Editorial

Citation

Young, B.M. (2012), "Editorial", Young Consumers, Vol. 13 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/yc.2012.32113caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Young Consumers, Volume 13, Issue 3

Welcome to this third issue of 2012. I have chosen a research study by Susanne Pedersen, Alice Grønhøj and Tino Bech-Larsen from Denmark as the lead paper. They looked at healthy eating intervention with children and their families and in this report they looked at the nature and sources of family members’ awareness of and involvement in healthy eating and investigated how they related it to their roles in the process of healthy-eating socialization. In a thoughtful analysis they provide an account of how both children’s and parents’ awareness of and involvement in healthy eating operates including such processes as self-regulation. A valuable contribution to a growing field.

Mobile phone research with children and youth, especially smartphone developments, is no stranger to these pages and Kim Chung from Kazakhstan and David Holdsworth from New Zealand have investigated how young consumers use their mobile phones in commercial transactions in Kazakhstan, Morocco and Singapore, adding valuable cross-cultural information to other research papers on cell phones in past issues of this journal. As mobile phone penetration is a global phenomenon, research like this where different societies are examined is vital.

Teens in the mall! Kay Palan and Lynnea Mallalieu interviewed retailers about teen shoppers in the Mid West and South East of the US and also asked the young girls themselves about their experiences. Qualitative analysis of the data produced valuable interpretations of the shopping experience for consumers and providers alike.

Erin Cho and Joann Ngai are both based in New York City and they have explored young consumers’ perceptions of luxury goods in China, thus contributing to the burgeoning literature on consumption in that key world market. Using systematic qualitative analysis of interview data on young consumers in Shanghai, they were able to identify consumers segments of the market.

Cathriona Nash and Serge Basini from Ireland look at the vexed issue of pester power. This issue has been kicked around for many decades – does it disrupt family life or is it a necessary, sometimes uncomfortable part of the decision making process within the family? These authors in a nicely nuanced paper, provide a different slant, examining pester power from an interpretive standpoint as part of the lived experience of all members of the family.

We have another paper from Ireland, this time from Kevina Cody who gives us a searching analysis of the concept of the tween. Tweens are in-between and targeted by advertisers and this interrogation of the concept coupled with interviews with qualitative readings of their voices structured around themes, are enlightening about this sector of the child and youth market.

Our practitioner piece this quarter is from Wang Hongjun in Singapore who provides us with insights into social media use by young people based on his wide-ranging and successful experience. The “6 Ps” of social media and their application with examples will prove very useful for managers. Finally we have our regular column brought to you by GALA, the Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance, where regulations and codes of practice across the world are described. This quarter we look at the UK.

We have described research with young consumers for you from the countries of Denmark, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Singapore, the USA, the UK and Ireland. Truly an international smörgåsbord (or det kolde bord) with papers originating from countries across the globe and this is one of the characteristics and strengths of Young Consumers. I hope you enjoy these papers and many thanks to all our reviewers and contributors without whom these regular issues would not be possible.

Happy reading!

Brian M. YoungEditor, Young Consumers