How children perceive value as they age and become consumers
SMIB researcher Janine Williams, who graduated from Victoria Business School in December with a Doctorate in Marketing, has authored a ground-breaking study which sheds light on how children perceive value as they age and become consumers.
When comedy duo Flight of the Conchords interviewed school kids as part of composing a fundraising song for Cure Kids NZ in 2012, they asked: how much is a lot of money? A million and a hundred, ten and twenty-one dollars was one answer, a whole house full of money was another.
But how do children form opinions around money and value? And what role can parents play in influencing their children‘s development in this area?
Researcher Janine Williams, who graduated from Victoria Business School in December with a Doctorate in Marketing, has authored a ground-breaking study which sheds light on how children perceive value as they age and become consumers.
To discover what influences children's decisions when buying products, Janine carried out in-depth interviews and analysed the purchasing diaries‘ of a group of 8-14 year olds. Until this study, little research had been conducted on value from a child‘s perspective.
Her results show that children as young as eight were canny in their purchasing, but what influenced their decisions changed remarkably as they got older.
"My research found that there were six dimensions to why kids decided to buy something ranging from its functional value -- what attributes did the product have, and how would it perform -- to its emotional value. For example, they talked about how they felt about the product and how happy it would make them feel."
"A purchasing decision was also influenced by social value of a product; for example, whether their peers also owned the product, and of course price -- could I afford it?"
Janine found that younger children tended to consider if they had enough money to buy the product, but not trade the benefits against the costs. They considered whether they had used a product before, and what it would do for them (for example, if would taste good, or be fun to play with).
Older children deliberated between the costs and benefits of buying something; they considered how long a product might last for and how much money needed to be spent on it to pay for it when it could be used to buy two cheaper products instead.
Younger children bought mostly toys and food, and the majority of these research participants sought the opinion of their parents before spending their pocket money. Janine says as children grew older, the social value of a purchase became more important.
"Research participants were concerned about fitting in with their friends and considered what others might think about them if they bought one product over another."
The study showed that, at any age, children‘s purchasing decisions were influenced by their emotions and by their previous experience of a product. Across all of the age groups studied, children also spoke of sometimes being dissatisfied or regretting a purchase.
Janine says her research has implications for policymakers considering the appropriate marketing of products and services to children, and to those involved in consumer education, including parents.
"As a parent I‘ve become more aware of gaps in my children‘s understanding. I think it‘s particularly important for younger children, who don‘t have the same concept of quality or understanding of price when they decide they want to buy something."
"Their measure of price is just about whether they can afford the product -- they don‘t consider whether something is expensive or cheap for what it is, or whether they‘ll enjoy that product for long enough to make its cost worthwhile."
Source: VicNews