Television advertisements and children's buying behaviour

Abstract

Purpose Children differ in their cognitive ability while trying to interpret television advertisements and hence form different attitudes towards them. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of children's attitudes towards television advertisements on their resultant buying behaviour. Design/methodology/approach The research has been based on exploratory and descriptive research design. Exploratory research includes a literature review and in‐depth interviews with child psychologists, advertisers and parents of young children. This was further carried forward by carrying out a survey of children in the age group five to 11 years, while they were in their class room. The filling up of the questionnaires was aided by the class teacher, which had response options in a pictorial manner. Findings The demand for the advertised products is heavily influenced by the children's attitude towards advertisements. Further, the cognitive changes among the different age groups leads to the formation of varying attitudes towards the advertisements. Yet there are other potent factors apart from advertisements, which result in the requests for a product or brand. Research limitations/implications The paper has been carried out among children studying in English medium schools in the National Capital region of Delhi. Hence, the sample size is too small and restricted. The interplay of the various buying dimensions on each other have not been probed. Practical implications More focused approach is required by advertisers while planning their advertisement campaign for different age groups of children, rather than considering them as one homogenous group. Various elements of the advertisements have to be meticulously planned for different age groups. Originality/value At the lower age group it is the entertaining ability of the advertisements, whereas at the higher age groups the credibilty element in the advertisements has the potential of creating a favourable attitude towards the advertisements. There seems to be a complex relationship between attitude formation towards advertisements and the resulting buying behaviour because of the presence of other intervening variables. Characters from folklores can be depicted for creating aspiration.

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