The Role of consumer socialization in the process of advertising literacy among Egyptian children : A comparative study between perceptual and analytical stages /

Abstract

During this technological era, children are born into an environment that is saturated with different forms of advertising including the embedded formats, and they have become highly targeted by advertisers as they form a potential segment of the market. Consumer Socialization Theory explains the stages children pass through and the socialization process by which they acquire skills, knowledge, preferences and attitudes that allow them to function as valuable consumers in the marketplace. Advertising literacy is one of the most important skills acquired throughout this process and it acts as a defense mechanism against the negative impacts of advertising on children, empowering them to deal with the commercial messages without harming their development process. This interdisciplinary research aims to investigate the role consumer socialization plays in the process of acquiring and activating advertising literacy among Egyptian children across two different consumer socialization stages, the Perceptual stage (ages 3 to 7) and the Analytical stage (ages 7 to 11). Consumer Socialization Theory and Malmelin’s model with its dimensions of advertising literacy are utilized as the theoretical framework for this research. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are implemented in this study through structured surveys for children based on Advertising Literacy Scale for children (ALS-c), and another one for parents, and focus groups for more insights with mothers. The findings of this study shows that children of both stages are having almost equal abilities conceptual advertising literacy indicating that both stages are facing real challenges to cognitively deal with the new embedded advertisement formats. Analytical stage children were found to develop a slightly higher level of Attitudinal advertising literacy, however their level of responsiveness to the persuasion messages of the embedded advertising questions their ability to utilize these skills for their own benefit.