1. INTRODUCTION:

The purpose of the study is to understand the level of influence of Pester Power on the purchase decisions of food products by the parents in a convenience store environment. This study is important, as marketers should be aware of how best they can exploit the factors leading to Pester Power, eventually facilitating the decision of purchase in their favor. The study was conducted in Bengaluru, a silicon city in India. The marketer will get insight on the children influence on family purchase decision for various product categories. It will help marketer to design the strategy to market their goods and services to tap the market more efficiently. Pester power marketing is unique because the marketing targets children, but the ultimate purchasers of the products are adult parents or caregivers.

Pester power marketing targets children who, unable to purchase products for themselves, nag, pester and beleaguer their parents into purchasing unhealthy food products for them. In 2004, it was estimated that children between the ages of four and twelve directly influenced $330 billion of adult purchasing. Kids have a firmer grip over the society than what their parents ever had. Not only are they consumers in their own right, they also have a major influence over the family’s purchasing power. "Kidfluence" is the direct or indirect influence kids have over family household purchases. Indirect influence means that the kids’ are given preference and consideration when parents make a purchase decision (Schor, 2008).

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

There are two kinds of influence that children exert; active and passive influence. Children exert influence in all decision stages in the family decision process but most on initiation and choice, which supports previous studies. The research also supports previous findings concerning the fact that children’s influence varies across decision areas in the decision process. The study contributes new insight about these decision areas: children have most influence on small and easy prepared meals, food that is easy to prepare, unhealthy food (e.g. sweets) compared to healthy products (e.g. fruit, vegetables and fish), and as regards healthy food, fruit more than vegetables. The study also contributes new insight about children’s participation and help carrying out various tasks. The results show that children mainly participate and help with practical and supportive tasks and tasks that are not labour intensive. (Maria Kumpel Norgaard, 2007). It was noticed that children had different impact on purchase of selected products. Women perceived that their children had more impact on the selection of Lays. The influence of child on parents buying decisions is dependent on some demographic characteristics of children mothers and families. Girls have significantly more impact on parent’s decision making related to imported chocolates and branded juice. As the children grow older, their impact on parent’s selection of various items increases. At last the families monthly income was also seen to have an impact on parent’s product selection. It was seen that mother belonging to families with higher income pay a lesser extent of attention to the price of the products and involve the children on such type of product (Akhter Ali and Batra, 2011).

The several factors affect children’s purchase requests and their parents’ subsequent purchases. It was found that factors influencing the number of children’s purchase requests were the freedom of a child’s movements, the product’s visibility, and the child’s developmental stage. The latter variable together with the suitability of the good for consumption on the premises, the linguistic form of child’s request, the parent’s household income, and the price of the good determine the number of purchases following a child’s request (Claus Ebster, 2009). Children play an important role in influencing their family purchase decision-making process. To critically evaluate all the factors that influence children’s influence in family decision-making in India which has always preserved its cultural values but still its culture has undergone metamorphosis resulting into change in family structure, increase in number of working couples, delegation of authority, etc. (Akhter Ali and Batra, 2011). Packaging and colors plays an important role to attract attention of children and acceptance of children demand by parent, spending more time, and costs for it and deployment various specialists in path of designing, various packages and more appropriate could be particular importance. Children like cartoon characters and images and want always them and children like mostly packages that have unique color and distinct from other goods. According to the place of game and entertainment in shop has a positive influence on children's attention then it more important in shops. Use of the tools such as giving gifts to children has influence in their loyalty. (Hossein Ganjinia, 2013).

