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Children’s sensory involvement refers to the degree to which children engage their senses, such as sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing, in their interactions with the environment. In the context of parents' purchase decisions, children’s sensory involvement pertains to how children's sensory involvement influences the purchasing decisions made by their parents. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of children's sensory involvement on parents’ purchase decisions considering the mediating role of the parent’s attitude.

In this study, a structured questionnaire survey was conducted with parents of children aged 7–12 in Isfahan, Iran. The sample consisted of 210 parents, aimed at elucidating the relationship between variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the relationship between variables.

Results showed a significant relationship between children’s sensory involvement and parents’ purchase decisions, children’s sensory involvement and parents’ attitudes and parents’ attitudes and purchase decisions. It was concluded that children’s sensory involvement could indirectly influence the parents’ purchase decisions considering the mediating role of parents' attitudes.

In today's business landscape, it is imperative for organizations to discern the multitude of factors influencing consumers' purchasing decisions. Among these, family dynamics play a substantial role, with children often exerting a strong influence on their parents' buying choices. Despite the acknowledged importance of this dynamic in existing literature, the specific impact of children's sensory involvement on parental purchasing decisions remains largely unexplored. Therefore, this paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by shedding light on the role of children's sensory involvement in shaping parental buying behaviors.

Reports research on the degree to which UK adolescents feel they have an impact on decision making within their families, and the extent to which adolescents and parents agree or disagree with the adolescent’s perceived influence when purchasing products;most previous research has concentrated on children rather than adolescents. Discusses the concept of consumer socialisation, i.e. the process by which young people acquire skills, knowledge and attitude relevant to their functioning as consumers; although parents are the foremost influences in this, there is also reverse socialisation, where children use their product knowledge to influence parents’ decisions. Distinguishes between socio‐oriented and concept‐oriented parental communication: the latter is likely to increase the child’s influence on decision‐making. Outlines demographic changes, such as the greater number of one‐parent households and two‐income families, which have produced “time‐poor” parents: the result is that children and adolescents now exercise a greater influence on purchasing decisions. Tests two hypotheses: that parents and adolescents disagree in their perceived ratings of adolescents’ product category decision influence; and that male and female adolescents’ perceived influences differ across a range of product categories. Concludes that parents and adolescents generally agree, but that there is some degree of difference between male and female perceived influence ratings, in the categories of large purchases and food.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the introduction of auditory sensory cues, through a human voice, affect children’s and parent’s shopping behaviour in a retail grocery setting. In the field of retailing and sensory marketing research, there is a paucity of knowledge on how auditory sensory cues impact on consumers’ shopping behaviour.

The empirical study was a field experiment and entailed direct observation of shoppers of the Swedish grocery retailer ICA. The observations were based on a convenience sample of shopping families assigned to a control group (n=200) and an experimental group (n=131). A new innovative Swedish audio story track system was to be tested in a hypermarket containing 13 different stories for children.

Auditory sensory cues affect children’s and parent’s shopping behaviour in a significant way. Children are quieter, more relaxed and do not move around and reduce the parental stress behaviour during the shopping process.

The findings demonstrate that auditory sensory cues through human voice have a positive effect on children’s and parent’s shopping behaviour. It is also obvious that parent’s perceived stress is significantly influenced by the children.

The study provides guidelines for grocery retailers who wish to offer children and their parents a more pleasant shopping trip by emphasizing the role of the children.

The research demonstrates that the introduction of auditory sensory cues through human voice in a significant way affect the children’s and their parent’s shopping behaviour in a retail setting.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of chocolate packaging and brand on the purchasing decisions of a number of Iranian children and their parents. The paper also aims to investigate the role of pester power as a moderating variable in the relationship between children’s purchasing decision and that of their parents.

Data were collected using a 26-item Likert-scaled questionnaire administered in February 2013 to the parents of 600 children at two daycare centers and four elementary schools in the city of Qazvin in Iran. The returned and complete questionnaires were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis within structural equation modeling using IBM® Amos and SPSS statistical packages.

The results show that packaging and brand have a positive effect on parents. However, children were only influenced by packaging, and not brand. Further, it was found that children influenced their parents during store visits. The study also confirms the moderating role of children’s pester power in the relationship between children’s purchasing decision and that of their parents.

A limitation of the study is that the issue of the effect of packaging and brand on children was explored through the opinions of parents. Also, due to budget constraints, images of chocolate products rather than real packages were used. Future research might study the effect of other factors such as peers, socio-cultural issues, and economic status. Another possibility would be to include other variables such as mental involvement and time constraint.

The findings of the study might be useful for all manufacturers and suppliers of goods. More specifically, managers and marketing agents in the chocolate industry are recommended to improve children’s brand awareness through advertising as a way of making them want to buy branded products.

The most important difference between this work and previous studies is its use of children’s pester power as a moderating factor in the relationship between the purchasing decision of children and that of their parents. Another good thing about this paper is that it gives the reader an insight into the Iranian context. The results give the manufacturers a better understanding of the factors children take into account when deciding to purchase something.

This study aims to understand the influence of cartoon characters on the generation alpha (GA) in purchase decision-making, supported by the theory of planned behaviour.

Quantitative study was used to collect data from 294 Indian parents on behalf of their children (between 8 and 12 years) using convenience sampling and 20 items Likert scale questionnaire. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data and for hypothesis testing.

The study shows the favourable impact of cartoon characters to influence the behaviour of GA while making the final purchase decision. The likability was found to be significantly related to the recall, willingness to try/buy. The recall was significantly related to willingness to try/buy and purchase intention. Willingness to try/but was significantly related to purchase intention, but it has no significant relation with the final purchase decision, whereas purchase intention had significant relation with the final purchase decision.

