University of Stellenbosch; South Africa

Advertising to Children

by

 Franziska Pfund

ABSTRACT

The extent of children′s understanding of advertising messages and the influence of advertising on children is a topic that still has to be researched. But certain is, that the process of consumer socialization has an enormous influence on children′s attitude and perception of advertising.

Television advertising is still the most common and most important way of communicating messages to children. It will be discussed, how and when children start being able to distinguish commercials from program and when they can understand the advertising intent. A further crucial point is how and to which extent television advertising does influence children on their brand perceptions. An important part of television advertising targeted to children is about food. The effects on children and some measures as well as how advertisers are convincing children will be discussed.

There are numerous alternative marketing activities aimed at children that have a great impact and some of them will be illustrated. Concluding, this paper will give some future directions of research.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. CONSUMER SOCIALIZATION
2.1. Definition
2.2. Socialization Agents
2.3. Learning Contents of Consumer Socialization
2.4. Stages of Consumer Socialization

3. SCEPTICISM TOWARDS ADVERTISEMENTS
3.1. Definition
3.2. Development of Scepticism

4. TELEVISION ADVERTISING
4.1. Distinguishing Commercials from Program
4.2. Understanding Advertising Intent
4.3. Influence of Advertising on Children′s Brand Perceptions
4.4. Protection of Children and their Values

5. ADVERTISING OF FOOD
5.1. Quantity and Nutritional Value
5.2. Effects and Measures
5.3. Executing Techniques

6. ALTERNATIVE MARKETING ACTIVITIES AIMED AT CHILDREN
6.1. Internet
6.2. Kid′s Clubs
6.3. Educational Materials

7. SUMMARY AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS OF RESEARCH

8. REFERENCES

1. INTRODUCTION

Children are an important target group for advertising campaigns. Children influence their parents enormously in their purchases. Furthermore children are the "consumers of tomorrow", so companies have to create awareness of their products and create preferences as well as brand loyalty in the very early stages of children′s consumerism.

Mark Ritson of the London Business School says, "The real key, the Holy Grail, is getting kids to pester parents to buy something for the whole family such as a car or holiday.¹" Moreover, children′s attitude towards brands, products and consumerism in general is strongly influenced by advertising.

The increasing importance of all marketing communications to children within the overall marketing picture can be put in better perspective as one look at some figures. Children aged two to 14 directly influence parental purchases more and more: In the 1960s children′s influence was about $5 billion, by 1950 the figure was about $50 billion and by 2002 it may have peaked around $188 billion (Zoll, 2000). These astonishing figures illustrate very well why there is an increasing concern at ad campaigns that are targeting children. The budget spent thereon gets as well more and more important: two billion dollars is roughly spent on advertising to young consumers in America, alone (http://www.mediachannel.org) and in the European Union, revenues to television networks and producers have reached between $620 and $930 million (Pascaline, n.d.).

The importance for advertisers and marketers is to understand how children are influenced in their attitudes towards advertising and their consumer behaviour in general. For that reason it is essential to analyse and to know the process and its different stages of consumer socialization, as well as the development of scepticism towards advertising. But advertising to children is also fraught with ethical concerns, due to the limited ability of children to process information, so there are several measures taken in order to protect children′s values.

This paper will discuss this topic as broad and as specific as possible with a focus on television advertising and especially on food advertisements before concluding with remarks to future research directions.

2. CONSUMER SOCIALIZATION

2.1. Definition

Consumer Socialization means the process by which young people acquire skills, knowledge and attitudes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the marketplace (Ward, 1974). This is a lifelong process, which begins with birth and is normally concluded at the age of 18. This learning takes place within the context of background factors such as social classes, religion and socio-economic status’. The question that are crucial to marketers and researchers are what behaviors children learn, by whose influence they learn these behaviors and how those behaviors are associated with the purchase and use of goods and services.

2.2. Socialization Agents

The process of Consumer Socialization is influenced by different factors. All these factors have a different but an important influence on children’s socialization process and may enhance children’s learning of marketplace knowledge. The most important groups are referred to as socialization agents (Witt, 1995).

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1 See Hawkins, Best & Coney (2001). Consumer Behaviour – Building Marketing Strategy. New York: McGraw Hill. 732