The Family Inheritance - Are Attitudes to Advertising Kept in the Family?

Abstract

It is more than 20 years since the concept of the segmentation of consumers based on their attitudes towards advertising was introduced and audience members were categorised as Accepters, Players, Rejecters or Uninvolved. It seemed likely at the time, and has since been demonstrated, that these attitudes could affect the way in which people react to advertising and as such had implications for marketers. More recently, the notion of marketing 'savvy' has become a topic of interest, particularly in relation to children and their sophistication in the marketing place. This paper brings together these two themes on a study of 524 children aged 10-16. Mothers of the children were also interviewed. The segmentation identifies two key groups with opposing attitudes - the Players and the Rejecters, the former of which is far more open to advertising messages than is the latter. There appears to be no relationship between the child's disposition to TV advertising and that of the mother's. Interestingly, Players amongst children decline as age increases. In terms of which group is the more savvy the outcome depends on whether the measure is based on the mother's perception or based on a surrogate measure, namely, the degree of involvement in shopping related activities. Interestingly the authors note a possible change in the adult audience pro.le with Rejecters in particular on the increase and the Uninvolved in decline. Explanations and lines for further investigation are offered.