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A cross cultural perspective on children’s understanding of

commercial communications

Kara Chan, Hong Kong Baptist U

James U. McNeal, Peking UEconomic socialization conference

July 11-12, 2003

Exeter, UK

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Why study Chinese children?

• 290 million Chinese children under 14 (population of UK: 59 million)

• One child policy since 1979• Children have great influence on family

purchase decisions• China has rapid economic growth: 8% per

year• Children in China is a huge market for global

advertisers

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Advertising in China

• Modern advertising returned in 1979• Advertising development highly uneven:

Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong accounted for 50% of advertising expenditure in 2001

• Children’s programme: About 8 hours per day, mainly in CCTV1 and CCTV7, few in regional channels

• television programme sponsorship was very common, even in weather forecast

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…Advertising in China

• Many illegal ads (e.g. 66824 in 2000, among which 39% were illegal outdoor ads and 30% were illegal print ads)

• Lack of specific regulation of advertising that targeted to children

• Article 8 of advertising law, “Ad may not be harmful to the physical and mental health of minors and disabled persons”

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A typical week of children’s program in May 2002

CCTV-1 571 TVC, 70% are adults’ ads

7 PSAs

Beijing TV-1

45 TVC, all are adults’ ads

27 PSAs

Nanjing TV-1

32 TVC, all are children’s ads

No PSAs

Chengdu TV-1

28 TVC, 25% are children’s ads

No PSAs

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Theoretical model• consumer socialization as the process by

which consumers acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to operate as consumers (Ward, 1974)

• Socializing agents, a person or an organization that provides influence through frequent interaction with an individual, primacy over the individual or control over rewards and punishments given to the individual (Brim, 1966)

• parents, friends, TV as socializing agents

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Understanding of Commercial

communications

Cognitive developmental

model

Social learning modelFrom parents

Social learning modelFrom TV

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Research objectives

• To examine the relative contribution of the cognitive developmental model and the social learning model with a focus on TV and parents as socializing agents in the predicting of children’s understanding of commercial communications

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Cognitive developmental model

• Age has positive impact on understanding

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Social learning model from parents

• Socio-oriented communication (-)• Concept-oriented communication

(+)• Discussing TV commercials (+)• Co-viewing of TV (+)• Parents’ negative attitude (+)• Parents’ perceived influence (+)

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Social learning model from TV

• Level of TV viewing (+)

• Attention to TV commercials (+)

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additional variables

• Gender (?)

• Social Economic status (+)

• Level of advertising development (+)

• Presence of PSAs (-)

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Method• Survey of 1,758 children in 3 urban cities

Beijing, Nanjing and Chengdu representing high, medium and low levels of advertising development, respectively

• Two schools for each city, randomly select one class in each grade (grade 1 to 6)

• Close-ended questionnaire• Grade 1-2, read Q&A to them by

researchers• Sample: 1751 (response rate: 99.6%)

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Map of China

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Method• Survey of their parents by asking

children to bring home a questionnaire for mothers/fathers

• Sample: 1665 (response rate: 94.7%)

• Matched pair with children

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Procedure

• When we watch TV, some messages occur before and after the television program that are not related to the program. They are called commercials

• What are TV commercials?• What do TV commercials want you to do?• Why do TV stations broadcast

commercials?

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What are TV commercials? (%)6-7 8-9 10-11 12-14 total

Funny messages

15 11 11 8 11

Take a break 37 31 26 20 28

Introduce products

29 25 21 28 25

Promote products*

16 29 41 43 34

Don’t know 2 4 1 2 2

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What do TVC want you to do? (%)

6-7 8-9 10-11 12-14 total

Evaluate them 8 9 9 9 9

Check products

20 25 18 19 21

Tell parents* 34 27 21 16 24

buy products* 33 33 49 53 42

Don’t know 6 5 3 3 4

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Why do stations broadcasts TVC? (%)6-7 8-9 10-11 12-14 total

Not to waste time

16 16 14 11 14

Help audience 9 12 10 12 11

Care for public 18 16 17 16 17

Subsidize prog* 13 16 17 22 17

Make money* 40 35 39 35 37

Don’t know 3 5 4 4 4

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Understanding by age (%)

01020304050607080

what are TVC What TVC want youto do

Why stationsbroadcast TVC

A6-7 A8-9 A10-11 A12-14

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Summary of logistic regression analyses

Model What are TVC?

What do TVC want you to do?

Why TV station b

TVC?Cognitive developmental model

R sq=0.037 (p<0.001)

R sq=0.004 (p<0.05)

R sq=0.001

(n.s.)

Social learning model from parents

Change in R sq=0.002 (n.s.)

Change in R sq=0.002 (n.s.)

Change in R sq=0.004 (n.s.)

Social learning model from TV

Change in R sq=0.008 (P<0.01)

Change in R sq=0.002 (n.s.)

Change in R sq=0.019 (p<0.001)

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General findings

• Cognitive developmental model contributes more than social learning model

• Parents plays insignificant role in children’s understanding of commercial communication

• Attention to TVC has negative impact on understanding

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Additional variables in the logistic models

Model What are TVC?

What do TVC want you to do?

Why TV station b

TVC?

gender Girls 40% more likely to understand

Social economic status

Higher HH income, more likely to und.

Higher HH income and skilled occu, more likely to und.

Media environment

Presence of PSAs, less likely to und.

Change in R-square

0.02 (p<0.001) 0.007 (n.s.) 0.038 (p<0.001)

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Why parents do not play an important role in consumer

socialization?• Parents grew up in period of material

shortage and did not have abundant consumer experience, they are incompetent consumers

• Parents not motivated to talk about consumption

• Parents and children too busy • Discussion about TV commercials:

emphasize on moral education

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Future studies

• Focus group interview about sources of knowledge about TV commercials

• Experimental design to test the impact of PSAs on understanding of commercial and non-commercial communications

• Why children’s understanding deviates from the cognitive developmental model?

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Show some TV segments

• Nanjing

• Beijing