Emergence of Children as a Target Audience in Advertising: A Case Study of

Urban Jammu

Archana Kumari, Assistant Professor

Department of Mass communication and New Media
Central University of Jammu, Jammu – 180011, J & K, India
E-mail: archanaiimc@gmail.com

Abstract:
“What do you call a consumer who wants to buy everything you have, doesn't care what it costs
and is less than five feet tall? A marketer's dream? Nope. You call them kids.” -- AdRelevance
Intelligence Report, 2000.

Emergence of children as a target audience in advertising is not a recent phenomenon;

however it has become significant in last few years. Young children are being targeted by
advertisers mainly due to three reasons - the amount of money they spend themselves, the
influence they have on their parents spending and because of the money they will spend when
they grow up. Earlier children were used to targeted only for the advertisements of sweets and
toys, but now children oriented advertisements include clothes, shoes, a range of fast foods,
sports equipment, computer products and toiletries as well as adult products such as cars and
credit cards. Jammu region is no exception to this as all the national media are available here and
children are equally targeted by the advertisers. This paper tries to find out whether children are
really potential target audience in urban Jammu i.e. are they able to influence the purchasing
decisions of their parents and if yes, to what extent.

Keywords: Target audience, Advertisement, Advertiser.

Introduction:

In the changing lifestyle of people, especially in urban areas, children have emerged as biggest
captive audience of television. Both parents are working in a nuclear family and children are left
at home with nanny or most of the time alone. They spend most of their time in front of
television and watch all kinds of advertisements. These advertisements may be or may not be
related to children’s products. Children not only just watch, they also discuss these
advertisements and products. Thus they gather more informations about these products than their
parents. Also in most of the families, there are not more than two children, so they are pampered
and important decision makers in the family. Parents buy things according to their choice.
Bhattacharya and Kohli (2007) say, “Children in middle-class India take important
decisions in the home, thereby contributing majorly to household budget contours. From buying
white goods and cars, to cell phones and grocery and even insurance policies, children under the
`age of 13 are deciding which brands their parents should or should not buy.”
Children were first identified as a target market in the 1960s and till date this concept is
continued to increase in popularity (Marwick, 2010). Even there are a number of books written
on this topic such as What Kids Buy and Why: The Psychology of Marketing to Kids;
BrandChild: Remarkable Insights into the Minds of Today’s Global Kids and Their relationships
with Brands; and Kidfluence: The Marketer’s Guide to Understanding and Reaching Generation
Y Kids, Tweens and Teens.
Thus now there is a whole segment of the marketing industry desperately trying to figure
out how to sell things to kids. Children are very much important for market forces because they
are not only direct buyers and prime influencer for buying goods, but they also constitute a huge
segment of future buyers. Advertisers have recognized that brand loyalties and consumer habits
formed when children are young and vulnerable will be carried through to adulthood (Beder,
1998).
In India too, after globalization, a neo-rich section of people emerged in which both
parents are working in multinationals and have less time for their kids. They compensate this
lack of time for their kids by allowing them to buy and themselves buying for them expensive
gifts and taking their suggestions in each and every purchasing for house. The Indian society is
also moving towards such a money oriented society in which children have been reduced to only
target audience instead of nation’s asset. More or less, this situation is emerging in every big city
of India. It has been tried to find out, what is the prevailing situation in Jammu regarding
emergence of children as target audience.
Literature Review:

