Children's attitudes towards brand names of clothing and footwear

The thesis addresses children’s attitude towards brands of clothing and footwear. The theoretical part presents the concept of the brand, features of a good brand and what role do brand names of clothing and footwear play when children are making purchase decisions and what role do brand names of clothing and footwear play in their mutual relations. The thesis also introduces the course of consumer socialization in which children among other things learn to decide among products of certain brands. I was interested in the influence of environment on the child and his or her choice of clothing and footwear brands. Based on foreign literature (Elliott, Leonard, 2004), I found that although parents are still the first to introduce children to the world of consumerism, peers are the ones who have a bigger affect on child's choice of clothing and footwear brand, followed by role models and media. Parents are the second most important factor that influences children's decision making regarding the selection of branded clothing and footwear. I also paid attention to the potential social exclusion of children due to their clothing and footwear of unknown brands. The survey results (Elliott, Leonard, 2004) have shown, that the children from disadvantaged families, who cannot afford clothing and footwear of known brands are heavily burdened by this fact. They feel overwhelming pressure from peers to wear proper clothing and footwear of popular brands in order to be accepted into their company. If they cannot afford these items, they are often derided, ignored or even physically abused. For most children who were present in any of the studies on this subject, it was common that they were most impressed and convinced by the Nike brand. Based on the research I found that some arguments that are found in the literature are also true for the primary school children of our country. Both, foreign and Slovenian children are very well aware of the existence of various types of brands of clothing and footwear. It is interesting that among all of these various brands, Nike is the dominant one. Our children generally feel happier and more confident wearing the clothes of famous brands. This also applies to foreign children. However I also found some differences. Although it has been asserted in foreign literature (Elliott, Leonard, 2004), that peers are the ones who first familiarize children with a certain brand of clothes and that the parents follow them in doing so, it is shown that this order is reversed in our country. In both cases they are followed by the influence of role models, and lastly by the impact of television. The exception is also the amount of peer pressure in choosing clothes and footwear of the particular brand. Foreign children are under bigger pressure from their peers regarding clothes and footwear of famous brands (Elliott, Leonard, 2004), as the children of our primary schools are. This finding was very gratifying. \n \n