Young Consumer Behaviour

A Research Companion

Ayantunji Gbadamosi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351819053
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Advertising
• Index: Business

Although one perspective depicts young consumers as vulnerable and passive in the marketplace system, our knowledge of this consumer group will be inadequate if limited to this contention. Their roles and relevance in family consumption activities are becoming increasingly profound. Available evidence shows that they cannot be ignored in the marketplace dynamics as they consume goods and services in their households and are involved in various other active roles in their household consumption including making decisions where applicable. Hence, the landscape of young consumer behaviour is changing.

Young Consumer Behaviour: A Research Companion focusses on exploring the behaviour of young consumers as individuals and societal members. The chapters address different aspects of consumption activities of children as individuals like motivation, involvement, perception, learning, attitude, the self, and personality. Similarly, chapters on consumer behaviour in social settings contextualised to young consumers including culture, sub-culture, family, and groups are incorporated into the book. This book fills a gap in the literature by addressing the dynamics of consumption patterns of this consumer group, in relation to various marketing stimuli and different stakeholders. It combines eclectic perspectives on the topic and specifically, bridges the gap between historical perspectives and contemporary issues.

Building on the extant literature in the field of marketing and consumer behaviour, this book is a compendium of research materials and constitutes an essential reference source on young consumer behaviour issues with both academic and managerial implications.

p.1

PART I

Introduction and theoretical background

p.3

1

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF YOUNG CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Ayantunji Gbadamosi

Introduction

In its holistic form, consumer behaviour is a fascinating phenomenon. It is even more intriguing when considered from the viewpoint of the associated heterogeneity among consumer groups. One of the underpinning principles in marketing is the theory of market segmentation, which underscores the fact that we are considerably constrained in our knowledge of consumer behaviour without recourse to the typically obvious and subterranean factors that differentiate one consumer group from the other. Using demography as an example indicates that it is intelligible to distinguish between old and young consumers. Accordingly, the extant literature is replete with definitions of young consumers mainly due to varying circumstances that characterise such studies and write-ups. As indicated by McCarthy (2010), childhood could be conceptualised at several age levels. Meanwhile, most societies recognise that a child reaches adulthood at age 18, implying that this age could possibly be used as a boundary of definition of young consumers. However, in several other contexts, consumers slightly over this age boundary are also considered as young consumers. Hence, the discussion in this chapter straddles all categories of young consumers. So, adapting Solomon’s (2015) definition of consumer behaviour, young consumer behaviour can be conceptualised as the study of the processes involved when these young people individually, or in groups select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires. This is somewhat similar to another perspective offered by Schiffman et al. (2010). If adapted to the context and focus of this chapter, young consumer behaviour can also be defined as the behaviour exhibited by young people while searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs (Schiffman et al., 2010). Clearly, both of these definitions emphasise the process this consumer segment undertakes in their quest to satisfy their needs. So, this chapter examines the changing landscape of young consumer behaviour by drawing together the historical viewpoints and contemporary perspectives on this issue and in doing so sheds light on what this consumer group consumes, how it consumes and why it does so.

p.4

According to Griskevicius and Kenrick (2013), at the proximate level, we as consumers seek a number of goals including self-esteem, meaning, novelty, identity and reliability, so humans’ need to solve the inherent evolutionary challenges has a significant influence in the modern product choices and the various economic decisions made. In his paper on evolutionary consumption, Saad (2013) emphasises the pride of consumer scholars as the discipline’s quest for an interdisciplinary ethos but he still states that a reflective scrutiny of the status quo shows substantial room for improvement. In a related publication several years ago, Trentmann (2004) observes that there were too few historical building blocks for a general debate on the changing physiology of modern consumer society in its various narrative forms. A meticulous literature search reveals that this trend still persists especially in relation to young consumers. In the view of Kopnina (2013), the subject of consumption is linked to a child’s feeling of responsibility, identity and perceived status among many other issues indicating that it is socially conditioned. Hence, it will be helpful to take social economic differences into account when teaching consumption issues (Kopnina, 2013). In a somewhat related view, the dynamic nature of the media landscape has been highlighted, showing that new online platforms through which people could interact with one another has changed dramatically (Hollenbeck and Kaikati, 2012). Accordingly, increasing evidence now shows that young consumers are more open to innovative technologies and could actually be described as agents of change (see, for example, Steenkamp et al., 1999; Spero and Stone 2004; Gurtner and Soyez, 2016). In specific terms, available evidence also shows that the average child is exposed to approximately three hours of TV a day and this time is exclusive of the time spent on playing video games or watching videotapes (Mares, 1998; Nielsen Media Research, 1998; American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001). So, putting this in context, by the time the average consumer reaches the age of 70, the individual would have spent approximately seven years to one decade watching television (Strasbuger, 1993). Interestingly, apart from TV, a plethora of other things are associated with children’s consumption and some of these have experienced significant changes over these years, hence this is the terrain explored in this chapter.

