Impact of Television Advertisements On Children: An Empirical Study With Reference To Chocolate Brands
Impact of Television Advertisements On Children: An Empirical Study With Reference To Chocolate Brands
Impact of Television Advertisements On Children: An Empirical Study With Reference To Chocolate Brands
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Impact of Television Advertisements on Children: An Empirical Study with Reference to Chocolate Brands
DR. RAJU M. RATHOD*, BHAVNA J. PARMAR**
It is apparent from the literature that television advertisement influence children particularly in products like chocolate, biscuits, food supplements, tooth paste, toys etc. Advertising is second only to films as far as its influence on the society is concerned. Advertising is the most influential and powerful medium in the present commercial society. The main objective of this study is to find out, how children are influenced by the television advertisements. There are both good and bad impact of advertisement. The focus of the study is on effect of television advertisements on children with special reference to confectionary products. An attempt has been made to know the children's awareness about confectionery products & their advertisements, to measure the impact of advertisement of confectionery products on children, to study the association between preference of children and demographic factors such as Gender and Medium of study. Descriptive research design was used as the study followed structured design with predetermined objectives & hypotheses. Primary data have been collected though questionnaire. Chi square test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was carried out to test the hypotheses. The study comes out with useful insights and recommendations. Keywords: Television Advertisement, Chocolate Brands, Children's Preference
Introduction
Advertising as one of the essential element of marketing management is considered as an important factor in the global business. As far as its influence on the society is concerned, Advertising is second only to movies. Advertising is the most influential and powerful medium in the present commercial society. It helps us to get worldview. It shapes our attitude and beliefs. Advertisements encompass every aspect of our life and most of us are hardly aware of it (Sarma, 2007). In 2011, the Indian Media & Entertainment (M&E) Industry registered a growth of 12 percent over 2010, to reach INR 728 billon, as per the FICCI-KPMG report. The growth line is backed by strong consumption in Tier 2 and 3 cities, continued growth of regional media, and fast increasing new media business. Overall, the
industry is expected to register a CAGR of 15 percent to touch INR 1,457 billion by 2016. Television continues to be the dominant medium, sectors such as animation & VFX, digital Advertising, and gaming are fast increasing their share in the overall pie (KPMG-FICCIFrames-Press-release-2012). Television is emerging as the most important contributor to human social behaviour; it is unquestionably an important source of social influence. Extensive research carried out by many researchers and it has been indicated that the television can and does influence our feelings, attitude and behaviour (e.g. Wartella, Olivarez, & Jenning 1998). Recently there is a tremendous growth in media industry. In both the longterm and short term, our experience of media image
*Associate Professor, G.H. Patel P.G. Department of Business Management, Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Distt. Anand (Gujarat). **Faculty - Shree P.M.Patel College of Computer Science & Technology, Anand.
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contributes in significant ways to the way we think, act, and feel, and to our broader belief about the world and social reality. There are number of theoretical model and approaches help to explain the complex links between media exposure and its effects (Ann Sanson, 2000). A major review of the field, conducted by Hastings et al (2003) for the Food Standards Agency, has focused academic, policy and public attention on the role that food promotion, particularly television advertising, plays in influencing children's food choices, defined in terms of food knowledge, preferences and behaviour. Few years back children of 5 years age, would not be able to distinguish advertising from programs; however, by about 7 or 8 years of age, children have learned to identify the persuasive intent of advertising, distinguishing it from information. From 12 years of age, children can surely articulate a critical understanding of advertising, even becoming skeptical or distrustful of it. More advanced media literacy does not necessarily constitute a sort of "cognitive defense" towards advertising effectiveness (Livingstone and Helsper, 2004), Research on Children's Perceptions found that they could apply this knowledge and critically evaluate advertisements. Subsequently they were more skeptical than younger children about claims made in advertising (Bulmer, 2001 as sited in World Federation of Advertisers 2007).
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advertisement is concerned, they have been asked respond to five point scale - Crazy about advertisement, like very much, like the advertisement, not like much and not at all like advertisement It has been asked to children that do they ask advertised brand of chocolate after watching the advertisement with scale never, rarely, sometimes, always. List of reasons behind asking particular confectionary products have been give to children and they have been asked to rank them.
Research Methodology
The main objective of this study is to find out, how children are influenced by the advertisements especially of confectionary products. There are both good and bad impact of advertisement. The focus of the study is on effect of television advertisements on children with special reference to confectionary products. An attempt has been made to know the children's awareness about confectionery products & their advertisements, to measure the impact of advertisement of confectionery products on children, to study the association between preference of children and demographic factors such as Gender and Medium of study. Descriptive research design was used as the study followed structured design with predetermined objectives & hypotheses. Well structured Questionnaire has been randomly administered to 130 children (7 to 15 Years of Age) of different school of Baroda through schedule method of primary data collection.
