In some ways they are a marketers’ dream. They have billions of dollars in discretionary income— and spend most of it. Although their individual purchases are small，they buy regularly, often response to peer pressure. They are heavily influenced by the hours of television advertising they see each week. And，as a result of today’s smaller families, and the increase in the number of two-income households, they have more to say about family decisions than ever before.
“They” are children, of course, a group whose spending habits are attracting the attention of more and more marketers. One recent study estimates that: the thirty million U.S. children 4 to 12 years old receive about $4.7 billion annually from allowances, gifts and odd jobs. Of that amount, they spend a total of $4.2 billion each year on snacks ($1.4 billion) , toys and games ($1.1 billion) , movies and sports ( $771 million) , video games ( $766 million) , and gifts ( $164 million) , engaging in some 280 independent purchases transactions annually. Children thirteen to nineteen account for even greater yearly expenditures: $30.5 billion of their own money.
But children’s financial muscle does not end there. Researchers estimate that children directly influence more-than $40 billion in adult purchases each year. A Nickeldeon USA Today/Yankelovich Youth Monitor study found that children are extremely aware of brand and have considerable input into their parents，selection of apparel, cereal, snacks, cars, televisions and personal computers. Many children are involved in actual household purchasing, especially food； in a recent Teenage Research study, half the teen girls surveyed reported shopping for groceries at least once a week. Recognizing this indirect purchasing power that children have，a growing number of marketers are approaching the youth directly. The National Dairy Board, for example, now airs milk commercials with youth appeal, and Procter & Gamble has developed Crest for Kids toothpaste.
How did children acquire such buying clout? Researchers point to several factors. As the number of working couples and single-parent households increased, many parents shifted certain household responsibilities onto children’s shoulders. Thrust into adult roles, children have ended up with more influence over the family’s purchases, and they also tend to spend increased amounts of money themselves. In addition, many older, professional couples have fewer children. These parents can afford to lavish more on their children, including extra spending money for such items as Fisher-Price Toys’ $225 children’s camcorder and the My First Sony line of electronics gear for children. The bandwagon effect is yet another factor. When one marketer begins to focus on children, competitors follow suit, encouraging even more children’s purchases. McDonald’s Corp. , for example, has aimed advertisements for its hamburgers, meal kits, and parties at children for years； now Hardee’s Food Systems, Inc, and Wendy’s International Inc, are doing the same.
Astute marketers realize that children actually represent three markets: current consumers, influential consumers, and future buyers. Because children are steadily developing brand awareness, and product preferences that someday will translate into purchasing decisions, even companies not selling youth products per se are beginning to pay attention to sell directly to children, realizing that, out there somewhere, tomorrow’s big-ticket customer is playing video games today.
1.The topic of this selection is（ ）.
2.Which of the following is the main idea of this selection?
3.From the statement that children “have billions of dollars in discretionary income — and spend most of it”，we can infer that children（ ）.
4.About their buying behaviors, we can infer that children are（ ）.
5.We can infer that marketers believe children who develop “brand awareness” when they are young will（ ）.
