The Research On The Development Of Brand Knowledge In 3～5 Years Urban Children

Brand knowledge is a cognitive ability of learning all about the brands when people are under consumer socialization. Because preschoolers lacked of brand experience, whose cognition also haven't fully developed, there was little systematic research on brand knowledge of 3-5years' children.This study investigated brand knowledge of 3-5 years'Chinese city children, to discover how the brand knowledge developing form basic cognition to advanced cognition.Experiment I investigated children's brand awareness, mainly about the development of brand recall. The brands used in this experiment were divided into two categories:children brand and 12+brand (target audience are older than 12 years), according to questionnaires from parents. Children brand were divided into two sub-categories:image and no-image, to explore how image affects children's brand awareness. In the experiment, brands were shown on a piece of paper at the same size one by one, and children were asked to recall the name or related information of the brand. The brands which preschool children could recall easily become materials of following experiments.Experiment II investigated children's ability of brand representation. Materials were brands which had a high score in experiment I. Collage task was used in this experiment, children were shown a pair of competitive brands once a time. This experiment only investigated children's representation of products and advertisements, as considering of 3-5 year preschoolers could not focus on one target for a long time, and product and advertisement are the most important elements in a brand.Experiment III included two tests:one was trying to investigate whether children begin to have the understanding ability of brand symbolism; the other one explored connection between theory of mind and brand symbolism. In order to reduce requirement of children's language ability in the experiment, children were ask only to make choices according to questions and all materials presented to them. The two tests aimed to explore problems of individual element and social element, which including:1. Customer image (sex); 2. Emotion tendency; 3. Social connection. Meanwhile unexpected location task and unexpected content task were used to test children's theory of mind ability, to find was there any connection between children's theory of mind and brand representation ability.Results of experimentâ… showed that children had a higher recall rate of children brand than 12+brand; and the recall rate of brand with image was higher than no-image ones, which suggested children paid more attention to the brand with color, shape or characters. There was a main effect of age on brand representation in 3-5 year children, but preschoolers' brand recall ability were not fully developed, was in the process of brand awareness development.Results of experimentâ…¡showed that there was a main effect of age on brand representation task. The average score was from 1.5 to 9.5 year old children finished the collage task faster and were able to name the brand correctly, thus had the highest score. Most children in 3 and 4 year groups only can gave a answer of the product category.Results of experimentâ…¢showed that there was a main effect of age on brand symbolism.5 year old children do a better job than 3 or 4 year old. But 3-4 year children showed a difference on Ultraman. These results suggested that 4-5 year old children began to have the brand representation ability. In the process of experiment, children showed specialty as follow:1.suggestibility, 2.self-centered,3.began to have awareness of sex.,4.focuse on amount.It is generally believed that 4-5 year is the key period of the development of theory of mind. Results of our study also showed that 3 year old children seldom passed test of theory of mind, and 4-5 year children do a much better job. Score of theory of mind has a positive correlation with brand representation ability, which means children who have higher level of theory of mind will have better ability on brand representation.In conclusion, this study has found:(1) The brand presentation ability of 3-5 year old children develops over age. Children at the age of 3-5 year have basic brand knowledge, and begin to show advanced brand knowledge.(2) 3-5 year old children show their best brand knowledge on the brands they are familiar with (children brand).(3) Level of theory of mind has a positive correlation with brand representation ability in 3-5 year children, which means children who have higher level of theory of mind will have better ability on brand representation.