The Influence of Children on the Parents Buying Behavior: Food Purchase in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The article examines the influence of a child on the buying behavior of parents in the Czech Republic. Previous studies claim that Czech consumers are only slightly influenced by the marketing tool of the product package when purchasing food. Whereas children are increasingly becoming influencers of consumption, the question arises, whether or not the parent succumbs to their requesting through their pester power. The main goal of this article is to evaluate the influence of children during deciding and purchasing the food in a supermarket. A secondary goal is to identify the techniques of pester power used by children and to identify the reaction of parents to children’s food product requesting; to identify children’s packaging preferences for food products. The primary data have been collected through an electronic questionnaire for parents. Complex factors are identified using exploratory factor analysis. Factor analysis explored 4 factors: (1) “The effort of the child to influence shopping”, (2) “Children’s preferences in package design”, (3) “Preference of unhealthy foods”, (4) “Buying healthy foods with children”. Results of hypotheses testing revealed a strong dependence relating to techniques of pester power, accommodating their requests and transact the purchase.