Influence of Family Structures on Pester Power and Purchase Outcomes-A Conceptual Framework

Children have emerged as a significant consumer group that cannot be ignored. From followers of parental choice to co-decision makers while purchasing, children's influence in purchase decisions have been of significant interest to marketers across the globe. The purpose of the study is to explore how different family communication structures influence pester power in children, which helps in forming a final purchase outcome. The paper presents a conceptual framework which helps in understanding how pestering in children varies under the influence of different family communication structures and thus shaping a final purchase outcome. The model is developed as a result of extensive literature review in the area of pesters power, family communication structures and purchase outcomes. The type of family structures namely the laissez–faire family, the protective family, the pluralistic family, and the consensual family has a lot of bearing on the way children use different types of pester power. Pester power comes to play through a wide array of persuasive and emotional strategies/ behavior at a market place in which the type of family structure becomes a major factor to reckon with. This behavior can lead to a culmination of a purchase outcome by a parent and thus it indeed becomes a significant pre cursor to many a purchase decisions. The proposed model is an attempt to explore these relationships thereby enriching and adding to the existing body of knowledge.