Parental consumer learning or ‘keeping up with the children’

Abstract

Children are socialized as consumers earlier now than any other time in history. The rapidly changing pace of society especially with regards to technology, information processing, transportation, etc. makes it possible for them to experience purchasing and consumption at a much faster rate than that of their parents. Children may possess knowledge which their parents lack and they may share their experience and knowledge and in so doing influence their parents. It can result in parents learning about consumption from their children, something which has not been sufficiently acknowledged by previous research. The purpose of this paper is to further the understanding of how consumption patterns and knowledge are transferred from children to parents. In‐depth interviews carried out with ‘children’ of age group 13–30 show that they contributed information prior to and during the purchase, but also afterwards by helping to instal or showing parents how to use a product. The adolescents and adult children had often introduced new products to their parents and made them aware of recent trends. Often they also seemed to deal more easily with new technology than their parents. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.