PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR

Social And Cultural Contexts Are The Main Influences On The Purchasing Behaviour Of Young People

Social And Cultural Contexts Are The Main Influences On The Purchasing Behaviour Of Young People

Academically, research of children's consumer behaviour started in the 1960s, as researchers expanded their scope of inquiry to include the relative influence of parents and peers on consumption patterns (Cateora, 1963), children's understanding of marketplace and retail functions (McNeal, 1964) and the influence on parents in purchasing decisions (Berey and Pollay, 1968). These early papers were very significant in terms of presenting the subject of children's consumer behaviour to marketers. In the mid 1970s a further movement for developing the field occurred as the result of Ward's article (1974) under the title Consumer Socialization. The author defined consumer socialization (Ward, 1974: 2) as "processes by which young people acquire skills, knowledge and attitudes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the marketplace". Recently, the research of consumer behaviour has enjoyed increasing popularity among several groups of people, including marketing practitioners, public policymakers, consumer protection groups, consumer educators and students of human behaviour in general (Moschis, 1987). The marketers' need to understand consumers better has recently increased and extended to other groups. Policymakers have become interested in research that will shed light on the issues surrounding the effects of marketing activities on people. Consumer protection groups have suggested to public policymakers the need to protect consumers from unfair business practices and have triggered the need for consumer research. They also have suggested additional ways of protecting and educating the consumer. Consumer educators wish to know more about consumers as a means of preparing them for effective interaction with the marketplace (Moschis, 1987). Therefore, researchers from various disciplines have become increasingly interested in the study of children's consumer behaviour. There is growing interest among international business firms in knowing when consumer behaviour begins in particular societies around the world, what social agents are involved and the resulting patterns of purchase, understanding this process, earlier termed consumer development by McNeal (1964) or consumer socialization (Ward, 1974). Children have enormous market potential, not as one market but as three (McNeal, 1992). A current (primary) market spending its own money for its own needs and wants, an influence market determining a substantial amount of parents spending and a future market that, eventually, will constitute all the customers for a firm's offering (McNeal, 1998b). There is a growing body of knowledge about the consumer behaviour of children around the world.

978; Moschis and Moore, 1979a and b; Moschis, 1985). There are also studies reported from other parts of globe, for example, Canada (Goldberg and Gorn, 1978; Filiatrault and Ritchie, 1980, Goldberg, 1990), Europe (Antelo, 1992; Ferrari and Pescetti, 1992; Gunter and Furnham, 1998) and Asia (McNeal and Yeh, 1990a, 1990b and1997; McNeal et al., 1998). Hence, much of the evidence pertaining to socialisation and children's consumer behaviour comes from studies conducted in such countries as the USA, UK and ...