Historical perspectives on young consumer behaviour

As shown by Griskevicius and Kenrick (2013, p. 373):

An evolutionary perspective asserts that all living organisms evolved to behave in ways that gave those organisms an evolutionary advantage . . . [implying that] modern humans are endowed with psychological mechanisms that incline them to process information and make decisions in ways that have enabled our ancestors to survive, thrive, and replicate.

p.5

Accordingly, they proceed through distinct stages of a somatic (birth to puberty), a mating (puberty to parenthood) and parenting stage, which also includes grandparenting for humans (Griskevicius and Kenrick, 2013). So, historically, young consumers have always been a part of existence all along. Although our consumption patterns change by age over time (Gbadamosi, 2016), we were all once children at a stage in life. It is therefore not surprising that much modern behaviour is influenced by deep-seated evolutionary motives, such as avoiding disease, making friends, evading physical harm, attaining status, acquiring a mate, keeping a mate and caring for the family (Griskevicius and Kenrick, 2013). More often than not, having an understanding of the past is key to gaining insight into the present. As indicated by Laslett and Brenner (1989), while historians tend to be more interested in context, sociologists tend to focus more on abstraction and generalisation but the tension between the two is useful to historical sociologists. It has been argued that people are ‘backpackers’ through time as they carry the remains of experiences from one place to another, including those relating to them and others, so it is logical to assemble historical narratives by exploring documents (Schmidt and Garcia, 2010). Although in the research context related to young consumers, this segment of the chapter is reminiscent of this viewpoint as it traces lines of developments in the research inquiry about this consumer segment showing key contributions in this research domain.

At the basic level, we can trace the discussion of human consumption to the work of Charles Darwin who, according to Downes (2013), was the first to appeal to evolution for the purpose of having an understanding of aspects of human behaviour. Similarly, it is very common to trace the history of the systematic study of children to the early observational work of Charles Darwin (Smith and Greene, 2014). Unlike the developmental psychology that has placed the discourse of children in its mainstream focus since it was recognised as a discipline at about the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century (Kessen, 1990; Smith and Greene, 2014), other social science disciplines like anthropology and sociology rather position the discourse of issues relating to children at the margin and simply embed it into the family or household issues (Smith and Greene, 2014). This view is somewhat related to the claim that while children have been noted as consumers right from the eighteenth century since the development of a specific culture of children’s toys and games, but their potential as a consumer group in society was only fully realised during the nineteenth century (James and James, 2012). Cross (2010) presents the historical issues around the children’s market using the framework of the ‘cute’ and ‘cool’ concepts. One could tease from this viewpoint that the former explains specific ways that children interact with adults indicating their vulnerability, vitality and dependency on adults, whereas the latter is a rejection of the former by the child, suggesting expression of freedom from adults’ possessive needs (Cross, 2010, pp. 83–86). In this article, with reference to a body of literature, it was noted that developing products for children was an afterthought of producing those meant for adults, while miniature coasters and ferris wheels developed for children only began in the 1920s (Mangels, 1952; Cross, 1997; Register, 2001). So, it is reasonable to concur with the claim of Bullock and Gable (2006) that while several advocates acted to speak on behalf of adults as far back as 400 bc, the focus of similar actions on children did not really take place until the latter part of the nineteenth century in the US. An example corroborating this position could be seen in the claim that articles published about African American children were at a very low rate between 1936 and 1965, the trend changed upward slightly between 1966 and 1970, experienced a further sharp increase between 1971 and 1975, but thereafter reduced (Mclloyd, 2006). Nonetheless, it is important to note the interest in a specific type of young consumer group that developed shortly after this. These are the ‘Generation Y’ consumers. According to Cekada (2012, cited in Moore et al., 2010), this group of consumers are children born between 1980 and 2000. The existing literature shows that they were brought up in an era characterised with notable changes, which are economic, cultural and technological in nature (Schewe and Noble, 2000; Moore et al., 2010). From a different perspective but also emphasising the delayed full recognition of children as a consumer segment, Gunter and Furnham (1998) citing Davis (1990) note that the emergence of ‘teenager’ as a distinct group and the ‘youth market’ was not given much particular marketing importance until the mid-1950s. But in specific terms, the emergence of the baby boomer generation after the Second Word War actually ushered in the keen interest in young consumers as a significant consumer group (McNeal, 1992; Gunter and Furnham, 1998).

p.6

One of the marketing literature areas that has been used to uncover the discourses of historical issues about children’s consumption behaviour is their socialisation and a good number of papers have been written on this, such as the seminal papers of Ward (1974) and John (1999). Some of these papers have revealed other publications. For example, one is able to tease from John’s (1999) that early scholarship effort in this research area could be traced to the 1950s, citing papers like Guest (1955) on brand loyalty and that of Reisman and Roseborough (1955) written on conspicuous consumption; and acknowledging further efforts in other research domains including consumption patterns authored by Cateora (1963), children’s understanding vis-à-vis the retail function (McNeal, 1964) and the parents’ influence in purchase decisions (Wells and LoSciuto, 1966; Berey and Pollay, 1968). John (1999) also pinpoints the 1970s as a period of a more blossomed part of scholarship in this important research area. This is a very helpful hint on the build-up of literature around children’s role in the marketplace.

Past studies have also looked into issues around financial resources and these also have some far reaching implications for our understanding of the dynamics of children’s consumption and the marketplace. In a paper on parental attitude to pocket money allowance for children, Furnham (2001) highlights some scholarship efforts on this issue over past decades in various countries, including studies conducted in the UK (Newson and Newson, 1976; Furnham and Thomas, 1984); the US (Marshall and Magruder, 1960; Mortimer et al., 1994) and France (Lassarre, 1996) among very many others. By and large, while scholarship attention on issues around young consumers was markedly sparse before the nineteenth century, this has not o...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Young Consumer Behaviour
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• PART I Introduction and Theoretical Background
• PART II Young Consumers as Individuals
• PART III Young Consumers and Marketing Strategies
• PART IV Young Consumers in Social and Cultural Contexts
• PART V Social Marketing and Consumerism: Perspectives on Young Consumers
• Index