The effect of family communication structure on children’s influence strategies and parental responses in a purchasing context.
Loading...
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Children are seen to have increasing power over family decision making and are regarded as being
major participants in the consumer market and are an important target market. Not only do children
have more power over their own spending, but they also have a greater influence over their parents’
spending. At the same time, family structures have changed, and parents have become more lenient
with their children. Anitha and Mohan (2016) propose a conceptual model in which family
communication structures affect the influence strategies used by children, which in turn affect
parents’ responses.
This research aimed not only to determine the relationship between family communication
structures, children’s pestering, and parents’ responses, but also to test the model. A positivist
paradigm and quantitative research design was used. Data was collected using a structured
questionnaire. Using exponential snowball sampling, the sample consisted of 165 parents who
completed the child portion of the questionnaire separately for each child thus giving a total of 300
child questionnaires. Non-parametric testing was then used to analyze the data showing the impact
the various factors have on the final purchasing decision within a family household. Results were
presented in the form of graphs and tables for ease of understanding.
It was found that children exhibit low levels of both persuasive and emotional pestering, proving
the relationship that family communication structure affects the kinds of influence strategies that
children are likely to use. These family communication styles are associated with low levels of
both persuasive and emotional pestering. In this sample, a consensual family communication style
was most common, revealing that children belonging to consensual families use influencing
strategies to get what they want and parents belonging to this family style are more open to
accepting the views of their children.
It was found that most of the participants agree to their children’s requests. Parents tend to agree
more to food and snacks, clothes and shoes and grocery requests. As the most common pestering
form was persuasive and the common parental response to this influencing strategy was to accept
children’s requests, marketers should target both children and their parents in their communication
strategies. Encouraging and endorsing a consensual family communication style would also make
good business sense as children’s roles in family decision making are likely to be more accepted
in families with this family communication style.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.