Children's influence in family consumer decision making: a study of Chinese families in Hong Kong

This study analyzed how Hong Kong children from Chinese families of different socio-economic and socio-demographic backgrounds influence family consumer decision making. Product relevancy and influence at different buying decision stages were also examined in the same context. The aim of the study was to discover if children’s influence is dominant in Hong Kong and to offer marketers insight from different perspectives to help them develop the right marketing strategies for increasing their market share. The quantitative research design was based on collecting and analyzing the experiences of parents. With the support from six principals of three primary schools and three secondary schools, 1800 questionnaires were distributed and 1294 completed questionnaires were returned. Parents of children aged 7-16 years were invited to participate in the survey by answering the questionnaires based on the purchases that they had made in the past six months. Findings from the study suggest that product relevancy is important to children’s influence in family consumer decision making in Hong Kong, as children show high involvement and participation when the products are for their own use. However, children’s influence in the buying decision process is still unclear because of inconsistent and contrasting results for different products and service. The hypothesis that older children are more influential in family consumer decision making in Hong Kong is supported. However, the gender of the children does not play a dominant role in determining children’s influence, as both male and female children were found to be equally influential in family consumer decision making for most product categories. The research results also found that there is no significant correlation between children’s influence in family consumer decision making and household income and parental education. It would seem that scholars have at long last acknowledged the important role that children play in the family consumer decision-making process, and that their power has been enhanced in recent years by the acquisition of Internet-enabled knowledge. It is suggested that future research should cover the children’s perspective, family communication style, family structure, and family size.