2.6 Children Behavior

Children represent a large consumer power to marketers and advertisers. Firstly, because of the amount of money children spend themselves. Secondly, because of the influence they have on parents spending. Thirdly, because of their buying potential, so when they grow up they will become permanent consumers. The last reason is that they can easily be lured by advertisements. Buying and spending parents` money on sweets, food, drinks, video and electronic products, toys, games, movies, sports, clothes and shoes children bring big profits to companies. The reason for targeting advertising is huge income, brought to companies. According to Goodman (1999) children advertisement industry represents in more than $250 billion/year profits to marketers, and has approximately 900 000 brands to sell.

There is a method to advertising and the agencies have an understanding that children have a particular pattern for what is known as their peak viewing hours. Studies have shown that children have the tendency to watch television more often on Saturday mornings and evenings, as well as Sunday evenings. It was noted by Zimmerman and Bell (2010) that during the weekends, children were more likely to view unhealthy food commercials “every 5 minutes” (p. 4). So during these days, this would be the ideal time for advertisers to target kids.

Nowadays, as a teacher or parents managing young children’s behavior is extremely important in early childhood and in the preschool. What does the “managing” means? According to online Cambridge dictionary (n.d), managing means to be responsible for controlling or organizing someone or something. Managing young children’s behaviour is important as children do not just learn about behaviour from what we tell them, they will also learn about how to behave from watching what we do (Better Relationship, n.d.). Parents view managing young children’s behaviour as children should being good and avoid bad behaviour, follow their expectation, and building up good manners. Whereas, teachers view manging young children behaviour is guiding children to follow rules and regulations.

When it comes to advertising on the television makes children obsessed with wanting to eat fast food on a daily basis. According to the text, “product preferences affect children's product purchase requests and these requests influence parents' purchasing decisions”. This shows that by showing advertisements, the children are amused by how advertisements are, so the parents get convinced to buy their kids that fast food. Another example from the text is, “it’s not just that TV watching encourages youngsters to be less physically active, but it also exposes them to food advertisements that contribute to develop poor eating

We live in a world of advertising and consumerism. We cannot escape the fact that our world economies are dependent on sellers providing goods and services and the consumer purchasing them. Marketing is an endeavor undergone to benefit an organization and its stakeholders. Although as adults we understand the purpose of advertising is to influence our interest in a product, we can approach such marketing with a skeptical mind. We can be cynical of claims and the different techniques used to entice us. We understand that the advertiser’s ultimate goal is to convince us to purchase a product. What about children? Most people that have a child in their home know that the child as a “consumer” begins to take place at an alarmingly early age. Children are a lucrative consumer group but concerns have been raised recently about the effect of marketing on children due to the epidemic of childhood obesity. Research suggests that targeted advertising to children is unethical and should be greatly restricted because children have not developed the cognitive skills to understand the motives of advertisers, children are motivated to pressure parents into purchasing products, and advertisements promote products that have harmful effects on their health and well-being.

Businesses are creatively successful when designing a persuasive advertisement for increased profitability. The most popular ways of broadcasting a product are through radio, internet, billboards, newspapers, and television being the most effective. Many adults watch TV and they are usually the ones with the paycheck, so commercials are aimed toward them. On the other hand, it takes less than a strategic mind targeting children because they are fascinated by the simplest things. For years businesses have been perfecting commercials. Although marketing has had an impact on some adults, a more efficient route was discovered. That was by publicizing through the vulnerable minds of children.

Advertising has a negative effect on a child’s health. Approximately 20% of our youth in the United States of America are now overweight with obesity rates in preschool age children increasing at an alarming speed. The issue of childhood obesity is a serious one. Obesity rates have tripled in the last twenty-five years. As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled among children between the ages of two to five and ages six to eleven. In teens ages twelve to nineteen, prevalence rates have tripled. Obesity in childhood places children and youth at risk for becoming obese as adults and associated poor health such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain kinds of cancer. Research has found strong associations between increases in advertising for non-nutritious foods and rates of childhood obesity. Most children under the age of six can’t distinguish the difference between regular programming and advertising. Children under the age of eight don’t understand the persuasive intentions of advertising. (The impact of food Advertising on Childhood Obesity) Food marketing is among the postulated contributors to the rise in obesity rates. Food marketing to

Children are a lucrative market: "...children 12 and under spend more than $11 billion of their own money and influence family spending decisions worth another $165 billion"[14], but are not capable of resisting or understanding marketing tactics at younger ages ("children don't understand persuasive intent until they are eight or nine years old"[15]). At older ages competitive feelings towards other children are stronger than financial sense. The practice of extending children's marketing from television to the schoolground is also controversial (see marketing in schools). The following is a select list of online articles:

The direct effect that consumerism has on children is still unknown. There are many studies about how to make effective ads but not a single study addressing ads' impact on children. Research shows that children under the age of eight are unable to critically comprehend televised advertising messages and are prone to accept advertiser messages as truthful, accurate and unbiased. This can lead to unhealthy eating habits as evidenced by today’s youth obesity epidemic. The most common products marketed to children are sugared cereals, candies, sweets, sodas and snack foods. Such advertising of unhealthy food products to young children contributes to poor nutritional habits that may last a lifetime and contributes to the current epidemic of obesity among kids. Older children and adults understand the inherent bias of advertising; younger children do not, and therefore tend to interpret commercial claims and appeals as accurate and truthful information. They are easy targets for commercial persuasion. In

The Internet as the main provider of information and entertainment in children nowadays is significantly linked to advertising and its trends throughout the media that are directly affecting children’s behavior and development. The digital world has provoked a great transformation in advertising and its effects in social behavior. Brands are constantly renovating, and the Internet has made it accessible for them to spread their messages as a brand and impact children especifically the ages between 6 to 14 years old. The main objective of this paper is to inquire and investigate the behavior of children in society nowadays, and their responses in an environment massively changed by digital era and its trends. The results will be able to identify how gradually individuals have been affected by the excessive exposure to advertising and media.

According to outlets such as Media Smarts, “Parents today are willing to buy more for their kids because trends such as smaller family size, dual incomes and postponing having children until later in life mean that families have more disposable income.” Being so, this allows children to have access to more devices in which they can watch TV wherever they go. Parents who have a higher income, and can afford to buy their children TV’s for their bedrooms and smartphones for daily use, they do it because they want to compensate for the time they do not spend with their children. Also according to Media Smart, “Today’s kids have more autonomy and decision-making power within the family than in previous generations, so it follows that kids are vocal about what they want their parents to buy.” One resulting cause can be that parents buy materialistic items because they are guilty that they can not afford to spend quality time with their children. Therefore, as a result children spend more hours inside watching TV instead of doing any other social activity. Additionally, more time spent watching TV means the more advertisements children are exposed to per day. Also with the usage of smartphones, children have access to the internet which collect information from recent searches and then presents children with personalized advertising.Therefore causing children to be influenced by these advertisements.

In 1991, Sweden banned all the advertisements in children prime hours after research established that children below the age of nine were incapable of differentiating commercial ads and programs and could not comprehend the purpose of marketing until the age of 12 years. Research from American Psychological Association (APA) indicates that children under the age of eight cannot comprehend televised advertised messages and readily accept the advertiser’s message as truthful and accurate. This leads to unhealthy feeding habits as proved by the increased cases of obesity. This paper will critically analyze the current marketing situation and its impact on the children.

Parents argue that school should be a place to learn free from psychological manipulation and pressure of advertising (Moran, 2006). Some say that children are too heavily exposed to advertising of food high in saturated fat, salt and/or sugar and can lead to unhealthy eating habits (Matthews et al, 2005). The Guardian (2006) reported that 25% of children in secondary schools in England are obese. However, many companies argue that there is no correlation between children’ obesity increase and the influence of advertisements. Furthermore, some researchers argue that advertising is a societal phenomenon that shapes our lives . Hence, it is important that children experience it so they can fully engage in society (Queen, 2002). Additionally, advertising plays a part in the child 's development process by equipping children with the necessary knowledge and skills to act as responsible consumers in later life (Wfanet.org, 2015).Some argue that advertising is not the only influence for children: friends, family and school play a major role and give them a broad view of the world. Lastly,In an economic perspective, forbidding advertising to children would be an obstacle for new companies to compete with the already well-known ones.

The questionnaire was ad mistered to three selected families who were enrolled in a Head Start Program. To achieve the goal of the study we involved the parents to participate in as the main respondents, to adhere by ethics of survey an invitation letter was sent to five parents, from this we selected the three. The parent’s role was to record the observations of their children behavior as stipulated in the questionnaire, forming a fundamental basis of information gathering for this education class.

This study plans to assess the paradigmatic shift and impact of advertising in consumer behaviour pattern and behaviour in life of a child from aged 7-15 from the capital city of Delhi, India. Though advertising is a vital tool to generate consumption and drive the economic growth in India but excess exploitation of underage children through advertisements can bear serious repercussions. Although there are always two sides of the coin in some ways advertisements always enhance children’s knowledge and understanding. The aim of the study is to determine the characteristics of the perception and attitudes of children towards television advertisements, the nature and extent of its impact on children.