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Research design used for this study is descriptive research. Descriptive statistics tell what is, while inferential statistics try to determine cause and effect. Descriptive research can be either quantitative or qualitative. The data was analyzed using Cross-Tabs, Chi-Square tests and frequency table/graphs. Questionnaire was used to collect the data and the population under consideration is people shopping in Bengaluru. Respondents were selected from the convenience stores within Bengaluru. Sample size of about 160 respondents was taken for this study and the respondents being parents of kids between the ages of 3 to 12 years. Random Sampling method was adopted for this study. There are three types’ distinct product clusters: ‘‘loud’’, ‘‘noisy’’ and ‘‘quiet’’ goods. Children’s influence was found to be highest for noisy goods, lesser for loud goods and lowest for quiet goods. It was found that for loud and noisy goods children’s influence was highest in the initiation stage, and lowest in the search stage. For quiet goods, the highest influence was in the final decision stage followed by initiation and choice stage. The study was based on an extensive literature review and focus group discussions. Using a structured questionnaire, a survey was conducted with children aged 8-12 years. The sample size was 175. The identified product clusters and children’s relative influence across the buying stages for these clusters are expected to enhance marketer’s understanding of children’s role in family decision-making. Marketers should consider these observations while designing and implementing their marketing strategies (Gupta, 2012).

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1. Which product attributes triggers pester power the most?

2. Which product categories exhibited more pester power?

3. What role does advertisements play in fostering pesters power?

3.2 HYPOTHESES:

1. H₀: No significant relationship between frequency of shopping by the family and fulfilling child’s request of food products in order to stop crying

H₁: Significant relationship between frequency of shopping by the family and fulfilling child’s request of food products in order to stop crying

2. H₀: No significant relationship between favourite time slot of watching TV and persuasion of child to buy a product.

H₁: Significant relationship between favourite time slot of watching TV and persuasion of child to buy a product

3. H₀: No significant relationship between time spent with child and rewarding child with their desired food products

H₁: Significant relationship between time spent with child and rewarding child with their desired food products

4. OBJECTIVE:

To understand the influence of Pester Power and advertisements on the purchase decisions of food products in a convenience store environment.

5. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

5.1. Age of the Respondents:

Age of the respondents was collected as a part of the demographic component to understand the age brackets of our target audience.

Table 5.1: Age of the Respondent

Age of Respondents (In Years)	Frequency	Percentage
Under 30	48	30.8
30 to 40	71	45.5
40 to 50	32	20.5
Above 50	5	3.2
Total	156	100

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

The above frequency table clearly shows that the age of the respondents for our study are maximum in the age bracket of 30 to 40 years 45.5% of respondents falling under this category, followed by respondents under 30 years of age, with 30.8%. There are 20.5% respondents between the age group to 40 to 50 years and 3.2 % above 50 years. Therefore, it can be inferred that most of the respondents in the sample are either young or middle aged.

5.2. Number of Kids:

Number of the kids of the respondent was collected as a part of the demographic component to better understand the influence of number of kids on the parents purchase decision.

Table 5.2: Number of Kids the Respondent has

Number of Kids	Frequency	Percentage
1	95	60.9
2	56	35.9
3	5	3.2
4 or more	0	0.0
Total	156	100

Source: Primary Data -SPSS

The above frequency table clearly shows that majority of the respondents (about 61%) have only one child while about 35.9% of the respondents have two children. 3.2% of the respondents have three children and none of the respondent had four or more children.

5.3. Age of the Child:

Age of the child of the respondent was captured to know how age effects pester power. As an assumption for the paper, if there are more than one child of a respondent, age of the younger child was captured in the questionnaire.

Table 5.3: Age of the Respondent’s child

Age of Child (in Years)	Frequency	Percentage
Less than 5	69	44.2
6 to 8	63	40.4
9 to 11	16	10.3
12 or more	8	5.1
Total	156	100

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

From the above frequency table we can observe that most of the respondents have kids who are aged less than 5 years, with 44.2%, followed by those who fall under the age bracket of 6 to 8 years, with 40.4%. There are also respondents whose kids are aged between 9 to 11 years and 12 years and above, but the numbers are less, being only 10.3% and 5.1% respectively. This is also because even if there have more than one child in the family, age of the younger child is considered for the study.

