. This applies to other generations as well, as
children are not only in contact with their parents and siblings but also with grandparents,
aunts, uncles, and cousins. All of these groups inuence each other’s consumer behavior. The
parents, close relatives, and mass media (primarily television) have the greatest impact on
consumer socialization of the child [56], in contrast to adolescence, where other institutions
move ahead, especially school, peers, social sites, bloggers, and vloggers.
To understand the consumer socialization processes, it is important to know how the con-
sumer learning takes place. The society is diverse and the family is diverse too. These days,
we do not have one family model traditionally based on blood or legal relations. In the current
postmodern society, we meet dierent sorts of families. The traditional uniform model is no
more. The family is now a kind of a “social network, that includes members from the formal
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and/or informal family” [57, p. 55]. Additionally, the cross-generational co-living that was
common in the past is now rarely encountered, especially in the socially and economically
developed countries. This is reected in the interaction of the family members. Family discus-
sions and meals that can be tied to negotiations about consumption are sometimes replaced
by the communication by phones, mails, or text messages. This phenomenon is translated
into consumer socialization which is changing by the inuence of the postmodern family co-
living. Therefore, if we wish to discern the primary consumer socialization of the children that
is realized in the family, we must take the family activities in the notice, specically the family
rituals related to consumption practices, consumption of media, and shopping practices. To
be able of a proper focus on the children and young people, we must also know how they per-
ceive marketing practices, in other words, how they consume the advertising and promotions.
The fundamental theoretical framework to our question of “What main social factors play a
role in the consumer socialization of children in the preoperational period of development?”
was the cognitive theory of Piaget [6], as well as the theory social learning [7]. The emphasis
is put on the knowledge of the development of cognitive apparatus, on which the perception
of media and the marketing message is dependent. Apart from the cognitive development of
the individual, equally important is to consider the socialization process of the child which is
underway through the observation and imitation. The child acquires consumption practices
in interaction with other members of the environment. That is the reason why our research
was also grounded in Vygotsky’s cultural and historical approach [42]. To nd the answer
to our question, qualitative research design proved to be the most appropriate. Therefore,
we chose the method of semi-structured interview conducted with children alone and their
parents alone.
3. Research
The aim of the research was to nd out the main socialization factors of the children’s con-
sumer socialization in the preoperational period of development (from 2- to 7-year-old) as
well as how these factors are reected in the consumer behavior. The reason is that consumer
socialization is an important part of the child’s consumer behavior. We wanted to discover
how the children in that age understand the advertising; what inuences them to choose the
products; what is their level of economical socialization; what inuencing strategies they use
on parents in order to get certain product/brands; what are the family activities, daily rituals,
shopping rituals, and so on. The consumer socialization was looked at from the child’s and
their parents’ perspective.
Qualitative research design was used for the data collection. Research sample consisted of 45
children (26 girls, 19 boys) and their parents (N = 45) living in Slovakia.
The semi-structured interview was used with every participant as the research method [58, 59].
To achieve the objective of the research, a semi-structured interview with a child and a semi-
structured interview with a parent were conducted. Interviews were individual, recorded
on a voice recorder, and then transcribed into a text form. The length was approximately 30
Consumer Behavior - Practice Oriented Perspectives100
for children and 20 min for parents. To determine the target areas, we used an exploratory
research method with emphasis on capturing the range of relevant topics concerning the
researched issue in view. In the research, we used the concept of thematic analysis as an
analytical tool, created by Braun and Clarke [60]. They argue that thematic methods identify
and analyze the data to nd information or meaning related to the themes or paerns that cor-
relate with research questions. Thematic analysis is based on coding and consists of six phases
[60]. In phase 1, the data corpus was transcribed into wrien form. In phase 2, “initial codes”
were generated, meaning that the themes were located and their relation to the research ques-
tion was described. In phase 3, the meaning of the themes was explained [60, p. 20]. In phase
4, the themes were visualized in the candidate “thematic map.” The research themes and
thematic map (Figure 1) were established within a rough frame of asked questions and based
on answers from the data corpus. In phase 5, “the “essence” of what each theme is about was
identied [60, p. 20]. In phase 6, the report on the base of “nal comprehensive analysis” was
produced [60, p. 21]. We tried to provide “sucient evidence of the themes within the data—
i.e., enough data extracts to demonstrate the prevalence of the theme” (ibidem).
Parents and
siblings
Media
Stores
Preschool
institutions and
peer group
Pocket-money Exchange money
for product
Children’s magazines
Television
Parent -child rules
for shopping
Gender
dierentiation of
shopping behavior
Children’s books
Tablets
Mobile phones
telefóny
Conjunction of
advert and product
Modern centers of
free time
Shopping according
to what is “cool“
Economic
socialization:
bargaing, bartering
and swopping
Figure 1. The thematic map of the main socialization factors of the children’s consumer socialization in the preoperational
period of development with four main themes and subthemes.