In Australia, children under 18 have an average $31.60 to spend each week and they influence
more than 70 percent of their parents’ clothes and fast food purchases (Powell and Zuel, 1993).
Situation is not different in United States too. According to a study by Wagner (1995):
In the US there are over 57 million school age children and teenagers who spend about
$100 billion each year of their own and their family’s money on sweets, food, drinks,
video and electronic products, toys, games, movies, sports, clothes and shoes.
This clearly indicates the power of huge money in small hands, which advertisers world over are
trying to lure. What could be better target for marketing than immature brains who try to buy
every attractive thing, whether it is of their use or not.
It was also found in US that children of the age of 12 or under 12 influence family decisions to
spend on food, household items like furniture, electrical appliances and computers, vacations, the
family car and other spending, which means that even the car manufacturers cannot afford to
ignore children in their marketing plan (McGee and Heubusch, 1997). This trend is visible not
only in these developed countries, but it is also being witnessed in the developing countries like
India. A study conducted by Cartoon Network and NFO across 14 A and B class cities in India
with 6,436 respondents, which included kids in the age group of seven – 14 years and mothers,
reveals that children are now not mute spectators in major purchase decisions (Bhattacharya and
Kohli, 2007). This study further reveals:
In cars, it was found that the preferred brand of kids was the Hyundai Santro and that
around 32 percent of kids accompany parents when they go buying a car. Among watches
the favourite brand of kids was Titan, while in TV the preferred brand was LG and in
music system it was Sony (ibid).
This shows how in a developing country like India with second largest population in the world,
children have strong choices and they are catalyst in the decision making of purchase for even
those things which are not directly related to them. Perhaps this strong catalytic power of
children was behind the sponsorships and promotions of the children activities by big companies.
Nissan sponsors the American Youth Soccer Organisation and a travelling geography exhibit in
order to get exposure for their brand name and logo in child-friendly settings (Beder, 1998).
Chevrolet has also used children in most of its advertisements.
Purpose of the present study:
When there is a clear trend in the world over that children are playing a key role in taking
important purchase decisions by their parents, from buying cars to cell phones and even grocery,
it becomes pertinent to see whether this trend has been seeped in the small cities of India like
Jammu. In the light of above mentioned facts, this study tries to answer following questions:
i. Whether the people of Jammu involve children in taking any purchase decision?
ii. Whether they consider son’s suggestion more or daughter’s suggestion?
iii. In buying which goods, people of Jammu take their children suggestion and whether
they think this is right?
iv. Why they consider the suggestions of their children valuable?

Methodology:
This study uses mainly survey method to collect the data on the topic. The urban Jammu region
has been conventionally divided into three broad areas – Old city (East Jammu), West Jammu
and Gandhinagar. As per the records of Jammu Municipal Corporation (2003, the latest
available), there are 71 wards in Jammu (see annexure I) sprawling in the whole urban Jammu
region. Out of these 71 wards, 14 wards fall in Old city or East Jammu, 32 fall in West Jammu
and 25 fall in Gandhinagar area. In order to take representative samples, one ward from Old city
out of 14 wards, three wards from West Jammu out of 32 wards and four wards from
Gandhinagar out of 25 wards have been selected. This selection was random. From Old city,
ward no. 1 has been taken, from West Jammu, ward no. 34, 41 and 66 were taken and from
Gandhinagar, ward no. 20, 23 and 46 and 55 were taken as sample. The population and number
of households in these selected wards, as per Municipal Corporation report, are as follows:
Ward No. Name of the ward No. of Provisional Population Sample taken
Households (Census 2011) (1 % of no. of HH)
Ward no.1 Panjthirthi 1400 6123 15
Ward no. 20 Gandhinagar 1789 8490 25
Ward no. 23 Nai Basti 2016 10331 20
Ward no. 34 Janipur (N) 582 2764 6
Ward no. 41 Bohri 1808 8284 19
Ward no. 46 Sanjay Nagar 1570 7385 16
Ward no. 55 Deeli 1509 6949 30
Ward no. 66 Upper Muthi 2746 11819 28
(See annexure II)
The questionnaire designed (annexure III) were delivered to each household randomly picked in
a particular area as per the sample. Approximately one percent of the total numbers of
households in a randomly selected ward out of total no. of wards in a particular area were taken
as sample. Sometimes the interviewers themselves filled the questionnaire after taking response
from the head of selected household.