5.4. Frequency of Shopping:

Next variable for the study is to analyze the frequency of shopping at physical store by the parents. This is an important factor because in the emerging trend of online shopping and lack of time with parents, the children’s pester power would be most prominently exhibited inside the store.

Table 5.4: Frequency Table representing the frequency of the respondent to go shopping with children

Frequency of shopping	Frequency	Percentage
Once in a week	35	22.4
Once in a fortnight	43	27.6
Once in a month	73	46.8
Rarely	5	3.2
Total	156	100

Source: Primary Data -SPSS

The above frequency table clearly shows that majority of the respondents with a percentage of 46.8%, go out shopping with children once in a month most probably because they want to buy monthly grocery items in one go, 27.6% of the respondents go out once in a fortnight. There are others who go out once in a week, who account of a little less than a quarter of the respondents. Only 3.2% of the respondents said that they rarely go on shopping with their kids. Therefore, it is a favorable situation for marketers who are targeting kids to influence their parent’s purchase decision, as the kids are quite frequent in accompanying their parents for shopping.

5.5. Hours Spent with Child:

Hours spent by the respondent with his/her children in a day was captured to know how much time do children spend with their parents in a day

Table 5.5: Frequency Table representing the frequency of hours spent by the respondent with child in a day

Hours spent with child	Frequency	Percentage
Less than 4	78	50.0
4 to 8	53	34.0
8 to 12	10	6.4
More than 12	15	9.6
Total	156	100

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

The above frequency table shows exactly half of the respondents spend less than 4 hours in a day with their kids. Hence, it shows that the parents have lesser time with kids and therefore like to take them for shopping to make up for the time lost and may be prone to agreeing to the kid’s wishes. About one third of the parents spend 4 to 8 hours in a day with their kids. 6.4% of the parents spend 8 to 12 hours in a day with their kids while 9.6% of the parents spend more than 12 hours in a day with their kids. The latter two being a majority of homemakers who tend to spend a lot of time with their children while the former two categories majorly include working class and business professionals.

5.6. Significance of Product Attributes:

Significance of product attributes in influencing kids to demand a product signifies its importance to advertising and marketing campaigns.

Table 5.6: Product Attributes influencing pester power

Product Attributes	Mean	Standard deviation
Freebies accompanied by the product	4.47	0.71
Cartoon characters on the packaging of the product	4.47	0.69
Color of the product	4.46	0.82
Taste of the product	4.38	0.87
Packaging of the product	4.25	0.85
Ad of the product	3.95	1.18
Product Type	3.68	1.12
Association of the product with fun and joy	3.63	1.15
Celebrity endorsing the product	3.62	6.81
Familiarity of the products among the kids	3.47	0.95
Frequency of usage of the product by kids	3.07	0.98

Source: Primary Data- SPSS

Based on the responses on a 5 point Likert scale, ‘Freebies accompanied by the product’, ‘Cartoon characters on the packaging of the product’, ‘Color of the product’, ‘Taste of the product’, ‘Packaging of the product’ are the most important attributes of the product that influence the kids to demand a product as per the parents. Factors like ‘frequency of usage of the product by other kids’ and surprisingly ‘celebrity endorsement’ too loom as not so important attributes of the product in influencing the kids according to parents. The above analysis shows that the easiest way to lure a child is to give him/her a free gift with a product. These days, there have been a lot of products that come with a free gift. Product like Kinder Joy gives a free small toy with the products while others give tattoo or recreational toys as a freebie.

McDonalds have played this art to perfection with the success of ‘Happy Meal’ which gives a free toy with every purchase. McDonald’s Happy Meal toys are an example of a pester power premium used by the quick service restaurant industry.

