Letters | Kids have great power, and advertisers great responsibility

Children’s power to influence purchasing decisions is considerable, especially in wealthier households or where parents try to compensate for absence
When focusing on children, marketers should avoid making misleading claims, exploiting children’s imagination and creating unrealistic expectations

Hong Kong youth

Letters

Published: 7:00am, 8 Jul 2021

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The ways different households approach consumption can vary, depending on the type of family and the dynamics of decision-making within it. In nuclear families with only a pair of adults and one or more children, the approach to consumption is often influenced by the youngsters.

Children have their own wants and needs, and that has an effect on consumption decisions within the family. Children have been known to play an important role within consumption decisions, particularly for products relevant to them, such as cereal, juice, soft drinks, clothing, mobile phones and video games, with older children wielding greater power.

For example, consider parents who are interested in buying a musical instrument to play in their leisure time and prefer a violin. The only child in this nuclear family says they want to play the piano. Subsequently, the parents will most likely purchase a piano to fulfil their want to own a musical instrument but also, and more importantly, resulting from the influence of their child.

This power of decision-making is targeted by advertisers and marketers. Children’s power to influence purchasing decisions among adults in the family is considerable, especially in higher-income households or where parents feel the need to compensate for being unable to spend enough time with them because of work or other reasons.

This phenomenon has sparked calls to ban advertisements targeted at children, which are seen as manipulating their innocence and immaturity. Some countries ban certain kinds of advertising from some time slots.

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While focusing on children’s wants and needs, marketers should avoid making misleading claims, exploiting children’s imagination and creating unrealistic expectations to attract purchases.

Advertisements should never encourage children to pressure their parents to buy products or lead children to feel that owning a product will induce acceptance by their peers. This is not an ethical way to promote your brand.

Jacky Wong, Kwun Tong

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