Finding and Analysis:

Altogether 159 households were contacted and family heads were interviewed through interview
schedules across these eight wards or urban Jammu. In order to analyse and interpret these vast
pool of data, firstly ward wise trend would be tabled and discussed and at last all data would be
studied altogether to understand the general trend of influence of children in purchasing
decisions of their parents in urban Jammu. First we will see in how many houses, parents take
suggestions of their children in buying things and if they take suggestions, which child they
consider first, eldest one, preferably son or preferably daughter or all of them. The following
table clearly indicates these numbers and percentages in concise form:

Ward No. No. of families taking suggestions of their children Which child’s suggestions
in buying things you listen to more

Yes % No % NA1 % Total All % NA2 %

Ward No. 1 14 93.33 1 6.66 - - 15 14 93.33 1 6.66
Ward No. 20 22 88 3 12 - - 25 22 88 3 12
Ward No. 23 20 100 0 0 - - 20 20 100 0 0
Ward No. 34 2 33.33 4 66.66 - - 6 2 33.33 4 66.66
Ward No. 41 17 84.21 2 1.5 - - 19 19 100 0 0
Ward No. 46 13 81.25 2 12.5 1 6.25 16 11 25 3 18.75
Ward No. 55 28 93.33 2 6.66 - - 30 27 90 3 10
Ward No. 66 21 75 7 25 - - 28 21 75 7 25
Total 137 86.16 21 13.39 1 0.62 159 136 85.53 21 13.39
Table I: Ward wise representation of responses of the randomly selected families
NA1 – Not Answered, NA2 – Not Applicable.
From the above table, it is significant to note that percentage of families in each ward except one,
who take suggestions from their children in purchasing goods, is more than 75 percent, in some
cases more than 90 percent and in one case it is 100 percent. In comparison to this, percentage of
families in each ward who said ‘no’ for taking suggestions from their children in purchasing
goods is negligible, mostly less than 25 percent and in one case zero percent. However, just
opposite to this trend one particular ward has shown completely reverse results. In this ward no.
34, only 33.33 percent families consult their children before buying anything while 66.66 percent
families do not care for their suggestions. When tried to find out reasons for this trend, it
emerged that most of the families in this area are migrated and since it was border area, they
started living here, but they are still not very liberal towards their kids and follow the traditional
discipline of parents.
It is also interesting to note that almost all of the families consider the suggestions of all
their children equally in purchasing goods, whether elder or younger child or girl or boy child.
More than 75 percent families in each ward listen to the suggestions of all their children equally
irrespective of their age or gender except one case, where only 33.33 percent families consult
their all children’s suggestions in buying things and overwhelming 66.66 % families ignore all of
them, which possible reasons have already been discussed in above paragraph.
Overall, out of total 159 families consulted, a significant 137 (86.16%) families
consented that they take suggestions from their children in buying things, while 21 (13.39%)
families rejected this idea. One (0.62%) family of ward number 46 did not respond to this
question. Almost 136 (85.53 %) families out of 159 consulted families take suggestions from all
their kids, while a meager 21 (13.39%) families do not consult any of their children before
buying anything. Among all the families consulted, two families of Ward number 46, said that
they primarily take suggestions of their eldest son in buying things in the family, while one
family of ward number 55, who has one girl and two boys in the age group of 13 to 15 years,
said that they take suggestions of all their children depending upon items they require, means
about female products, girl child is consulted while about male products boys are consulted. In
one completely different case of ward number 23, one family having one girl and one boy child
of the age group from 13 to 15 years, daughter’s choice is given first preference.
One more interesting fact emerged while analyzing this data that out of all 21 families
which said they do not listen to their children’s suggestions while purchasing things, have a
significant 13 (61.9%) families which have children in the age group of 5 to 7 years, who are too
young to suggest their parents.
While it was easy to answer all the families that whether they take suggestions from their
children in buying things, it seemed difficult for them to answer in purchasing which things they
take suggestions of their children or would like to take their suggestions, as the answers of these
questions were more scattered unlike the concrete answers received for the previous question.
The results of these questions are tabulated below:
Ward In purchasing which things you take suggestions of In purchasing which things you would like to take
No. your children suggestions from your children
Children’s Important Luxury items like Children’s Important Luxury items like car,
goods like electronic car, bike, mobile goods like electronic bike, mobile etc.
biscuits, items like etc. biscuits, items like (III)
chocolates, T.V., Fridge, (III) chocolates, T.V.,
health drinks, Computers health drinks, Fridge,
sports goods, etc. (II) sports goods, Computers
dresses etc. (I) dresses etc. (I) etc. (II)
I II III I+II I+III II+III I+II+III I II III I+II I+III II+III I+II+III
Ward 7 2 0 2 0 2 2 7 3 0 2 0 1 2
No. 1
Ward 11 1 0 5 0 4 2 11 2 1 4 0 3 2
No.
20
Ward 7 2 1 0 4 4 2 10 2 1 0 4 2 1
No.
23
Ward 4 0 0 1 0 0 1 4 0 0 1 0 0 1
No.
34
Ward 8 0 0 4 0 0 7 8 0 0 3 0 0 8
No.
41
Ward 6 0 0 3 0 0 7 3 1 1 5 0 0 4
No.
46
Ward 11 2 1 10 1 2 2 12 1 2 6 2 3 3
No.
55
Ward 16 0 0 7 0 0 5 16 0 0 7 0 0 5
No.
66
Total 70 7 2 32 5 12 28 71 9 5 28 6 9 26

