The Influence of Children on The Buying Decisions of Their Parents Dissertation

The Influence of Children on The Buying Decisions of Their Parents - Dissertation Example In the recent times it is evident that the children are emerging as major players’ in the decision making processes of a family. In his researches McNeal gives an average, where we find that in the United States, children between the age group of 4-12 years tend to influence parents’ buying that is worth US$ 130 billion (Lackman & Lanasa, 1993). The influence of the children on their parents buying pattern varies with each sub-decision stage. Children that are the initiators, tend to exert to greater influence on their parents as regards decision-making on buying household products, than their non-initiator counterparts. The study of the literature also suggested that older children exert greater influence on their parents; more than the younger ones, but the child gender does not form a significant factor in influencing the parents buying decisions. From the review of the various articles, it can be easily derived that the marketers must now expressly take note of the growing influence of the children’s role within the arena of a family’s decision-making process. This review will first examine the family as a consumer base unit taking into perspective the presence of the child as a potential consumer within the realms of a family. The next segment would examine the children’s role on the parents’ decision-making processes; so that we comprehend the emerging picture where we find that the child from being at the background slowly comes out as a major player in the consumer segment of a marketplace. The third segment will examine the role of the children as a direct or indirect consumer (where he has established himself within the consumer segment) and will examine the various factors that influence the children’s purchase preferences. The fourth section will take a look at the various cognitive development theories that help a researcher to understand the biological/scientific reasoning behind a child’s at traction towards purchasing products and the consumer market. The fifth section will give a detailed insight into the theoretical reasoning behind a child exerting influence on his parents’ purchase decisions. Overall, the review gives a direction to develop a conceptual model after completely investigating all the factors that motivate the children's preferences of certain specific products and their influence strategies in family decisions. This will give us a clear perspective, as how and why modern marketers and consumer researchers should focus on children as an emerging primary segment, within the consumer market section. 1.1 A family as a consumer base unit â€Å"Family as a consuming and decision making unit is a central phenomenon in marketing and consumer behavior† (Commuri and Gentry, 2000, 1). For many decades the central role of the family in decision making and consumption of products has been identified by the marketing managers (Assael, 1998).  

E-Manufacturing Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

E-Manufacturing - Literature review Example According to Merriam-Webster dictionary manufacturing is defined as ‘to make into a product suitable for use’. These few lines were presented to enter our esteem topic of ‘e-manufacturing’ and make you ready for the up-coming category of manufacturing described below. Introduction to E-manufacturing In the previous days when the internet was not available at every doorstep, the manufacturing plant floor was isolated from the rest of the industry, organization and enterprise operated on its own without the company and shareholders being aware of its working as they had no eye on it. Today with the introduction of e-manufacturing services, plant line or the bottom line performance is the place where corporate and analysts are more interested. The input or output of a company and its return on net assets are the criteria for the share market to evaluate an organization’s performance and the plant floor influences all directly. Before being entitled as a successful organization not only the company’s growing sales are analyzed but the well-organized working of all plant parts is also necessary. With the introduction of e-working and share computing and with the removal of all non value added activities a company can operate more efficiently and increase its growth by fast and concise working. (HERMAN, E. S., & CHOMSKY, N.1988) The heart of any e-manufacturing lies in the clearness for interaction of information, trade and data between the consumer and the manufacturing suppliers. To devise an e-manufacturing strategy, we need to work through processes defined in e-businesses such as in order reliable maintenance and making rules and regulations for executing plant systems. According to an AMR research e-manufacturing strategy merges e-business and manufacturing plans to construct the roadmap to development of system and accomplishment in the plant. Talking about the definition of e-manufacturing, it ranges from B2B,B2C, indus trial network connected by ether wires, IPs, XML, UDP, Transmission control protocol, cooperative manufacturing, WLANs, proxy servers and embedded web portals and finally to SCM(supply chain management). E-manufacturing is the merger of two lines: the horizontal one being the business line while the other vertical one being the supply-chain management and integration of systems which ensure the transparency of dissected information and business relevant data throughout the precious business chain. E-manufacturing makes use of the internet to guarantee real time processing of transparent information to be available at all times in an organizational setup. In any company the manufacturing plant is the core of all productions. According to the supply-chain models put forth by the experts, the intermediate connection of plant to the enterprise is very important and its transparency and timing have a lot to do with the company. All operations conducted at the plant are now reviewed for w orking out strategies to save time. To meet the increasing consumer demands, many companies are trying to bring maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) category under one umbrella for better performance. Today information plays a vital role for any company; therefore the accuracy of information is vital to take right decisions. A plant is the initial point of a system. If the plant floor is data based and online, it has the power to control manufacturing machinery, productivity, product design and delivery. Today with