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Дугаар (550) 31, 2021 Монголын хүн амын сэтгүүл
major role in family purchases. Reasons for this
influence include:
1) With the accelerated pace socio-economic
development, the standard of living and life
expectancy also increases, delaying the
age of marriage and childbirth and the rising
number of parents who are more mature
and financially stable. Consequently,
parents tend to give their children more
possessions and more allowance in
purchasing, as well as the right to choose
goods.
2) As the fertility rate decreases, parents have
fewer children compared to former years,
and children have more influence on family
purchasing decisions.
3) From the statistics in Mongolia, there are
approximately 70% of the households
with both parents working. Cross-national
studies also show that children are more
likely to be involved and more empowered
to contribute to the family buying decisions
in a double income family.
4) Single parents make up about 10% of the
households in the country48, and children
from this type of family are more likely to
participate in family purchases than their
peers.
5) Almost 35% of the population is under the
age of 18 in Mongolia49. While serving as
the target audience for the primary market
for children’s products and services, they
are the major influence of family purchases
as well as potential future markets.
A number of questions have been asked to
identify the influences of children on family
purchase decisions and to examine what factors
play an important role in children’s influence.
The key question this study mainly focuses is:
- Does the child’s influence on family pur-
chasing decisions depend on the family
and the child’s demographics?
These impacts suggest that today’s marketers
are required to study and pay attention to
children’s participation and involvement in family
purchases.
48 National Statistic Office. Mongolian Statistical Information Ser-
vice. Available at:
49 National Statistics Office. Mongolian Statistical Information Ser-
vice. Available at:
Moreover, in-depth awareness should be built
on how children represent current and potential
target markets, and are significant influences
on family purchasing decisions. As a result,
decision-makers can develop child-focused
marketing strategies and implement well-planned
campaigns accordingly.
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The influence of children on family purchasing
became a focus in the 1960s. McNeal (1964)
reports that as children get mature, they tend to
be independent in the purchasing process, while
parents give them more power to participate in
family purchasing decisions.
Mangleburg (1992) investigated the effects of
family structure, family hierarchy, and parenting
style on children’s influence in family consumption
decisions. In her view, some social factors are
fundamental to children’s involvement in the
household, including 1) transparency between
parent and children, 2) children’s household
responsibilities, 3) parents’ ability to work as a
team in child-rearing, 4) parental strictness, and
5) parental nurturance.
North J and Kotze (2001) stated that it is a
challenging task to research children, especially
if marketers and researchers want to know and
understand what is happening to children’s black
boxes. Compared to the previous generation,
today’s children have much more comprehensive
knowledge and access to information; this means
that they analyze and make decisions based on
information from many resources.
A family includes individuals who belong to
various social groups, and children learn and
develop as consumers due to their family’s
influence. Children go through five stages to
become independent consumers (McNeal,
1999).
● First stage: Accompanying parents and
observing when making purchases;
● Second stage: Accompanying parents and
requesting; Children show their request
by pointing, talking and gesturing. This
usually begins at the age of two.
● Third stage: Participate in purchasing
choices with parental consent
● Fourth stage: Making independent
purchases under parental supervision