Brand Image Formation

Abstract

Under the larger umbrella of consumer socialization research, which encompasses the process of children's learning of consumer situations right from birth until adulthood, the current research delves deeper into children's understanding of brand images and the factors that affect children's brand image formations. Previous literature in the area of children and brands has largely attributed children's understanding of brand images to the child's growing age, i.e. as the child grows older he/she begins to form better understanding of brands and brand images. However, other factors such as the child's involvement in a product category or the information processed by the child from television advertising or the consumer education role adopted by parents could affect children from all ages, and thereby create differential brand image formations irrespective of their age. The current research studies the relative effects of the factors of involvement in the product category, information processed from television advertising and the consumer education role adopted by parents as compared to age on the child's brand image formations In order to study the relative effects of age, and these other factors affecting brand image formation, the current study researches children in two age groups (7-8 years and 11-12 years), and assesses the relative role of each of the factors affecting children's brand image formations. The findings of the study suggest that although brand image formations do increase with age of the child, it is possible that younger and older children could have similar brand image formations when comparing children with differing abilities of the factors in the study. Children from the same age could behave differently or children from different ages could behave similarly, as has been found as a result of the current research. Children today live in vastly different worlds with differing exposures and abilities. Age therefore should not be the only generalization used to segment children, and other factors such as those used should be studied to get a clearer idea of children and their worlds.