Four-Eyed, Four-Legged

Universidad de Guadalajara

Centro Universitario de Ciencias Económico Administrativas
Mercadotecnia
Understanding the “four-eyed, four-legged” consumer:
a segmentation analysis of U.S. moms
by Sabrina M. Neeley and Tim Coffey
Rodrigo Cabrera Vera
Lic. Administración

Children learn to be consumers by observing persons around them in decision-making and purchasing situations, bymodeling the behaviors they observe in others, and as recipients in parents’ direct socialization instruction. Interest in mothers as consumer socialization agents grew in the late 1970s and 1980s. Although family dynamics appear to be changing, mothers are still thought to be stronger consumer socialization agents because they are traditionally involved more directly and more regularly with theirchildren, as a result, mothers are more likely to mediate their children’s exposure to commercial messages than are fathers.
Mothers influence and maintain control over children’s consumer activities by serving as gatekeepers to information and influence and by controlling money available to the child. Moore, Wilkie, and Lutz suggest that intergenerational influence is “an important source of brandequity for some, but not all brands, in today’s marketplace. This study examines the consumer interactions between U.S. mothers and their kids, linking these interactions to mothers’ more general attitudes, values, and behaviors. It combines consumer socialization theory with psychographic and behavioral syndicated data in order to segment the U.S. mom market into distinguishable and actionableclusters.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Examination of the consumer socialization of children has most often taken the form of exploring differences in family communication styles and how these differences manifest in socialization interactions between parent and child.
The Role of Parenting Style in Children’s Consumer Socialization.
The examination of family communication style has been extended to aninternational context to study the influence of family communication styles on children’s consumer socialization in a cross-national sampling. In a comparison study, U.S. mothers were found to be more concept-oriented than Japanese mothers, and therefore more encouraging of their children developing an independent perspective. Cross-nationally, concept orientation is related to earlierexpectations of consumer skills and knowledge, coshopping, and controlling TV viewing
Carlson and Grossbart propose an alternate parental-style classification based on Baumrind’s research on the structural components of socialization and how parent–child power and communication dynamics differ between families.
* Authoritative (high restrictiveness/high warmth)
These parents view rights andresponsibilities of adults and children as complementary and changing as the child develops. They encourage self-expression and value self-will and autonomy. They expect disciplined conformity and use firm control to confront disobedience, but only when it is needed. They are warm, conscientious, and supportive. They explain rules, offer choices, and solicit the child’s opinion. They take an active role inthe child’s television viewing and they discuss TV advertising with their children.
* Authoritarian (high restrictiveness/low warmth)
These parents seek high levels of control over their children. They view children as egotistical and impulsive. They judge children’s conduct by religious or other standards endorsed by authority figures, and they support government regulation of children’stelevision. They expect unquestioned obedience.
* Permissive/indulgent (high permissiveness/high warmth)
These parents allow their children to have substantial freedom. They regard children as having adult rights, but few responsibilities, and tend to respect their children’s impulsiveness. They tend to view themselves as resources, not active shapers of children. They support nonfamilial...