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101
3.1. Socialization agents of preoperational period of development
The analyzed interviews with the children and their parents have revealed four key factors.
According to the terminology of Braun and Clarke “main overarching themes” [60, p. 20].
These are themes that inuence the consumer behavior of the children in the preoperational
period of cognitive development: (1) parents and siblings; (2) media; (3) stores; and (4) pre-
school institutions and peer group.
(1) Parents and siblings
Parents proved to be one of the main socialization agents of the children. This fact is in cor-
respondence with the knowledge found in literature, and we nd that parents and family
are important economic socialization agents [61, 62]. They explain the basic terms of the con-
sumer world to the kids, like what is money, what it can be used for, how do they get to
it, what is the advertisement for, and so on. The children learn to understand the value of
money; furthermore, they learn symbols, although it still remains in the abstraction level and
they struggle to conciliate with the fact that they cannot have something they like and want
(e.g., for the lack of money or correspondence to unhealthy lifestyle). This can be demon-
strated by the statement of a 5-year-old boy: “When I grow up, I will make a lot of money and will
buy all the ice-cream from the store, even in the winter!”
One of the important factors contributing to the economic education is the pocket money and
allowances which have an educative role [63, 64]. Although this practice is recommended
more in the adolescence [63], or from the age of 6 [63], the foundations are laid even before
reaching this age. In our sample, we encountered a beginning of thinking about saving up for
the desired product, which demonstrates the following statement: “I have a lot of money in my
piggy bank (from grandma, dad, and mom), and when I’ll have enough, I’ll buy the Buery Barbie”
(girl, age 7).
Some of the parents stated that they try to give earning opportunities for doing household
chores but mainly to the older siblings of the children from the studied sample.
The older siblings pulled the children in the preoperational period to the commercial world
more (e.g., by using video games, tablet, watching videos from popular vloggers), compared
to the only children or those with younger siblings.
(2) Media
Media represent another very important part of the consumer socialization. Through the
media, the child acquires models and norms, and the idea about how the world works, which
is allowed and applauded not only in the society but also sanctioned on the other hand [5].
The young consumer is aected by the medial messages not only from the TV but also from
billboards, posters, and websites. Media are extremely aractive to children even from the
rst moments of their lives [18]. Electronic media emit sounds, and images are colorful and
moving; therefore, they naturally aract the aention of the children.
The children from our study are in contact with mass media that are usually represented by
television and child magazines. That is reected in the time distribution in the family. TV is
Consumer Behavior - Practice Oriented Perspectives102
most often turned on in the morning before the departure for kindergarten, in the afternoon
after returning home, and during the weekend mornings when the children-oriented pro-
grams air.
The content of magazines and children’s books is consumed in the presence of the parents or
older siblings, usually in the afternoon or the evening. “What I like the most is to draw in and
read “Macko Pusík” (Eng. Pusík the Bear, children magazine; author’s note) with my brother“ (girl,
age of 6). Commercials have high viewership. “We have to pay aention to the commercial breaks.
Then we switch programs, because those commercial that are in the TV don’t have a good impact on
kids. They are loud, belligerent, and misleading“ (mother of 3- and 4-year-olds).
Parents often delimited children‘s commercials watching, and they admied however that
TV, tablet, or games on the mobile phone are used to entertain the children while the parents
work or want to have a rest. This is a risk factor, as children spending more time in front of the
television or computer tend to be more materialistic and have lower self-esteem [65].
The children viewed the advertisement as funny and entertaining, which corresponds to the
statement of a 4-year-old boy: “It’s funny when they chase each other in the commercial, and make
funny fools of themselves.”
(3) Stores
The third theme emerging from the interviews was stores. There, the child meets with the
media messages from clothing, magazines, packaging, or store shelves. All parents declared
that shopping malls are big traps where the supply and advertising make the bargaining
(related to the consumerism) with children harder. The parents stated that the children accom-
pany them in most of the daily purchases of the basic products. The girls were more active
and demanded more the products they had already seen in the commercial or a nice packag-
ing in the shop captured their aention. This nding corresponds to Watiez’s [36] ndings,
when the girls took a more active part in the activities related to the consumption, compared
to the boys. Some parents stated to have arrangements with their children where they agree
to buy one product the child wants (usually sweets) and nothing more. However, the parents
also admied that sometimes they are unable to refuse additional demands of their children
and eventually buy what they want. Another group of parents that does not have rules about
shopping admied to often deal with conicts with the children in the shop, because the child
demands certain product and the parents are unwilling to buy it. In situations like these, the
children prefer to pick the product they like and that they previously saw in the commercial
or that is being promoted in the store by other people. “I like when I can taste some cookie that the
ladies in the shop oer, and then mommy buys it for me” (girl, age of 5).
TV commercials are trusted by the children, and they tend to long for the merchandise that is
promoted in those commercials [5].