In the 1990s, McDonald’s reported distributing five hundred million toys a year, or about 20 percent of the total annual toy sales in the country at that time. McDonald’s first researches trends in children’s entertainment and develops Happy Meal promotions to coincide with these trends. Virtually all Happy Meal Toys involve pre-existing characters, e.g., a character from a motion picture showing in movie theaters contemporaneously with that Happy Meal promotion. Advertisement of the product on television and celebrity endorsement did not emerged to be one of the top factors that influence pester power, but they are moderately important. In adults, the factor of advertisement would be significant, but the kids do not know of intricacies of the advertisement and too naïve, thus advertisement takes a back seat to lure kids.

5.7 Number of Hours Child watches TV on a Day:

Hours spent by the child of the respondent in watching TV was captured to know if television and Ads have influence on children’s pester power.

Table 5.7: Frequency Table representing the frequency of hours per day spent by the child on watching TV

Number of hours child watch TV in a day	Frequency	Percentage
Less than 1 hour	44	28.2
1 to 3 hours	87	55.8
3 to 5 hours	25	16.0
More than 5 hours	0	0.0
Total	156	100

Source: Primary Data -SPSS

The above frequency table shows that the children of most of the respondents watch TV for around 1 to 3 hours per day with a percentage of 55.8%. About 28% of the respondents feel that their kids watch TV less than 1 hour in a day while only 16% think that children watch TV 3 to 5 hours in a day. Surprisingly, there were no respondents whose children were watching TV for more than 5 hours a day. Therefore, it shows that the kids spend a considerable amount of time watching TV and therefore may be exposed to several products, brands and their advertisements.

5.8. Favorite time lot:

The respondents were asked about their favorite time slot of watching television and the responses are summarized below:

Table 5.8: The Favorite Time Slot for watching TV

Favourite Time Slot	Frequency	Percentage
12:00 to 15:00	3	1.9
15:00 to 17:00	10	6.4
17:00 to 19:00	52	33.3
19:00 to 22:00	91	58.3
Total	156	100

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

Graph 5.2: Graph showing the Favorite Time Slot for watching TV

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

The frequency table and bar graph shows that children of more than half of the respondents watch TV in the time slot of 7PM till 10PM. This is perhaps because children watch television with their parents, and by that time of the day, they are free from doing homework, playing, tuitions and other activities scheduled for the day. One third of the respondents have said that their child’s favorite time slot of watching TV is 5PM to 7PM while about 6% of them think that their child’s favorite time slot of watching TV is 3PM to 5PM. Only 1.9% think that their child’s favorite time slot of watching TV is 12 noon to 3PM because of the fact that at that time of the day, most children are at school or they tend to take rest/do homework after returning from the school.

5.9. Level of Influence in Different Food Categories:

The level of influence of kids in parents’ purchase decisions in different product categories shows which food category and what is the level of influence of pester power.

Table 5.9: Categories of products arranged in descending order based on pester power

Food Category	Mean	Standard deviation
Chocolates	4.85	0.36
Chips	4.51	0.64
Cakes	4.49	0.78
Ice Creams	4.44	0.72
Biscuits	4.30	0.86
Candies	4.28	0.96
Noodles	4.02	1.02
Soft Drinks	3.95	1.05
Sweets	3.77	1.08
Wafers	3.65	1.28
Canned foods	3.18	1.07
Ketchup	2.30	1.18
Bread	2.21	0.91
Soup	2.18	1.13
Chewing Gum	2.10	1.31
Cheese and Butter	1.95	1.34
Health Drinks	1.92	1.01
Breakfast Cereals	1.90	1.10
Packaged Milk	1.55	0.79

Source: Primary Data -SPSS

The pester power is comparatively higher in the chocolates, cakes and chips. However, it seems abysmally low in categories such as health drinks, breakfast cereals and packaged milk.

From a marketer’s perspective if marketing campaigns target kids for the categories of products, then this result would not be great for them. Apparently, parents are not highly influenced by kids in the aforementioned categories of the products. Whereas, on the upper end of the table, the marketers in those categories of products like chocolates, cakes and chips should try to influence kids through their campaigns. The below three tables and graphs will show the likeliness of the top three categories of products viz. chocolates, cakes and chips for each of the age group of the students.

