Consumer Meter. Junior drives the decision

Reams have been written by marketers on the efficacy of ‘pester power’. How children in urban areas increasingly influence the brands adults shop for. And accordingly, dozens of advertisements use kids to communicate the qualities of a product, even if it is of no use to juniors. In the rural market too, children determine what comes into a home. But the methods are different. They do not pester their parents, but are the buyers themselves most of the time. Pointing this out in a paper written for Abhinav , a journal of research in commerce and management, Associate Professor Dr Makarand Upadhyaya says that the typical rural phenomenon is that kids are sent by their mothers to purchase something without specifying a brand. “So kids tend to ask for products they have seen or heard about on radio or TV,” and drive the purchase decision. Power alright, but without the pester element!

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