Consumer Socialization and Company Exploitation

Welcome to week 4, everyone! In this week, we talk a lot about subcultures, household life cycles and family. However, I think that it's very important that we discuss one of the biggest determinants of a family's buying behavior: the children. With children influencing what mothers and fathers buy, it's a great idea to look into how they are molded into the consumers of tomorrow. 


You're at the grocery store and you hear whining from the other aisle. Glancing over, you notice a child, probably around 8 years old, pulling on his mother's shirt. "I want this one, mom! Ple-e-e-ase!!" He bellows towards the woman, pointing at a cereal with a well-known children's cartoon character plastered on the front. With a sigh of defeat, you watch as the woman places the cereal into the cart in an effort to continue with her busy day. The child promptly shuts up until they reach the next aisle and he spots another branded box of fruit gummies.

You've probably seen this scene numerous times if you've been to the grocery store. However, despite what it may seem like, these children are not just annoying their mothers; they're engaging in an activity to shape themselves as consumers. In essence, when children accompany their parents shopping, they're learning habits and social norms for consumption. According to McNeal's Model on children, there are 5 different levels that a child has when it is starting to be socialized as a consumer:

(Slide property of Dr. Kumar, Xavier Institute)

(Slide property of Dr. Kumar, Xavier Institute)

Based on these slides, we learn that the steps that children follow tend to be:

1. Observation
2. Making requests
3. Making selections
4. Assisted purchases
5. Independent purchases

These are essentially the basic steps towards consumer socialization, a very important part of development for anyone. However, as you think about this, take into consideration the next few pictures.

What you've just seen are several food items that have the faces of well-known cartoon characters. Having known these characters when I was younger, I'm sure that I would've DRAGGED my mother to the cereal and cookie aisle to pick out these foods specifically. I even remember begging her to buy the Scooby Snacks for me because, "It's what Scooby eats!!" And being the good mother she was, she bought me those Scooby Snacks even though they were $1.50 more than the unbranded graham crackers.

This raises an interesting question: Just how ethical is it for companies to market certain products as 'kid-friendly?' Is it ethical to raise the prices of these goods because of the character on the box, knowing that children will pester their parents to buy these branded goods? It's certainly a no-brainer from a business perspective, but what about parents that can't afford to purchase name-brand items for their children? Is it fair to take advantage of the control that children have on their parents' purchasing habits?

In my opinion, I don't really think it's that ethical. First of all, you're taking advantage of the peer pressure-driven minds of children. They're in their formative years, and if they're seen without those Scooby Snacks in their lunchbox, they could be ostracized. With that in mind, parents often give in and purchase these items despite not really being able to afford them. The companies create the hype around the product and the premium price, the children give the pressure to other children to fit in, and the parents buy the product that may bankrupt them. In all honesty, it's not really a nice cycle in the slightest.

But what do you think? Is this excusable because these are their characters? Should parents have a say when it comes to what characters can appear on (i.e, should cartoon characters be banned from appearing on food)? Let me know in the comments below!