Table 5.9.1: Preference of Chocolates by children of different age groups

Chocolates
		Preferred	Most preferred
Age of Child (in Years)	Less than 5	11	58
	6 to 8	10	52
	9 to 11	0	16
	12 or more	2	6
Total		23	132

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

Graph 5.4: Bar graph for Preference of Chocolates by children of different age groups

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

Children of all 155 respondents prefer chocolates and there wasn’t even a single response captured which said that his/her child does not like chocolates. Although that looks surprising, but that assures a good business to chocolate manufacturers like Cadbury’s and nestle. Chocolates are most preferred by children less than 5 years of age.

Table 5.9.2: Preference of chips by children of different age groups

Chips
		Neutral	preferred	Most preferred
Age of Child (in Years)	Less than 5	3	28	38
	6 to 8	6	13	43
	9 to 11	3	6	7
	12 or more	0	5	3
Total		12	52	91

Source: Primary Data -SPSS

Graph 5.5: Bar graph for Preference of chips by children of different age groups

Source: Primary Data -SPSS

The food category Chips is the second most preferred food category of children. This is substantiated by the fact that there are some neutral responses to the food category of chips which would have pushed it to number 2 in the list of most preferred products. From the graph, it is clearly seen that children of the age group 6 to 8 years prefer chips the most. Children below the age of 5 also like chips but not to the extent of their elder counterparts.

Graph 5.6: Bar graph for Preference of cakes by children of different age groups

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

Table 5.9.3: Preference of cakes by children of different age groups

Cakes
		Less preferred	Neutral	Preferred	Most preferred
Age of Child (in Years)	Less than 5	2	5	14	48
	6 to 8	4	2	22	34
	9 to 11	0	2	4	10
	12 or more	0	0	3	5
Total		6	9	43	97

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

The food category Cakes is the third most preferred food category among children. This is substantiated by the fact that there are some neutral as well as Less Preferred responses to the food category of cakes, which would have pushed it to number 3 in the list of most preferred products. Cakes are most preferred by children of age group less than 5 years and is less preferred by children of age group 6 to 8 years.

5.10. Situations Faced by Parents While Shopping with Children:

Several situations were analyzed to study the relationship between kids and parents during shopping in a convenient store which helped to understand the traits of kids while they accompany their parents for shopping.

Table 5.10: Situations identified between a child and its parent while shopping at a convenience store

Situation	Mean	Standard deviation
My child likes to come along with me while shopping	4.88	0.32
My child has to persuade me to buy a product	4.53	0.71
In order to stop their crying, I let my child have what they are demanding	4.37	0.95
My child wants to buy a certain product because their friends have it	4.34	0.75
My kids mostly asks for products which they have seen in TV ads with cartoon character	4.29	0.97
I reward my kid with their desired food products	3.95	0.95
My child wants whichever product looks attractive to him/her	3.94	0.96
My decision is the final during the purchase	3.90	1.08
My child can name almost all the brands that he/she uses frequently	3.73	1.12
My child runs to his/her favourite spot inside the store	3.60	1.37
My child settles for less than what he/she has demanded	1.41	0.67

Source: Primary Data -SPSS

It was observed that there are several situations during a shopping experience that influences or acts positively for pester power and finally impacts the purchase decision of parents. It is seen that most of the kids accompany their parents for shopping and thus, exert pester power to purchase a product.

The top three results from this question are:

1. My child likes to come along with me while shopping

2. My child has to persuade me to buy a product

3. In order to stop their crying, I let my child have what they are demanding

While the latter seems obvious, children are generally adamant on their demands as their minds are not fully developed or matured. The former situation: To run to his/her favorite spot is also not very commonly observed scenario during shopping most probably because of the fact that children would want to remain with their parents in order to persuade them to buy a product.

