The Influence of Children on The Buying Decisions of Their Parents - Dissertation Example

In the recent times it is evident that the children are emerging as major players’ in the decision making processes of a family. In his researches McNeal gives an average, where we find that in the United States, children between the age group of 4-12 years tend to influence parents’ buying that is worth US$ 130 billion (Lackman & Lanasa, 1993). The influence of the children on their parents buying pattern varies with each sub-decision stage. Children that are the initiators, tend to exert to greater influence on their parents as regards decision-making on buying household products, than their non-initiator counterparts.

The study of the literature also suggested that older children exert greater influence on their parents; more than the younger ones, but the child gender does not form a significant factor in influencing the parents buying decisions. From the review of the various articles, it can be easily derived that the marketers must now expressly take note of the growing influence of the children’s role within the arena of a family’s decision-making process. This review will first examine the family as a consumer base unit taking into perspective the presence of the child as a potential consumer within the realms of a family.

The next segment would examine the children’s role on the parents’ decision-making processes; so that we comprehend the emerging picture where we find that the child from being at the background slowly comes out as a major player in the consumer segment of a marketplace. The third segment will examine the role of the children as a direct or indirect consumer (where he has established himself within the consumer segment) and will examine the various factors that influence the children’s purchase preferences.

The fourth section will take a look at the various cognitive development theories that help a researcher to understand the biological/scientific reasoning behind a child’s attraction towards purchasing products and the consumer market. The fifth section will give a detailed insight into the theoretical reasoning behind a child exerting influence on his parents’ purchase decisions. Overall, the review gives a direction to develop a conceptual model after completely investigating all the factors that motivate the children's preferences of certain specific products and their influence strategies in family decisions.

This will give us a clear perspective, as how and why modern marketers and consumer researchers should focus on children as an emerging primary segment, within the consumer market section. 1.1 A family as a consumer base unit “Family as a consuming and decision making unit is a central phenomenon in marketing and consumer behavior” (Commuri and Gentry, 2000, 1). For many decades the central role of the family in decision making and consumption of products has been identified by the marketing managers (Assael, 1998).