Identifying determinants of young children's brand awareness: Television, parents, and peers.

The first aim of this study was to investigate how children's brand recognition and brand recall develop in early childhood. The second aim was to determine the relative influence of several environmental factors on young children's brand recognition and recall. As predicted in our first hypothesis, children's brand recognition followed a different developmental path than their brand recall did. While the 2- to 3-year-olds recognized 8 out of 12 brand logos, most 8-year-olds were able to recognize 100% of the logos. However, young children's brand recall was significantly weaker. Two- to three-year-olds could hardly recall any of the brand logos. Although children's recall increased significantly with age, the 8-year-olds still only recalled fewer than 50% of the brand logos. Finally, the most significant increase in brand recognition occurred between 3 and 5 years of age, whereas the most significant increase in brand recall occurred between 7 and 8 year of age.

Our finding that the highest increase in recognition occurred between 3 and 5 years could be explained in two ways. First, the development of speed of information processing is highest during these years. Second, the attention span of children in this age group becomes considerably larger. Whereas a typical 3-year-old is able to concentrate on a single task for an average of only 18 min, and is easily distracted during this time, a 5-year-old is often able to work on a task for more than 1 h. We believe that both developments could account for the relatively rapid increase in brand recognition between 3 and 5 years of age.

Our finding that increases in recall are most discernable between 7 and 8 years of age could be attributed to two factors that were already discussed in our introduction. First, only as of 7 years of age, children start to develop sophisticated strategies to aid their recall memory. Second, older children have more existing content knowledge than younger children, which may stimulate their recall memory of unfamiliar brand logos. Our developmental findings on recall and recognition are in accordance with general theories and research on memory development, and earlier research on children's brand recognition and recall.

In contrast to our second hypothesis, boys displayed a superior brand recognition and brand recall. This unexpected finding is in contrast to earlier studies into brand awareness of children, in which no gender differences were found. To search for a possible explanation, we conducted some analyses on the individual brand logo level. These analyses revealed that our gender difference held only for the logos of Shell and Mercedes. These logos relate to cars and engines and are therefore probably more appealing to boys than girls. In the choice of our brand logos, we failed to control for the possible influence of gender-specific product preferences. Future research should take into account that recall and recognition tasks may be influenced by gender-related preferences.

4.1. Television viewing

As anticipated in our third hypothesis, television exposure was a stronger predictor of children's brand recognition than of their brand recall. An explanation for this differential effect is that most recall tasks, as used in our study and earlier studies, are too difficult for preschool children, perhaps so difficult that advertising has little or no effect on their brand recall. An explanation for our finding that television does influence children's brand recognition is that recognition, in contrast to recall, requires only an evaluation of whether a specific activated memory unit is the correct one. Such a task is probably more easily influenced by a visual medium than a recall task is. After all, television provides young children with a rich reservoir of visual images, from which they can draw during recognition tasks.

4.2. Family influences

Our first research question involved the relationship between socioeconomic status and brand awareness. Socioeconomic status was measured through family income and family education. Family income was not related to brand recognition and brand recall. Family education was related only to children's brand recognition, and not to their brand recall. These findings partly support the hypothesis raised in earlier research that children from higher socioeconomic status families show a better brand awareness, because they have greater exposure to the economic world. The differential influence of family education on brand recall and brand recognition is difficult to explain. Our regression analyses suggest that children's brand recognition is more sensitive to external influences than brand recall. An explanation could be that the recall task that we used in our study was too difficult for younger children to allow for an influence of environmental factors. Even the 8-year-old children were only able to mention 5 out of 12 brand logos. Although the use of both tasks was useful, if only to demonstrate differences in the developmental course of recognition and recall, future research might reconsider the memory tasks used in our study.

Our fourth hypothesis also received only partial support. Although parental brand awareness significantly predicted children's brand recall, it had no effect on their brand recognition. An explanation could be that the parental measure that we used was similar to the recall task used for children and not to the recognition task. Parents who are better able to spontaneously mention brand names may more often communicate with their children about specific brands, which may reinforce their children's brand recall. In the case of recognition, parental reinforcement is not necessary. Exposure to visual images representing the brands is a sufficient condition for the development of recognition memory. Even after one exposure to a visual stimulus, young children are able to display an excellent recognition memory. It is therefore plausible that television predominantly exerts its influence on recognition memory, whereas the reinforcing role of parents is most significant for the development of children's brand recall.

4.3. Summary and policy implications

In summary, our study showed that children's brand recognition starts earlier in development than their brand recall. By the age of 2, children were able to recognize 8 out of 12 brand logos and by the age of 8, they were are to recognize 100% of the logos. Although children's age is by far the most important predictor of their brand awareness, other characteristics, such as television exposure, parental brand awareness, and susceptibility to peers, also play an important role in the development of young children's brand awareness.

Another important finding is that young children's brand recognition seems to be significantly more sensitive to external influences than children's brand recall. It must be noted, however, that this result probably only pertains to children younger than eight. Although there is only limited evidence of the influence of environmental influences of older children's brand awareness, it is possible that the brand awareness of older children is more sensitive to external influences. A study suggests that television advertising has a large effect on the brand recall of 13- to 17-year olds, even greater than its effects on the brand recall of adults. It is therefore quite possible that the influence of advertising starts with its effect on recognition, which is extended to an influence on brand recall in later childhood. This developmental hypothesis should be further explored in future causal-correlational research that covers a broader range of age groups than our study did.

The current generation of children has been recognized as the most brand conscious ever. Our study has clearly shown that exposure to television has consequences for the brand recognition of even the youngest children. Our study is very opportune in a period in which infant and toddler marketing is a rapidly growing trend. Whereas only one decade ago, kids marketers used to limit their efforts to children older than 6, recently they progressively recognize infants and toddlers as a vital and undeniable target group. This trend has accelerated even more since the worldwide success of the tremendously popular toddler program, the Teletubbies.

Probably due to the success of recent entertainment programs designed for toddlers, advertisers have become even more aware of the accessibility and susceptibility of the youngest target groups. They have undoubtedly gathered valuable information about cognitive, affective, and behavioral advertising effects on young children. However, their research findings are, in most cases, not accessible to academics and policy makers. Our study is a first attempt to investigate advertising effects on the youngest age groups. We hope that our results may contribute to discussions about the ethical aspects of marketing towards infants and young preschoolers.