Pester power and impulse buying

Two years ago (though according to this timeline it was earlier today), I wrote a little post about pester power.

This is a marketing phrase that describes the influence a child has on an adult (normally parent or family member) and their purchase decisions.

As a current employee of Mothercare, I find it really interesting to see not only where our products are placed but also how many parents give in. As a marketing enthusiast I obviously revel in the fact that parents give in (also it helps me in my job too so win-win for me).

I've noticed that a lot of the time the mid-range products are stored where children can get to them - middle to bottom shelf - and I also noticed that once the child has grabbed the product a lot of parents just let them have it rather than deal with the screams and tantrums.

That comes as no surprise, I know.

I was serving a young mother at the till point the other day and she was chatting to her friend following a big blowout tantrum from her child over a chocolate lolly that he wanted and she raised an interesting point.

OBVIOUSLY we keep the chocolate by the till because it's 85p and it's at kid height and can encourage impulse buying.

This customer was moaning to her friend about how every time she walks past our store she gets dragged in because her child knows we have fun chocolate lollies at the till. Again, a win for our store. She said she thinks it should be illegal for stores to sell chocolate at the till point and apparently there is a petition to stop Tesco and other leading supermarkets from having these kind of products near the tills.

If this were a health issue in her mind, I would silently agree but as a marketing person and a business minded individual I can't, I simply can't. I know it was about the money and the pester power for this woman (eavesdropping led me to this conclusion).

Just imagine the money lost by supermarkets if chocolate and sweets weren't temptingly by the till? I mean, you're waiting and it's staring at you and you think about how good a bag of Maltesers would be on the way home and bam, just like that, Tesco has 60p extra in their pocket.