5.11. Chi-Square Tests to Check Relationship between Variables:

As most of the children accompany their parents for shopping, they have to persuade their parents to buy the product they would like to consume. It is seen that in the sample size described pester power has a very significant effect where the child usually nags and cries for the product they have demanded for and most of the parents succumb to their demands and let them consume what they are demanding. On the contrary, the below situations are very less prevalent during a shopping experience:

1. My child runs to his/her favorite spot inside the store

2. My child settles for less than what he/she has demanded

The cross-tabulation analysis is also known as the contingency table analysis. This is a statistical tool that is used for analyzing categorical (nominal-scale of measurement) data. A cross-tabulation is a two or multiple dimension table, which displays the frequency of the respondents corresponding to the characteristics that are described in cells of the table. This tool provides for a wealth of information in regards to the relationships between several variables.

5.11Frequency of shopping vs. likeliness of the child to come for shopping:

Chi-Square test was done to find out the relationship between two nominal variables i.e. ‘Frequency of shopping’ and ‘My child likes to come along with me while shopping’

Table 5.11: Relationship between the frequency of shopping vs. likeliness of the child to come for shopping

	Value	df	Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square	17.132^a	3	0.001
Likelihood Ratio	19.111	3	0.000
Linear-by-Linear Association	0.025214	1	0.874
N of Valid Cases	155

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

From the top row of the above table, Pearson Chi-Square statistic = 17.132, and p=0.001 which is less than 0.05, thus we can say that there is a significant relationship between the frequency of shopping by the family and likeliness of the child to come along with parents while shopping. That means almost every time, the child wants to accompany parents on shopping.

5.11.1 Frequency of Shopping Vs Peer Influence for Buying:

Chi-Square test was done to find out the relationship between two nominal variables i.e. ‘Frequency of shopping’ and ‘My child wants to buy a certain product because their friends have it’

Table 5.11.1: Relationship between frequency of shopping vs. peer influence for buying

	Value	df	Asymp. Sig. (2-ided)
Pearson Chi-Square	24.985^a	9
Likelihood Ratio	31.29117	9	0.000264
Linear-by-Linear Association	2.185271	1	0.139337
N of Valid Cases	155

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

From the top row of the above table, Pearson Chi-Square statistic = 24.985, and p=0.000 which is less than 0.05. Thus, we can say that there is a significant relationship between the frequency of shopping by family and the child wants to buy a certain product because their friends have it because the more frequent the child accompanies their parents to shopping, the more he/she will tend to give an excuse of their friends using the same product.

5.11.2: Frequency of shopping vs. fulfilling child’s request in order to stop crying:

Chi-Square test was done to find out the relationship between two nominal variables i.e. ‘Frequency of shopping’ and ‘In order to stop their crying, I let my child have what they are demanding for’

Table 5.11.2: Relationship between the frequency of shopping and fulfilling child’s request in order to stop crying

	Value	df	Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square	25.419^a	9	0.002541
Likelihood Ratio	29.84073	9	0.000467
Linear-by-Linear Association	1.776822	1	0.18254
No. of Valid Cases	155

Source: Primary Data -SPSS

From the top row of the above table, Pearson Chi-Square statistic = 25.419, and p=0.002 which is less than 0.05. Thus, we can say that there is a significant relationship between the frequency of shopping and the probability of parents fulfilling their child’s request of food products in order to stop crying. Hence we reject null hypothesis and accept alternate hypothesis. This is because the parents would not like to face embarrassment at the shopping store by letting their child cry and grab attention in the public.