The study indicates that generating likability for cartoon characters among GA is important. Managers should recognize that although parents make the final purchase decision, however, children play an influential role. Advertisers should plan their communication accordingly. An emotional connection with cartoons can influence GA, which further impacts recall, willingness to try/buy, purchase intention and decision.

Various studies have been conducted in western countries, but very few studies have been conducted in emerging markets like India, highlighting cartoon characters’ influence on GA’s purchase decision-making, with theoretical underpinnings. The study also explores the importance of GA, an emerging consumer market in today’s digitalized era, which is highly influenced by technological gadgets. It becomes challenging for marketers to promote their products on television to influence GA purchase behaviour.

This study aims to analyse the roles in which children have been portrayed in advertisements over three decades (1990–2000, 2000–2010 and 2010–2020) and what have been the changes in the portrayal of the children, including the changes in product type and target audience.

The content of 212 television advertisements was analysed for the study; 32 advertisements belonged to 1990–2000, 38 belonged to 2000–2010 and 142 belonged to 2010–2020.

It could be observed that in 2010–2020, marketers had primarily focused on children as their central idea behind making any advertisement. They were projecting children as an emotional and informational tool for attracting adults and children, directly or indirectly.

The implications of this study are manifold. Firstly, the study supports the theories of socialisation and the changing role of children in the same. Secondly, the trend over the decades hints at the marketer’s changing strategy behind using children in advertisements to target adult audiences.

The significant implication for the practitioner is the possibility of having a child protagonist in an ad for the non-children target audience.

This paper is one of the first to analyse the changing role of children in advertisements over a long time horizon.

This paper aims to explore and analyze the various consumer socialization agents for the young Omani Arab children, who play a key role in the family purchase process.

A mixed method research approach was adopted in the form of a survey and short interviews for the study. The study was performed on the children in the age group of 7-14 years, enrolled in Omani schools. The socialization factors were grouped through the exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess the impact of the factors on the purchase of various product categories. Finally, short personal interviews with the children were made to validate the results.

A model was proposed incorporating the four different socialization patterns of Omani children involving parents, friends, television and internet. The model was tested with the purchase of different product categories through multiple regression analysis. The results supported the parents, television and friends while rejected the internet as a means of socialization of Omani children. The qualitative analysis also revealed the same results, further incorporating the role of other family members in the socialization of the children.

A research gap exists in the consumer literature related to the Arab child socialization as the previous scholars had contributed mainly in the developed Western context, hence, demanding further research studies in the young Arab consumers’ perspective.

Being the first of its type in the regional context, the research is important for the researchers who wish to understand the socialization process and its agents for the Omani Arab children. The research provides insights about the psychology of Omani children towards the products, which can aid the marketers to design appropriate marketing programmes targeting the growing child segment in the Arab world.

A significant research gap exists and suggests a research study on the patterns of socialization of the Arab children as no similar research had been previously conducted related to this context on child socialization. This research will serve as a base for future research studies in the socialization and purchase behavior of the Arab children.

This study is designed to extend knowledge of cognitive processing of advertising messages by urban children in India.

Data were collected from 250 children aged between 7 and 12 years, drawn in the sample from five major towns of the relatively affluent western state of Gujarat (India) by using the cluster sampling approach. A simple questionnaire using three point rating scale was administered with the help of moderators. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software.

It was found that children's ability to decode and process advertising messages and to understand their intents is influenced not only by their cognitive abilities at different age strata but also by their social and personal environments. Social norms related to acceptability and appropriateness of gender behavior also influence the processing of ad messages by the children of both sexes. Other elements like likeability of the model, character or endorser, story line, slogan and the music will create liking or disliking for a particular advertisement and hence decoding of its message.

As it was not possible to use advanced psychometric tools for the study on children, a simple three a point scale used for the purpose could have had its own limitations. Future research can benefit from further improvements in measuring techniques.

How children decode an advertising message and what are the sources of influence is not an actively researched topic in India. The study would therefore contribute towards better understanding of children's processing abilities and designing of effective communication strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of pediatricians' obesity and gender on children's perceptions of physicians. In particular, to examine the extent and direction of obesity and gender on children's perceptions of likability, expertise, and trustworthiness.

The study utilizes an experimental design. The actual sample is 138 children between six and 12 years of age.

The results indicate that physicians' gender did not influence children's perception of pediatricians' personal characteristics. However, physicians' obesity did influence children's perceptions. Specifically, obese pediatricians were judged less likable and less expert than non‐obese pediatricians.

The research informs two important gaps in the literature. First, personal characteristics influence perceptions of credibility, and children perceive obese persons negatively, just as adults do. Second, the paper lays out a rigorous experimental design that adapts scales and materials for use with child‐subjects.

The purpose of this paper is to compare and find the significance of aesthetic standards related to the packaging design of pure milk among two groups of parents and children in order to help the designers and marketers to identify these two groups of consumers well.

The results of questionnaire were used to get the required data. The selected samples were divided into two groups of 110 parents and children aged between seven and 14 years old who responded to the questions. The subjects were compared and evaluated within the convenience stores in the cosmopolitan city of Tehran based on four independent variables as the influential factors in packaging attractiveness. Data were analyzed through the statistical analysis software using the Independent t-test analysis.

The results of analysis showed that all the variables vary significantly among these two groups. Besides, the importance and priority of variables were determined for each group based on the mean score of each variable.

According to the results of this study, it could be concluded that the selection criteria and packaging attractiveness varies among children and parents, and the aesthetic factors of packaging could be used with different priorities for these two groups. And also at the end of research some practical recommendations are presented in order of importance based on parents’ preferences.