Measures
In order to study the children's preference for different television programme, they have been asked to rate different kind television programme like cartoon, movies, reality shows with scale - 1=Never watch, 2= Rarely watch, 3= Sometime watch, 4=Always watch . In order to know the children's preference for different chocolate brand they have been asked to rank the different brands of chocolate. So far as liking of
Findings
From survey, it has been found that more number of children (64%) watch television for 1-2 hours a day. There are very less number of children (2 %) who watch television for less than 1 hour a day. Around 33 children watch television for more than 3 hours. There are less than 1 per cent children who watch television for more than 4 hours. As far as watching any particular program on television is concerned, children like to watch cartoon movies or cartoon serials on television. Children also like to watch movies on television. Majority of children are familiar with the advertisements of Chocolates. Five Star and Cadbury chocolates are their favorite brands. After watching advertisement of confectionary products majority of children demand to purchase that confectionary product. Majority of children like to buy confectionary products because it gives free tattoo and other
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Medium of the Study Gujarati 32.0 32.4 17.0 16.6 49.0 49.0 81.0 English 54.0 53.6 27.0 27.4 81.0 Total 86.0 86.0 44.0 44.0 130.0 130.0
Programme Cartoons
Mean 3.47 3.06 3.22 1.88 2.07 2.00 2.39 2.72 2.59 2.45 2.48 2.47 2.61 2.60 2.61 1.88 2.15 2.05
Std. Dev. .680 .857 .816 .971 .863 .906 .862 .869 .878 .765 .910 .855 .702 1.021 .911 .726 1.050 .947
Reality shows
Movies
TV serials
Musical (Song Gujarati based) English programmes Total Sports Gujarati English Total
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Programme
Medium
Sum of Squares 5.074 80.895 85.969 1.179 104.821 106.000 3.291 96.102 99.392 .032 94.345 94.377 .002 106.991 106.992 2.236 113.488 115.723
df 1 128 129 1 128 129 1 128 129 1 128 129 1 128 129 1 128 129
F 8.028
Sig. .005
Cartoons
Reality shows
1.179 .819
1.440
.232
Movies
3.291 .751
4.383
.038
TV serials
.032 .737
.044
.835
Between Groups
.002 .836
.002
.965
2.236 .887
2.521
.115
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Programme Cartoons
Mean 3.25 3.18 3.22 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.65 2.52 2.59 2.52 2.41 2.47 2.62 2.59 2.61 1.99 2.11 2.05
Std. Dev. .812 .827 .816 .955 .856 .906 .888 .868 .878 .851 .864 .855 .876 .955 .911 .899 1.002 .947
Reality shows
Movies
TV serials
Musical
Sports
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Programmes Cartoons
Sum of Squares df .141 85.828 85.969 .000 106.000 106.000 .527 98.865 99.392 .405 93.971 94.377 .035 106.957 106.992 .541 115.182 115.723 1 128 129 1 128 129 1 128 129 1 128 129 1 128 129 1 128 129
F .211
Sig. .647
Reality shows
.000 .828
.000 1.000
Movies
.527 .772
.682
.410
TV serials
.405 .734
.552
.459
Musical (Song based) Between Groups programmes Within Groups Total Sports Between Groups Within Groups Total
.035 .836
.042
.837
.541 .900
.601
.440
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N 49 81 130
Table- 8: Impact of advertisement on buying among Gujarati and English Medium students (ANOVA)
df 1 128 129
F 2.026
Sig. .157
increases with age. English medium students are somewhat different than Gujarti medium students in their behaviour and preference. As far as advertisements of confectionary products are concerned, advertisements should be shown with their pros and cons. To some extent children have limited understanding so advertisers should not directly persuade children to buy the product which is shown in the advertisement. Advertisers must not misuse children's relative inexperience. Children can be easily attracted by the celebrity so, as far as confectionary products are concerned, celebrity should not directly or indirectly persuade children to buy that product which he/she has shown using that product. It is the duty of parents to see what their children are watching on television and if they are highly influenced by the advertisements especially of confectionary products then parents should try to explain them what are the pros and cons of that
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product by using it. In case of advertisement targeting children there must not be any wrong message or learning passed to the children, there must be morally right message passed to children. Marketer should target the children very carefully because they are very innocent and they easily copy others. So they should run promotion campaign carefully. Children like creativity and innovation, so the message of the advertisement should be innovative and creative. It is not easy to segment the market in case of children because more or less they are similar in their behaviour across the gender, medium of study and such other demographic aspects. So marketers should carefully design its marketing strategies in case of children oriented products.
References
Manas Pratim Sarma (2007). The Changing Scenario of Advertising, Retrieved 27 September 2012, from http://www.merinews.com/article/thechanging-scenario-of-advertising/126596.html. Indian Media & Entertainment Industry to touch INR 1,457 billion by 2016: FICCI-KPMG report, Retrieved 27 September 2012, from http:// www.kpmg.com/ IN/ en/ Pr ess% 20 Releas e/ KPMG-FICCI-Frames-Press-release-2012. Ann Sanson (2000), The Australian Psychological Society Ltd., July 2000, http:// w w w. p s y c h o l o g y. o r g . a u / A s s e t s / F i l es / media_position_paper.pdf. Sonia Livingstone and Ellen Helsper (2004), Advertising Foods to Children Understanding Promotion In The Context Of Children's Daily Lives, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, retrieved on 21st November 2012, from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/ 21757/2/Advertising.