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Received: 9 October 2017
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Accepted: 31 July 2018
DOI: 10.1002/mar.21153
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Status of brands in children’s consumption: What letters to
Santa posted on La Poste website tell us
Stéphane Ganassali
IAE, IREGE, Université de Savoie Mont Blanc,
Annecy, France
Correspondence
IAE, IREGE, Université de Savoie Mont
Blanc, 4 chemin de Bellevue, BP 80439,
Annecy‐le‐Vieux, 74944 Annecy, France.
Email: sgana@univ-smb.fr
Abstract
The purpose of the research is to identify different consumption styles based on a
large collection of letters to Santa written by some children and/or their families and
submitted to the French Post website (La Poste). One of our main interests focuses on
the presence and weight of brands and licenses in children’s wish lists. We have had
access to all the anonymous posts sent to Santa Claus through La Poste’s website
during the 2013 and 2014 Christmas holidays. We analyzed the nature of the wish
lists as shown in the 43,000‐post database using several textual data analysis
techniques. Extensive heterogeneity was found among children’s and families’
postures regarding that specific ritual. The different types of emails reflect the
meaning families associate with Christmas time but also their different consumption
styles or attitudes toward consumption: reasoned, educational, hedonistic, or
materialistic, for example. When focusing on brands and licenses, we can also
observe significant differences in the way families and children include them in their
consumption decisions. Brands could have a very different weight in Christmas wish
lists and their natures reflect different value transmission modes. The French market
for Christmas children brands is rather stable and focuses on a few top leading global
brands such as Playmobil,Barbie,orLego. At least one of the ten leading brands is
mentioned in half of evaluated Christmas wish lists. The analysis confirms that brands
are very clearly gendered and associated with the children’s ages. Peak time for brand
desire is alleged to be reached between the age of 7 and 9. To our knowledge, our
research is the first to analyze a large sample of spontaneous data to capture
children’s consumption styles and attitudes toward brands. Because of our
classification, a first typology of parental consumption styles has also been identified.
KEYWORDS
brands, children’s consumption, gifts, santa, textual data analysis
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INTRODUCTION
Many families feel Christmas is an experience centered on children
(DeChant, 2002; Herpin & Verger, 1996; Perrot, 2000). As a result,
such times are occasions for episodes of physical and symbolic
consumption where the letters to Santa takes center stage. For the
child, it is an activity that marks the beginning of celebrations,
blending belief and ritual (Lévi‐Strauss, 1952), and explaining their
expectations (Figures 1, 2, and 3).
When writing to Santa, the child is often answerable based on their
good behavior; they express their wishes and endorse the prescriber’s
role to their own benefit. Since this practice most often involves an
adult, children learn how to obtain what they want, and they act in their
own way, as rational consumers. This epistolary tradition has become
Psychol Mark. 2019;36:5–14. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jcp © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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