Critical Review Of Article: A five-nation study of developmental timetables, reciprocal communication and consumer

socialization by Gregory M. Rose, Vassilis Dalakas, Fredric Kropp

Submitted By:
Vijay Krishna Kashyap
Roll No: UM18037
 This study is conducted in five countries to measure the above stated facts and derive a outcome from it. The
countries which are compared are USA, Australia, Japan, India & Greeks This study examines cross-national differences
in parental age expectations, consumer socialization and the relationship between these variables and reciprocal
parent–child communication.
 Consumer socialization is ‘‘the process by which young people acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to
their functioning as consumers in the marketplace”. One important class of culturally based parental beliefs is parental
developmental timetables — the age at which children are expected to acquire specific skills, competencies and
understandings. Developmental timetables examine expectations or beliefs about ‘‘what is normal or typical for a child
at a specific age’’.
 Such studies helps by providing better insights about how the development of child as consumer happen across
countries. Insights from such studies helps a marketing manager in targeting or onboarding a children to brand in a
much better way. The method of such onboarding can create a long lasting impression of the brand in child’s mind.
 This paper looks into the societal differences among the countries and also tells how such early impressions of society,
family impacts the journey of a child, from child to customer. How such differences changes the development pattern
as well as time and method.
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 The sample size for this survey is not that large but still it’s quite a considerable number. Study is more skewed towards
USA and Japan, considering the number of participants is very high is USA i.e. almost 3 times of Japan & 9 times other
countries. So there may be some bias in the result as well.
 Greek and Indian parents held later developmental timetables, both for consumer-related skills and understanding
advertising practices, than their American counterparts. Australian parents held earlier age expectations for consumer-
related skills than Indian parents. But no significant differences were found between Australian and Japanese or Greek
parents.
 American parents reported a higher level of co-shopping than Indian and Australian parents, and Greek parents reported a
higher level of co-shopping than Australian, Japanese and Indian parents.
 Co-viewing was significantly higher among our Greek than our American sample and significantly lower in the Australian
sample than in any of the three collectivist nations. Greek parents reported higher levels of co-viewing than Japanese or
Indian parents and Australian parents reported lower levels of co-viewing than American parents
 Australian parents exhibited higher levels of control over children’s TV viewing than Indian parents, while Greek and
American parents exhibited significantly higher control of TV viewing than Japanese and Indian parent
 Family communication was positively related to co-shopping and control TV viewing. Co-viewing was not significantly
related to reciprocal communication and may, instead, be primarily a matter of parental attitudes toward television and
aggregate viewing time. So we can see that each activity has a significant contribution in creating a children as a consumer.
Such development has a lot of society effect. Different countries differently develop a child as a customer. Understanding
the differences can help a marketing manager in providing a early and smooth onboarding. Such activities also makes a
long lasting impact on the child’s mind. So understanding it and using such studies in developing a consumer journey of
child can help a company in creating loyal customers & provide them a better onboarding.