Pester Power

According to International Journal of Marketing Pester Power is “a pejorative term for children making requests of their parents.”
However, academic researchers prefer less loaded terminology and define it as “purchase influence attempts. Or purchase request behaviour.”

This phrase emerged in the USA in the late 1970s. For example, this from The Washington Post, February 1979:
"'They (the children) use all the pester power they can muster’ to talk their parents into purchases, a narrator warned."

"Children have long been able to influence what their parents bought on their behalf, by making it easier for the parents to give in than to endure relentless badgering. The fact that this wasn't a significant enough phenomenon to be given a name until the late 20th century is indicative of the changing nature of child/parent relationships in western societies. Parents are now more likely to take a child's demands seriously, whereas in earlier times they were expected to be content with whatever they were given. Also, the increased pressure on parents to work longer hours has lead to a society that in increasingly cash rich and time poor, which makes it a more attractive option to buy their way out of the time-consuming task of fending off demands. "

Spungin (2004) states that "by advertising to children, companies are encouraging the child to nag their parents into buying something that is not good for them, they don't need or the parent cannot afford".

According to that article 21% to 40% of sales of jeans, burgers and other products occur because a child asks for the product. Despite the fact that the television is the main source of ads for children, Bas (1998) observed that what children ask for tend to be the kind of thing their friends are buying.

We were watching “Kids Grow Older Younger” video during the lecture. Sociologist were testing children’s brand awareness. Obviously, they recognise brands which are familiar to them, such as Barbie or PlayStation.

Therefore, for many marketers children become the key target audience.
Children often observe what their friends have got and then ask: “Can I have this, mummy?” again and again. This is what we call Pester Power.
As it turned out, brands are incredibly important for children as they feel the peer pressure even more than other age groups. However, the brand is not as important for girls as for boys in the age of 10.

What is interesting, one of the researchers visited 10 years old girl’s room. He found Bart Simpson’s poster, a styling gel, some magazines and TV set.

As I found out from this video, there are two types of behaviour of mother+children:
•Progressive
•Protecting

Over the last 30 years we became a consumption society. Therefore, it is very important to think how much children influence shopping.

Children want to be fashionable even if they are very young. They leave toys, try to watch soap operas and adult ads.
Adult’s world seems to be more interesting. Kids became more mature in terms of consumption.

According to Pocket Money Mintel report:
"The emergence of a child-centered society in which parents prioritise the wants and needs of their children means that many parents are focused on pleasing their children."

He claims that the vast majority of children are not just reliant on a single source for their pocket money, but receive additional funds from other areas.
What is more, the child-centred society of today means that children may be indulged by parents even when times are hard. Unfortunately, children have now more choices on what they can spend their pocket money on.

What is interesting, children across the three age groups from less affluent households tend to receive more pocket money than those from the AB socio-economic group. Children from AB households receive on average significantly lower amounts (£2.94) of pocket money than other groups, while DEs receive the most (£3.33).

Mintel forecasts that the total weekly income for 7-19s will increase by 6% at current prices to reach a total of £67.2 by 2013. He noticed that clothes are the area of highest average spend for 11-14-year-olds. However, there has been a slight fall reflecting the pressure on this group’s income levels as well as deflation within the clothing market. Computer/video games are ranked second for 11-14-year-olds but both the number of children spending and the average amount spent has fallen significantly. The 15-19s are having to spend more on petrol and travel due to generally rising prices in these sectors.
Moreover, over the last two years, there has been a significant drop in the proportion of 15-19-year-olds who obtain their income from paid employment.


Agreement with the statement ‘My parents buy me everything I want’, 2007

"The stages of intellectual development formulated by Piaget appear to be related to major developments in brain growth. The human brain is not fully developed until late adolescence or in the case of males sometimes early adulthood. We often expect children to think like adults when they are not yet capable of doing so. It is important that parents know what to expect from their child as they develop and to be sure that the expectations they may have for their child at a given age are realistic."

Jean Piaget distinguished four stages of development
-Between 0-24 months old. That stage begins with a simple actions like gasping, sucking and ends with evidence of an internal representational system. Symbolizing the problem-solving sequence before actually responding. Deffered imitation.
-Between 2-7 years old. Between 2-4 years old a child begins to use symbolic rather than simple motor play. A child can think about something without the object being present by use of language. Older child's between 4-7 years old speech is more social, less egocentric.The child is able to show principles underlying best behaviour.
-Between 7 to 11 years old children's characteristic behaviour is evidence of logical, characterised though. The child is capable of concrete problem-solving.
-Between 11 to 15 years old thoughts are more abstract, incorporating the principles of formal logic. Thinking becomes less tied to concrete reality. Formal logical systems can be acquired and a child can handle proportions, algebraic manipulation and other purely abstract processes.

You can watch a great video about The Commercialization of Childhood:


I found very interesting article related to Pester Power:
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/04/13/born-to-buy-pester-power/

And this is a quotation from thi article:
"Trans-toying is most noticeable in the supermarket aisle, where packaged goods companies have gotten ingenious in their attempts to turn what we eat into things kids can play with. Frito-Lay has come up with colored Cheetos, now available in a mystery color version. You have to eat them to see what color your mouth and tongue become. Lucky Charms changes what it does with every box. Quaker Oatmeal contains dinosaur eggs and other hidden treasures. And Ore-Ida has come out with Funky Fries, which are blue, or sugar coated, or cocoa flavored."