The interviews with the parents furthermore demonstrated that most of the family shopping
is done during the weekend. Parents tend to pick a shopping center with indoor children
playground with supervision. “My son really likes the children playground, so me and my husband
can do the shopping in peace, not being distracted. We even see it as a form of relax” (mother of a
4-year-old). The shopping centers of this century became the modern centers of free time.
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They oer all kinds of activities like dierent sports or cultural programs. However, spending
free time in the shopping centers takes away the time that could be spent in the nature, which
was acknowledged by the parents of our child participants, as well.
(4) Preschool institutions and peer groups
Upon commencement of the preschool, the child arrives to wider contact with the peers. The
peer group is therefore another socialization institution which inuences the wills, desires,
aitudes, and values of the child [5]. The child’s viewpoint of the world is still egocentric in
this stage of development [2] and the game with their peers frequently ends up in quarrel
over toys [66]. “When Peter doesn’t want to give me the digger, I take it from him” (boy, age of 5).
The peer pressure to own a certain product or brand was declared by the parents in our study,
as well. The child wants to be a part of the social group in the kindergarten, so they put pres-
sure on the parent to buy what they think is cool. “We gave into pressure from our son who wanted
us to buy the exact same model of a car that his friend owns, although he already had a similar one at
home” (father of a 5-year-old son).
Even though in this age of development the perception is not yet in the symbolic level [44],
our study sample showed that children under the peer pressure have knowledge of the prod-
ucts that are regarded as cool. The children were included in the bargaining, bartering, and
swopping, what could be considered as the rst signs of economic socialization [39]. The eco-
nomic socialization occurred mainly in the process of swapping of football cards, collectible
stickers, and sweets.
4. Conclusion
Child consumer of the present day is more than ever surrounded by medial messages that
inuence their values, aitudes, experience, and also behavior in the consumer-oriented soci-
ety. For this young generation, television advertising represents only one aspect of their con-
sumption experience, and other media, especially the Internet, have a lot more power [8, 67].
Apart from the TV, the child consumer is inuenced by medial messages from billboards,
posters, websites, clothing, text messages, magazines, packaging, radios, store shelves, video
games, commercials on dierent types of media, or banners on websites. We also have to
be aware that products reach the child in the school (e.g., on bags, notebooks, pen cases) or
the playgrounds where logos of the companies investing in the building or renovation of
the playground as a part of the socially responsible marketing are to be found. Therefore,
in the interest of the protection of the children and young people, it is essential to know the
main socialization agents that play an important role in consumer and economic socializa-
tion. These factors—main themes—were parents and siblings; media; stores; and preschool
institutions and peers for the group of children aged from 2 to 7. Another study also support
our ndings that the biggest impact on consumer socialization in the children lives have been
the parents, close relatives, and mass media [56]. Apart from these socialization institutions
(i.e., media, parents, siblings, school, peers), our research exposed stores as another important
socialization factor. They are places that along shopping provide fun and relaxation. Moreover,
Consumer Behavior - Practice Oriented Perspectives104
we nd there the realization of dierent marketing communication tools, as well as of personal
sale, advertising, sale support, and PR. This is the environment where children connect the
product they saw in advert with that seen directly in the store and demand the purchase of
said product.
A paradox from the part of the parents is evident, which we already encountered in the past,
where the parents on the one hand criticize the negative inuence of media on the healthy
development of their child and on the other hand they prefer the use of said media in family lei-
sure activities [43]. Additionally, they buy unhealthy products for their children, even though
they are aware of the fact that those products bear no nutritional value and can be damaging
to children [11]. As our research showed, the media considerably structure daily rhythm of the
family and are part of their rituals. On one hand, parents want to protect their children from
the media, and on the other, they use the media as a way of distracting and entertaining chil-
dren. Preschool children are consumers of not only mass media (e.g., TV, children books and
magazines) but also of personal media designated for older people (PC, tablet, mobile phone).
The parents are critical to the lack of the media education that is present only in some Slovak
schools as an elective subject, so there is no systematic nature. The parents however can
contribute to the development of the economic socialization through explaining and guid-
ing children to work with their “own income” coming from gifts and as a reward for doing
household chores [45]. Children in preschool age already understand that they can exchange
money for the product and also that if they save money for the desired product, they can buy
it. This is in accordance with their cognitive development [6]. However, it is surprising that
in preschool age, we can already witness the rst signs of economic socialization, namely
bargaining, bartering, and swopping. Similarly, the pressure to buy products that are seen as
“cool” by the peers is evident in our research sample.
The time of preoperational period is when the symbolic thinking and language develop [34], giv-
ing the opportunity to actively intervene and thus form the consumer behavior in children in a
way of raising a future responsible consumer who is not only consumption oriented. This task is
on parents, preschool institutions, media, and, as our research demonstrated, on stores, as well.
Author details
Blandína Šramová
Address all correspondence to: sramovab@fedu.uniba.sk
Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
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