In product fields in which children are interested and deeply involved (like sweets), they are strongly price-conscious. Despite the fact that they finance their purchases only partly by their own pocket money and rely widely on other "resources" (e.g. extra money from parents), they are looking very carefully for "value for money". This price-consciousness is even observed when the budget at hand is higher and the child could afford to buy higher priced products. There seems to be a "frame of reference" defined by a certain price level and within this price frame a specific brand/product is chosen. Higher prices for a given product range (up-trading) is only accepted, if interest in and attractiveness of the product range itself is strong enough. Finally it is assumed that price as a variable has two functions, one as the signal for quality, the other as the economical determinator of the buying attitude. This is discussed in a few examples of product development testing.
This paper sets out to examine the reciprocal relationship between fashion and adolescent development and to provide insight into the role which fashion plays in the life of the teenager. By explaining the symbolic nature of observable British fashions, we hope to help those marketing to young people to recognise new trends and fashions as they occur, and to make fashion-related decisions with a greater depth of understanding. Much of the data is derived from a qualitative/quantitative study on the lifestyle of school-age teenagers, conducted in U.K. by Youth Profile with a total sample of 580 boys and girls.
Current French society defines itself increasingly in terms of children, because it is highly centred on the family, on what we might call the "new family". In the pages that follow, we shall first examine the importance of this influence on the economic decisions of French families. We shall then get rid of some false explanations, "logical" (the pocket money budget) or "affective" (the pediarchy: "the aggressiveness of young people" or "the failure of parents" in an attempt to understand the functioning of the new French family and the generalisation of relations of partnership among its members, including and already to a very large degree) in the economic sphere.
Young people tend to use advertising quite differently to their elders. They represent a generation which has grown up with increasing exposure to a range of media, which are in their turn becoming ever more sophisticated. The observations in this paper are drawn from experiences in marketing and advertising various types of products to children and teenagers. We examine some of the research approaches we have found to be useful in communicating with our target audience and eliciting information from them. In addition an attempt is made to highlight some of the main factors to be considered in addressing advertising to this age group. Illustrations are drawn from a variety of markets including the soft drinks and toiletries areas. The paper starts by trying to establish the scenario today's teenager finds himself in and then examines the various sources of influence operating on him or her. We stress in particular the need to establish rapport with this age group and offer some thoughts on how best to go about this. In the last section the different media available are considered and how teenagers tend to use them. Finally we offer some "operational guidelines" which the reader may find helpful in approaching the task of marketing and advertising to teenagers.
The aim of the following experiment among children between 6 and 12 years was to measure the impact of advertising on children in a way which avoids any bias of recall by verbal methods of measurement. Since the ability to express oneself in words does not fully develop before the mid teens, a graphical way of recall collection seems much more adequate for impact measurements on children. All drawings were discussed with each child to find out what it meant to express. The set up took place in four groups of 9 to 10 children each in order to have a kindergarten-like situation rather than an examination-situation with the authority of a strange adult.
Systematic children research can show discrepancies regarding the children's world of spare time and play. In part, children want something quite different in their spare time from what they may do and what they really do in adaptation-to the conditions they live in. Thus one may not automatically think that the way children act is what they feel their needs are. As far as the real spare time situation as well as the actual needs of children are concerned ,it is necessary for researchers, society, and industry, with the target group of children in mind, to reorient their way of thinking.
By order of the "Stichting Volksgezondheid en Roken" (Foundation Health and Smoking, an organization sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Health) NIPO interviewed in the period 5- 22nd march 1979 a sample of 2.474 youngsters between 10 and 15 years. The main objective of the survey was getting more data available about attitudes of youth towards smoking and about their smoking habits. Also questions were asked to learn more about the influence of the family and/or friends on smoking habits, about the knowledge of parents about the smoking habits of their children and about the moments when and where smoking takes place. Some results of the study can be compared with data from a survey about smoking habits of adults (sample size 21.058 persons) conducted in the first quarter of 1979.
An essential question in marketing research is how do we study human behaviour? Marketing research has drawn on two main sources for its answers, psychology and common sense. A third source is offered here, ethology, the biological study of behaviour.
This marketing tool has already been in use for a year in France, and its international growth is to begin in November 1980 with the setting up of a barometer of child-oriented themes in Great Britain; extension to the leading industrialised countries is under discussion. While allowance will be made for specific national characters, these various barometers will be organised so as to allow international clients to consolidate the results from several countries. Conceived with a view to marketing, the barometer 8-14 is intended both for manufacturers - for the development or adaptation of products and services - and for advertising and promotion agencies; it therefore covers both the short term and the medium term.
The paper presents the objectives, the method, some results and forms of utilisation of a survey (ISJ Survey) on the reading habits, as regards the periodical press, of Italian children and young people (aged between 6 and 17), on exposure to other advertising media and on the interests and consumption of youngsters, in the age groups considered.
The IFES has started a research project on public and parental resistance to the interviewing of children, examine for a series of topics which arguments are used against interviews with children, where the appropriate age limit to treating the topic in an interview situation is perceived and which demands are posed on the interview situation (child alone, child with mother/father/ both parents; verbal questioning, tests, simulation of real-life-situations, play situations). The research shows that there is no general and pervasive negative attitude against the interviewing of children. Only about 3 percent of the population in Austria refuse children's interviews by principle and without regard on topic and age of the child.