| Abstract: | Children present a unique situation for marketers to build child-brand relationships and also represent significant market potential. To obtain a deeper understanding of how children form bonds with brands, the paper develops the Children as Potential Relationship Partner (CPRP) framework and proposes that children's potential to form relationships with a brand depends on their motivation (M), opportunity (O), and ability (A) to do so. This relationship potential is represented by the MOA space, which is the product of the three dimensions. An inventory of propositions is developed to explain how children's motivation, opportunity, and ability determine the formation of child-brand relationships. In addition, the roles of gender and age and the influence of two social environmental factors, parents and peers, are also discussed. The paper concludes by calling more empirical study on child-brand relationships and discussing implications for brand managers and public policy makers. |