% 44. 4.4 1.25 20.12 3.14 7.54 17.61 44. 5.6 3.14 17.61 3.77 5.66 16.35
02 65 6

Table II: A representation of choices of goods being purchased or wished to be purchased with
the suggestions of children in the randomly selected families.
According to the above depicted table, a majority of 70 families (44.02%) out of total 159
families of urban Jammu, take suggestions from their children only in buying children goods
like, biscuits, Chocolates, health drinks etc, while only seven (4.4%) take the suggestions of their
children in buying only important electronic items and only two (1.25%) of them consider their
children’s suggestions in buying only the luxury items like cars. Thirty-two families (20.12%)
take their children’s suggestions in buying both children goods and electronic items, while five
(3.14%) families asks from their children in buying both – children goods as well as luxury items
and 12 families (7.54%) takes children’s view in purchasing both electronic items as well as
luxury items. There are 28 families (17.61%) who consult their children before buying anything
whether it is children’s goods, electronic items or luxury items. Almost similar results have been
found in knowing their choice of goods; they wish to buy with the suggestions of their children.
A significant 71 families (44.65%) wish to buy only children goods with the choice of their
children, while only nine families (5.66%) want to consult their kids before buying only
electronic goods and a meager five families (3.14%) wish to consult their children in buying any
luxury item. In contrary, there are almost 28 families (17.61%) who would like to take
suggestions of their kids before buying both children’s goods and electronic items like mobile,
laptop etc. Six families (3.77%) wish to buy both children’s goods as well as luxury items with
the consent of their children and only nine families (5.66%) would like to buy electronic as well
as luxury items with the consent of their children while a significant 26 families (16.35%) out of
159 families wish to take the suggestions of their children in buying everything be it children’s
goods, electronic items or luxurious items.
It is clear from this data analysis that still most of the families (44.02%) prefer to take the
suggestions of their children in buying only children’s goods but there are significant number of
families who not only take suggestions of their children for buying things of their use but also
generously consult them in buying mobiles, laptops, bikes, cars, television etc.
In order to understand to what extent the parents consider that they should buy things
according to their children’s choice, some more questions were asked, like whether they prefer to
buy those things which are popular among children and whether they think that parents should
consult their children in buying expensinve things. The responses of these questions are tabulated
below:
Ward No. Do you prefer to buy those things Do you think, parents should consult their
which are more popular among your children while purchasing expensive
children things
Yes No Can’t say Yes No Can’t say
Ward No. 1 07 07 01 04 08 03
Ward No. 20 10 14 01 07 17 01
Ward No. 23 18 00 02 12 04 04
Ward No. 34 02 01 03 02 01 03
Ward No. 41 13 05 01 13 05 01
Ward No. 46 09 05 02 08 07 01
Ward No. 55 18 10 02 10 12 08
Ward No. 66 20 02 06 21 02 05
Total 97 (61%) 44 (27.67%) 18 (11.32%) 77 (48.42%) 56 (35.22%) 26 (16.35%)
Table III: A representation of the opinion of people about consulting their children while buying
goods

