Latin American children have certain common traits, some rooted in their shared culture, others based on increasingly globalized industry proposals. The myriad of identical stimuli (from television programs to toys) in addition to important similarities in terms of behaviors and preferences makes possible the consider
This paper delves into children and their relationship with the characters that make up their world, their features, origins, aesthetics, the stories in which they are involved and the different roles played. Preferences for local vs. global, fiction vs. reality, what is explicitly targeted to them vs. teenage and adult proposals, cartoon format vs. âlive actionâ, male vs. female characters and the values they represent are examined.
It is very difficult for the headquarters of multinational corporations, for offshore firms without local branches, or for market research institutes without local associates, to evaluate the market research undertaken in the Latin American region, i.e., to know what is done and how it is done. This paper seeks to respond to some of the questions which are often posed by such foreign organisations interested in exploring Latin American markets. The first part is devoted to a reflection on how certain local conditions have an influence upon the way market research is conducted. The second part brings forth examples of complex studies, presenting three cases in which multivariate techniques were used. The paper ends with a reflection on the need for a greater local development of techniques adapted to the local milieu.