Tarbijaks sotsialiseerumine: koolieelik ja supermarket
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Kuupäev
Autorid
Ajakirja pealkiri
Ajakirja ISSN
Köite pealkiri
Kirjastaja
Tartu Ülikool
Abstrakt
Kirjeldus
From socialising to consumer: supermarket and preschooler
There are many approaches to looking at children in today‟s consumer society. From one side, the representatives of liberals see children as independent and empowered consumers. From another side, the protectionists are feeling the need to protect children form consumer-society‟s influences.
Children themselves are participating in the consumerism first and foremost by going along with their parents. Parents are also the main agents for children‟s social behaviour, whose role model, behaviour, teachings and support impacts in addition to the general development also the child‟s development as a consumer. Several academics consider the pre-school age an important part in child‟s development of primary consumer skills (Tilston et al 1991).
The key purpose of this thesis is to map the consumer habits of preschoolers. The work aims at identifying of what is the preschoolers take on (1) the operation of shops, (2) shopping trips and (3) behaviour in the store. In order to provide a comprehensive view, the parent‟s view of preschoolers as consumers has also been looked at here.
In order to analyse the subject – 4 focus groups and group-interviews have been conducted with 4 -7 year old children from Tallinn, 9 in-debt interviews with the parents of same children, and 9 non-intrusive observations in stores with the same families. Qualitative internal analysis, primarily horizontal however including some vertical analysis, has been conducted in order to analyse the results of interviews and observations.
The results of the investigation show that preschool children are familiar with the operation of the shop and related shopping procedures primarily due to going along with their parents and form the teachings of their parents. They associate a shop mostly with food and call it a place for buying or selling food. Preschoolers are also aware of an appropriate behaviour in a shop and know that material or social sanctions may follow an inappropriate behaviour.
In the second interest area of shopping trips the following topics have been researched: what is the interest of preschoolers, and with whom, on which conditions, and where would they go?
Research indicates that preschoolers are very interested in shopping. The key reasons for shopping are a desire for new things as described in their own words (representing material interest), and interest in spending time with their parents as represented with their behaviour (representing social interest).
Parents are considering two aspects when considering bringing children along to shopping: first the limitation of time they would like to spend on shopping, as an activity of daily routine. Second, parents feel the social and protectionist aspect, according to which children need teachings and protection from the unpleasant.
Visits to the shops could be distinguished based on the attitude and opportunities of the parents as follows: (1) daily shopping trips with children that are primarily related to the infrastructure of Tallinn and its influences on family lifestyle, (2) daily shopping trips without children as a preferred option for parents in order to spare time as well as children from the experience, and (3) weekend shopping, which is seen as an opportunity to teach children about shopping behaviour in addition to satisfying the needs and hedonistic desires.
It was found that when on a way to shopping with children and children have voiced the desire to select a shop based on the existence of toys in it then parents will prefer to select a store that is on a way to home or in a proximity of home, in order to speed the process.
In analysing the process of shopping, four types of preschoolers‟ shopping behaviours could be identified: (1) an active purchaser, who participated in the thought process with parents throughout the whole trip; (2) a co-walker, who would rather stay close to parents than participate in the shopping process; (3) a curious wonderer, who was interested in independent research and product selection; and (4) an independent purchaser, who was ready to make sensible product selections independently. The last group consists, usually, however children of school-age.
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In product selection preschoolers prefer the familiar and tested products. The preferred categories of products are toys, juices and soft drinks, sweets, magazines and dairy products. From food products children prefer primarily sweet products, which in turn is causing stress in parents, who would rather prefer to buy healthy goods. Despite the receptiveness of preschoolers to advertising and other marketing strategies - brand awareness was identified only for „Limpa‟ soft drink and „Actimel‟s‟ drinking yoghurt, which were both supported by captivating campaigns at the time of the research.
During the research and analysis of the parent - child interaction in the shopping environment it was found that there is a strong correlation between children‟s expression of their wishes, parent‟s subsequent response and in the following reaction from children, in addition to the parents‟ teachings, explanations and discussions about the product selection.
The best tactic for granted children‟s wishes was the independent „filling of the trolley‟ by the child. A range of other emotionally expressive tactics came to play by children, had parents refused to grant the child‟s wish. These tactics ranged form creative offers for compromise to „screaming out loud‟.
Despite the potential tensions that could result form shopping with children, it proved to be not a significant concern for parents, who considered the „screaming scenes‟ to be a passing phase in child‟s development.
The study concludes that the key socialization agents in child‟s education and consumer behaviour development are the parents, who can best educate and raise children towards developing the skills for this everyday routine by shopping together with their children.
Märksõnad
magistritööd