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The author's observations in this article fall broadly into two sections: Chinese kids truths — a review of the current factors most influential in shaping Chinese kids' view of themselves, the world around them and the brands that speak to them in that world, and Chinese kid trends — some of the key factors that are changing and will continue to change those relationships.

What does it take to build a “Kid Contract” for your brand in China? Just as anywhere, it involves understanding the nature, needs and wants of this specific audience. In the first of this two‐part piece, the author introduces some of the dynamics of Chinese kids today, the key external influences on them, their perception of self and their behaviour. In this second piece, the author will try to outline some of what he's found that can help in shaping an appropriate “Kid Contract” for a brand here, and communicating with this important target group. The author refers to a “Kid Contract” because in effect your brand must negotiate with the kid and/or give the kid leverage so he can negotiate with his parents.

Using in-depth interviews with 30 working class and poor, minority adolescents, students were asked to describe their daily interactions and perceptions of peers in a neighborhood high school in NYC over two years. Among the key findings, students consistently expressed their distrust of “bad kids” who they blamed for many of the school's problems. Three themes based on students lived experiences are described: (1) a neighborhood school with a stigmatized reputation for low academic achievement housed students who displayed anti-academic behavior; (2) students developed normative behavior and informal rules to avoid hostile interactions with peers; (3) perceptions of “bad kids” was racialized and stereotyped. The discussion develops the idea of collective dis-identification, a reverse process from collective identity, where students learned to disconnect from their peers by racially and ethnically segregating.

Examines how much attention urban mainland Chinese children pay to television commercials, their response to different types of commercials, and their perceptions of the quality of advertised and non‐advertised brands. Classifies the types of commercials seen as funny, animated, public service, celebrity endorsements, and those that increase knowledge, and relates these types to the four age groups of the children studied. Concludes that children pay a decreasing amount of attention to commercials as they get older, and that the link between liking a commercial and impulse buying of its product also lessens; confidence in advertised brands does not increase with age, but confidence in non‐advertised brands decreases with age.

This paper provides a look at children today using the latest Youth TGI data. The Youth TGI survey covers many aspects of kids' lives, which add insight into effective communications planning. The focus of the paper is the importance of understanding children in order to target them effectively. It looks at how kids are spending their time, their media consumption, their adoption of new technology and their attitudes.

This chapter draws from a three-year ethnographic study focused on the educational and community interactions among working- and middle-class ethnic Chinese immigrants in a mid-western town in the United States. Aihwa Ong (1999) argues that “Chineseness” is a fluid, cultural practice manifested within the Chinese diaspora in particular ways that relate to globalization in late modernity, immigrants’ cultural background, their place in the social structure in their home society, and their new social class status in the context they enter. The study extends research focused on the complexities of social reproduction within larger global flows of Chinese immigrants. First, we describe how Chinese immigrants’ social status in their countries of origin in part shapes middle and working-class group’s access to cultural capital and positions in the social structure of their post-migration context. Second, we trace groups’ negotiation of their relational race and class positioning in the new context (Ong, 1999) that is often invisible in the processes of social reproduction. Third, we describe how both groups must negotiate national, community, and schooling conceptions of the model minority concept (Lee, 1996) that shapes Asian-American’s lived realities in the United States; yet the continuing salience of their immigrant experience, home culture, and access to cultural capital (Bourdieu, 2007) means that they enact the “model minority” concept differently. The findings suggest the complexity of Chinese immigrants’ accommodation of and resistance to normative ideologies and local structures that cumulatively contribute to social reproduction on the basis of class.

Explores the consumer behavior patterns of urban Chinese children as a primary and an influence market. Examines, as primary consumers, their income, spending and saving patterns. Finds that they have two different types of income, save over half of it, and spend the rest on snack items, play items, and the largest portion on school‐related items. Analyzes their influence on the spending behavior of their parents and grandparents among 25 product categories and the results reveal that they influence around two‐thirds of parents’ purchases. Also considers role of age and gender on children’s consumer behavior. Discusses some marketing implications.

This research aims to investigate whether and how differences may exist in children’s preferences of package design across cultures, with a focus on three aspects of package design: curvilinearity, figurativeness and complexity.

A large-scale questionnaire survey has been conducted in a face-to-face setting in the USA and China, generating valid responses from 763 American children and 837 Chinese children of age 3-12 years.

Unlike previous findings among adults, children from both cultures were found to unanimously prefer curved package design. Nevertheless, Chinese children showed greater preferences for figurative and complex package design than American children; these tendencies increased with age, suggesting significant age–culture interactions.

The surprising finding of the lack of cultural difference in children’s preferences of curved package design suggests that such cultural preferences established in studies of adults may not emerge through time via cultural/social learning until after age 12. The limited cultures, stimuli and factors included in the study call for replications of the study in more realistic and broader settings.

The findings provide package design guidelines for consumer product marketers and designers/innovators targeting the Chinese and American children’s markets. Curved package designs are preferred by children from both cultures. Nevertheless, marketers should choose figurative and complex package design in accordance with the target children’s age and cultural background.

This study contributes to the limited empirical consumer behavior research on package design, especially that of children’s products. It also extends the literature on cultural psychology, experimental aesthetics and developmental psychology.