5.11.3: Favorite Time Slot of watching TV vs. persuasion of child to buy a product:

Table 5.11.3: Relationship between the Favorite Time Slot of watching TV vs. persuasion of child to buy a product

	Value	df	Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square	16.089a	9	0.065055
Likelihood Ratio	18.46276	9	0.030169
Linear-by-Linear Association	5.247654	1	0.021976
N of Valid Cases	155

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

From the top row of the above table, Pearson Chi-Square statistic = 16.089, and p=0.065 which is greater than 0.05, thus we can say that there is no significant relationship between the favorite Time Slot of watching TV and the persuasion of the child has to buy a product. Hence, we accept null hypothesis and reject alternate hypothesis. In other words, when a child persuades his/her parents to buy a product, it is independent of the fact that at what time the child watches television.

5.11.4 Number of hours child watching television and asking for products which they have seen in TV ads

From row of the above table, Pearson Chi-Square statistic = 25.108, and p=0.001 which is less than 0.05, thus we can say that there is a significant relationship between the number of hours child watching television and asking for products which they have seen in TV ads. In other words, the longer the child is prone to watching television, the more would they pester for products they have seen in the TV ads.

Table 5.11.4: Relationship between the Number of hours child watching television and asking for products which they have seen in TV ads

	Value	df	Asymp. Sig. (2-ided)
Pearson Chi-Square	25.108^a	8	0.00149
Likelihood Ratio	26.49531	8	0.000864
Linear-by-Linear Association	1.763841	1	0.184146
N of Valid Cases	155

Source: Primary Data -SPSS

5.11.5 Time spent with child vs. rewarding child with their desired food products

Table 5.11.5: Relationship between the time spent with child vs. rewarding child with their desired food products

	Value	df	Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square	38.049^a	9	0.000
Likelihood Ratio	37.14483	9	0.000
Linear-by-Linear Association	6.91987	1	0.009
N of Valid Cases	155

Source: Primary Data –SPSS

From the top row of the above table, Pearson Chi-Square statistic = 38.049.20, and p=0.000 which is less than 0.05, thus we can say that there is a significant relationship between the time spent with child vs. rewarding child with their desired food products. Hence we reject null hypothesis and accept alternate hypothesis. That means, in order to compensate less time spent with the child, most parents tend to give the products that their child likes.

6. FINDINGS:

The study has demonstrated various demographic profiles that have effect of pester power and the impact on purchase decision of food products on the parents. It has also shown the product attributes that influences pester power the most and the product categories in which pester power affects the most. Majority of the respondents fall in the age bracket of 30 to 40 years (45.5% of respondents falling under this category), followed by respondents under 30 years of age, with 30.8%. Therefore, it can be inferred that most of the respondents in the sample are either young or middle aged. Most of the respondents have kids who are aged less than 5 years, with 44.2%, followed by those who fall under the age bracket of 6 to 8 years, with 40.4%. This is also because even if there are more than child is in the family, age of the younger child is considered for the study. Majority of the respondents (46.8%), go out shopping with children once in a month most probably because they want to buy monthly grocery items in one go, 27.6% of the respondents go out once in a fortnight. Very few go out for shopping rarely, most probably due to the emergence of food and grocery delivery apps that are available abundantly and are considered as time-saver. Exactly half of the respondents spend less than 4 hours in a day with their kids. Hence, it shows that the parents have lesser time with kids and therefore like to take them for shopping to make up for the time lost and may be prone to agreeing to the kid’s wishes. About one third of the parents spend 4 to 8 hours in a day with their kids. These majorly include working class and business professionals. To answer the research questions that pertains to the product attributes that can trigger pester power from the study, it is observed that ‘Freebies accompanied by the product’, ‘Cartoon characters on the packaging of the product’, ‘Color of the product’, ‘Taste of the product’, ‘Packaging of the product’ are the most important attributes of the product that influence the kids to demand a product as per the parents. Factors like ‘frequency of usage of the product by other kids’ and surprisingly ‘celebrity endorsement’ too loom as not so important attributes of the product in influencing the kids according to parents. The above analysis shows that the easiest way to lure a child is to give him/her a free gift with a product. The children of most of the respondents watch TV for around 1 to 3 hours per day with a percentage of 55.8%. Therefore, it shows that the kids spend a considerable amount of time watching TV and therefore may be exposed to several products, brands and their advertisements. Children of more than half of the respondents watch TV in the time slot of 7PM until 10PM. This is perhaps because children watch television with their parents, and by that time of the day, they are free from doing homework, playing, tuitions and other activities scheduled for the day. From the study it has been found that, the pester power seems comparatively high in the chocolates, cakes and chips, categories of products. Children of all 155 respondents prefer chocolates and there was not even a single response captured which said that his/her child does not like chocolates. The food category Chips is the second most preferred food category of children. This is substantiated by the fact that there are some neutral responses to the food category of chips. The food category Cakes is the third most preferred food category among children. Cakes are most preferred by children of age group less than 5 years.

