Deborah Roedder John

Consumer Socialization of Children : A Retrospective Look at Twenty-Five Years of Research

Twenty-five years of consumer socialization research have yielded an impressive set of findings. The purpose of our article is to review these findings and assess what we know about childrens development as consumers. Our focus is on the developmental sequence characterizing the growth of consumer knowledge, skills, and values as children mature throughout childhood and adolescence. In doing so, we present a conceptual framework for understanding consumer socialization as a series of stages, with transitions between stages occurring as children grow older and mature in cognitive and social terms. We then review empirical findings illustrating these stages, including childrens knowledge of products, brands, advertising, shopping, pricing, decision-making strategies, parental influence strategies, and consumption motives and values. Based on the evidence reviewed, implications are drawn for future theoretical and empirical development in the field of consumer socialization. Copyright 1999 by the University of Chicago.

THE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF EXTENSIONS: CAN FLAGSHIP PRODUCTS BE DILUTED?

This article extends the scope of investigations into the potential risks of brand and line extension strategies. Here, the authors examine whether extensions can dilute beliefs associated with a s...

The Development of Self-Brand Connections in Children and Adolescents

Individuals use brands to create and communicate their self-concepts, thereby creating self-brand connections. Although this phenomenon is well documented among adult consumers, we know very little about the role of brands in defining, expressing, and communicating self-concepts in children and adolescents. In this article, we examine the age at which children begin to incorporate brands into their self-concepts and how these self-brand connections change in qualitative ways as children move into adolescence. In three studies with children 8-18 yr. of age, we find that self-brand connections develop in number and sophistication between middle childhood and early adolescence. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Growing up in a Material World: Age Differences in Materialism in Children and Adolescents

We examine age differences in materialism with children and adolescents 8–18 years old. In study 1, we find materialism increases from middle childhood to early adolescence and declines from early to late adolescence. Further, we find that age differences are mediated by changes in self-esteem occurring from middle childhood through adolescence. In study 2, we prime self-esteem to obtain further evidence of a causal link between self-esteem and materialism. As expected, we find that inducing high self-esteem decreases expressions of materialism. Inducing high self-esteem reduces materialism among adolescents so dramatically that age differences in materialism disappear.

Consumer Learning by Analogy: A Model of Internal Knowledge Transfer

Although knowledge transfer has been found to be an important learning mechanism in several consumer behavior domains, our understanding of the nature and scope of the transfer process is still in its infancy. In this article, we develop a conceptual model to explain how previously acquired knowledge is transferred in the process of consumer learning. Augmenting analogical learning theory with research on expertise effects and conceptual development, our model details the underlying stages in the process of knowledge transfer and identifies key factors influencing the nature and outcome of each stage. Applying our model to several consumer behavior contexts, we demonstrate its utility both as a tool for enhancing our understanding of knowledge transfer and as a productive guide to future research on consumer learning. Copyright 1997 by the University of Chicago.

Brand Concept Maps: A Methodology for Identifying Brand Association Networks

Understanding brand equity involves identifying the network of strong, favorable, and unique brand associations in memory. This article introduces a methodology, Brand Concept Maps, for eliciting brand association networks (maps) from consumers and aggregating individual maps into a consensus map of the brand. Consensus brand maps include the core brand associations that define the brands image and show which brand associations are linked directly to the brand, which associations are linked indirectly to the brand, and which associations are grouped together. Two studies illustrate the Brand Concept Maps methodology and provide evidence of its reliability and validity.

Cultural Differences in Brand Extension Evaluation: The Influence of Analytic versus Holistic Thinking

Consumers evaluate brand extensions by judging how well they fit with the parent brand. We examine this process across cultures. We predict that consumers from Eastern cultures, characterized by holistic thinking, perceive higher brand extension fit and evaluate brand extensions more favorably than do Western consumers, characterized by analytic thinking. Study 1 supports the existence of these cultural differences, with study 2 providing support for styles of thinking (analytic vs. holistic) as the drivers of cultural differences in brand extension evaluations.

Age Differences in Information Processing: Understanding Deficits in Young and Elderly Consumers

Limitations in the information-processing abilities of young and elderly consumers have generated considerable interest among consumer researchers, marketing practitioners, and government regulators. Most of the research in this area has concentrated on finding which types of deficits characterize both age groups. Little attention has been given to the possibility that the occurrence of these processing deficits may be dependent on task conditions. This article proposes to provide a better understanding of the difficulties experienced by young and elderly consumers by describing the basic processing deficits that characterize these age groups and identifying the task factors likely to affect the severity of these deficits. The article also relates these findings to theoretical, methodological, and managerial issues involved in studying and reacting to the difficulties faced by young and elderly consumers.

Knowledge bases and salesperson effectiveness: A script-theoretic analysis.

Salesperson effectiveness in customer interaction is evaluated from a script-theoretic perspective. Differences in salesperson performance are traced to differences in knowledge of the actions and ...

The Meaning of Brand Names to Children: A Developmental Investigation

We explored the way that children use brand names in making consumer judgments. Brand names can serve as a simple perceptual cue that identifies a product as one people are familiar with or one they associate with certain perceptual features. Brands can also be associated with symbolic or conceptual meanings, conveying status, prestige, or trendiness. We proposed that young children relate to brands on a perceptual level, whereas older children relate to brands on a conceptual basis as well. We examined this proposition in an experiment conducted with children 8,12, and 16 years of age. Participants were asked to evaluate an advertised product (e.g., athletic shoes) with a familiar brand name that was either popular (e.g., Nike ® ) or less popular (e.g., Kmart ® ). The advertised product was physically identical in both cases, allowing us to explore whether the brand name had meaning for children apart from its name familiarity or perceptual features. The use of conceptual brand meanings was assessed by asking participants to make several types of brand-related judgments including evaluations of the advertised product, impressions of the owners of the advertised product, and evaluations of possible extensions of the popular brand name advertised. Results indicate that by the time children reach 12 years of age, they use brand names as an important conceptual cue in consumer judgments.