Abstract:

Over the last years technological items, especially IT features, have changed the entire universe including children daily environment. Nowadays children are more exposed than ever to the latest news. Once more, organizations try to address their messages, including promotional ones, directly to the children no matter their ages.

Usually, the children can have both a direct influence and an indirect one regarding the decisions in their families. Informational explosion during the last decade has generated an increasing presure of the children over their parents in order to obtain various products.

In order to study the degree of influence of the children over their parents, at early stages (3-6 years old), we have conducted 24 depth-interviews with parent diades, living in Romania. For a better picture, we have investigated two kinds of couples children –parents, which are living in urban and rural areas. So the link between the degree of exposure of media pressure and the degree of influence in parents decisions is clearly visible.

Using qualitative tools we have discovered precious insights about : the degree of influence ; the categories and the brands influenced ; the media channels and the type of advertising used.