Advertisement of the product on television and celebrity endorsement did not emerged to be one of the top factors that influence pester power, but they are moderately important. In adults, the factor of advertisement would be significant, but the kids do not know of intricacies of the advertisement and too naïve, thus advertisement takes a back seat to lure kids.

The top three situations faced by the parents are:

1. My child likes to come along with me while shopping

2. My child has to persuade me to buy a product

3. In order to stop their crying, I let my child have what they are demanding for

From the chi square analysis, we accept the alternate hypothesis and thus we can say that ‘there is a significant relationship between the frequency of shopping and the probability of parents fulfilling their child’s request of food products in order to stop crying’. This is because the parents would not like to face embarrassment at the shopping store by letting their child cry and grab attention in the public. From the chi square analysis, we accept the null hypothesis and thus we can say that,’ when a child persuades his/her parents to buy a product, it is independent of the fact that at what time the child watches television’. The longer the child is prone to watching television, the more would they pester for products they have seen in the TV ads. From the chi square analysis, we accept the alternate hypothesis and thus we can say that, ‘in order to compensate less time spent with the child, most parents tend to give the products that their child likes.’

7. RECOMMENDATIONS:

There are several marketing recommendations that could be determined after the study. In order to combat increasing trend of online shopping of food and grocery products, the retailers should try to keep the footfall in the store coming, as these alternate channels are a competition to retail stores. Companies can include cartoon characters in the packaging, use bright colors in the packaging and the posters to associate the product with fun and joy, freebies could be given along with the products to drive kids to pester their parents to buy the products and should conduct an in-depth research on what kind of taste do kids like. (Ganjinia, Gilaninia, and Maleknejad, 2013). Marketers can also adapt promotional campaigns that focus on kids and appeal to such audience with vibrant themes. (Gupta, Children’s influence in family buying, 2012). Lastly, marketers should target kids as audience in categories like chocolates, chips and cakes, which have shown a significant influence on pester power in the above study.

8. CONCLUSION:

From the study it has been seen that the product attributes that can trigger pester power, are ‘Freebies accompanied by the product’, ‘Cartoon characters on the packaging of the product’, ‘Color of the product’, ‘Taste of the product’, ‘Packaging of the product’ are the most important attributes of the product that influence the kids to demand a product as per the parents. The specific food products in which pester power is most significant seem comparatively high in the chocolates, cakes and chips categories of products. Advertisement and celebrity endorsements did not emerge as top attributes influencing pester power. From the study, we can conclude that there is a direct relationship between time spent by the child in watching television and the ability to pester for products they have seen in the TV ads. In addition, a direct relationship has been observed between spending less time with the child and to give the product, which their children like.

9. LIMITATIONS:

Even if the respondent has more than one child, the responses have been recorded keeping in mind the younger child in the family. The study though had a wide view on perspectives on the factors that influence parents to give in to pester power of their child, but the study was limited to a sample of parents in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The sample size though large enough is still considerably small to be able to comment on the city of Bengaluru.

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Received on 09.12.2016 Modified on 10.01.2017

Asian J. Management; 2017; 8(2):204-214.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2017.00032.4