From the above table it is obvious that a good number of families (97 out of i59) have given
consent that they prefer to buy those things which are popular among their children, while almost
half of this number (47 out of 159) gave negative response to the question and almost 18 were
not decisive. This significant percentage (61%) of families, who prefer their children choice is an
important outcome of this study, which shows that parents are more dependent on their children
for purchasing decisions. Contrary to this significant result 77 out of 159 (48.42%) think that
parents should consult their children before buying expensive items, while close to this number
56 out of 159 (35.22%) think just opposite to it and a considerable number of parents are
indecisive (16.35%). This is quite contradictory that where 61% parents actually prefer the
choice of their children, almost 36% think that parents should not take their children’s
suggestions in buying things; still many of them are following their children’s choice. So, it was
imperative to know that what are the reasons due to which parents value their children’s
suggestions.
Some very interesting comments and facts emerged from this investigation. Most parents
of ward no. 1 think that their children are technically more sound and more informed, so their
suggestions are valuable in buying things. One parents comment that advertisements have raised
the demands of the children and parents are compelled to go by their choice. In ward no. 20,
apart from being more informed and technically more sound, some parents have also said that
children are important family members, so their choice is valuable. While one parent have said
that since those things are ultimately used by their children, so it’s better to buy things according
to their choice. Similar reasons were given by the families of ward no. 23, but some of the
parents admitted that due to advertisements, the demands for certain things among their children
has increased and now they want to buy branded luxurious items. Also they say that children are
so tech-friendly that they themselves order products online without consulting parents and
ultimately parents just have to pay only. There is no special comment in ward no. 34 and reasons
given are same. The families of ward no. 41, 46, 55, 66 have also given same reasons that their
children are more informed, more knowledgeable and important family members, so their
suggestions are very much valuable.

Conclusion:
This is quite evident from the above analysis that the urban population of Jammu depends
heavily on their children in every kind of purchase decision, whether it is of their use or not,
whether it is as small an item like health drink or as big an item like car. Parents think that their
children are more exposed to the advertisement world and also they are more informed through
social networking sites, more technically advanced, so it is imperative to take their suggestions in
each purchasing decision. This also implicates that Jammu has emerged as potentially very
fragile target for advertisers. There is no doubt that children are playing big role in purchasing
decisions of their parents here too like big metropolitan cities.

References:

AdRelevance Intelligence Report. The ABCs of Advertising to Kids Online. Nielsen/

NetRatings. AdRelevance; 2000. Retrieved from
http://adrelevance.com/intelligence/report14.pdf accessed on August 20, 2014 at 11:00 am.

Beder, S. 1998. Marketing to Children. ‘A Community View’, Caring for Children in the Media
Age, Papers from a national conference, edited by John Squires and Tracy Newlands, (pp.101-
111). New College Institute for Value Research, Sydney.

Bhattacharya, R. and Kohli, S. 2007. Target Marketing to Children – The Ethical Aspect.
International Marketing Conference on Marketing and Society, 8-10 April, IIMK.
Marwick, R. 2010. About Kids Health. Retrieved from
http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/en/news/newsandfeatures/pages/target-market-children-as-
consumers.aspx on August 21, 2014 at 12:30 pm.

McGee, T and Heubusch, K.1997. Getting Inside Kids’ Heads. American Demographics, Vol.
19, No.1.

Powell, S. and Zuel, B. 1993. Marketers’ influence over young challenged. Sydney Morning
Herald. September 3.

Wagner, B. 1995. Our class is brought to you today by…advertisers target a captive market:
school kids, Us News and World Report, Vol. 118, No. 16, p. 63. France.

Key Terms:
Target Audience A target audience is a specific group of people within the target marget at
which a product or the marketing message of a product is aimed at.

Advertisement It refers to any form of paid communication mediated through any one or
more mass media such as newspapers, television and radio

Advertiser A person, organization or company that place advertisements in order to

target customers.

Captive audience Cinema hall, conference hall or TV show audience which, due to their
particular situation, are willy-nilly exposed to a complete advertising
message.

Brand loyalties Brand loyalty is where a person buys products from the same
manufacturer repeatedly rather than from other suppliers.

Globalization Globalisation is the process of international integration arising from the

interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture.