International Journal of Retail & Distribution ManagementChildren’s experiences and parents’ perceptions of retailers’ mobile applicationsLaurent Muzellec Florence Feenstra Brigitte de Faultrier Jacques Boulay

Article information:To cite this document:Laurent Muzellec Florence Feenstra Brigitte de Faultrier Jacques Boulay , (2016),"Children’sexperiences and parents’ perceptions of retailers’ mobile applications", International Journal of Retail& Distribution Management, Vol. 44 Iss 11 pp. 1118 - 1131Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-11-2015-0169

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Children’s experiencesand parents’ perceptions ofretailers’ mobile applications

Laurent MuzellecTrinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, and

Florence Feenstra, Brigitte de Faultrier and Jacques BoulayESSCA School of Management, LUNAM University, Angers, France

AbstractPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the nature of a brandedmobile application experiencefor children, and analyse how these experiences affect the children’s and parents’ brand perceptions.Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a qualitative approach focussing on theconsumer perspective. Children were asked to use two selected applications from an I-Padtablet (“La Grande Récré” – A1 and “MonkiMi” – A2). Children and parents were subsequentlyinterviewed.Findings – Children primarily valued the emotional experience of the application (app).The parents appreciated their children’s cognitive experience of the mobile app. Parents aremuch more responsive to mobile application communication, as they perceive to have more controlover this new media and value the cognitive and emotional dimension of their children experienceof the app.Research limitations/implications – The study shows that branded apps can be an extremelyeffective way in delivering valuable brand content which positively impact brand perceptions.This initial and exploratory study calls for further extensive research in this area.Practical implications – This research demonstrates the untapped potential of sponsored apps as acommunication medium.Originality/value – The paper indicates that mobile applications constitute a new communicationchannel for retailers and brand owners to interact at an emotional level with their existing orprospective customers.Keywords Retailing, Experiential marketing, Child behaviour, Mobile applicationsPaper type Research paper

Tablets can no longer be considered a fad: According to e-marketer, more than onebillion people worldwide use a tablet in 2015[1]. The initial use of mobile devices wasconstrained to the activity of calling and texting. Smartphones (e.g. Blackberry) addede-mailing but the next generation of smartphones (e.g. Samsung Galaxy and I-phone)and tablet (I-Pad) introduced mobile applications. In 2013, US internet usersdownloaded about 33 apps to their phones and regularly used about 12 – similarnumbers are found for other developed countries – e.g. 37 apps downloaded and 12regularly used in France (Google, 2014). The use of mobile phones is becomingpervasive in consumers’ behaviour (Kulviwat et al., 2009) and electronic personalobjects could be assimilated perceived by individuals as “extensions of themselves”(Bruner and Kumar, 2007). In parallel, there is growing scepticism about theeffectiveness of traditional TV advertising as traditional media have difficultiesin competing for consumers’ attention (Bellman et al., 2011; Teixeira, 2014).The traditional interruption-based advertising model (i.e. advertising breaks on TV

International Journal of Retail &Distribution ManagementVol. 44 No. 11, 2016pp. 1118-1131©EmeraldGroup Publishing Limited0959-0552DOI 10.1108/IJRDM-11-2015-0169

Received 10 November 2015Revised 12 May 2016Accepted 13 July 2016

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:www.emeraldinsight.com/0959-0552.htm

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or radio) is on its way out. According to e-marketer, the share of time spent on mobileby US adults has shifted from 3.7 to 23.3 per cent between 2010 and 2014 while in thesame time TV decreased from 40.9 to 36.5 per cent (eMarketer, 2014a, b).

This phenomenon seems to affect children to an even greater extent (CommonSenseMedia, 2013). The peak use of tablets is between the ages of eight and 11, at 27 per cent,before dropping back to 22 per cent for 12- to 15-year-olds (eMarketer, 2014a, b). Mobileapplication, most commonly referred to as an app, is a type of application softwaredesigned to run on a mobile device. Mobile applications on smartphones and tabletscan therefore constitute for retailers and brands a new distribution and communicationchannel with existing or prospective customers. In particular, branded apps defined assoftware downloadable to a mobile device which prominently displays a brand identitycan have a very positive persuasive impact on brand interest (Bellman et al., 2011).Apps are considered by marketing commentators as great advertising opportunities.The phenomenon is not new, as early as 2009, precursors like Target and Coca-Colalaunched their first branded apps. Yet, there is still very little understanding on howbranded apps may be used and perceived by children and their parents. Parentsare particularly concerned with their children’s use of interactive content andapplications (Horgan, 2006), especially when it is provided by a brand arguably forcommercial or brand communication purposes. Companies on the other hand want toensure that the interactive content that they provide serves their brand purpose.The purpose of this study is therefore two-fold. First, we aim to understand howchildren’s experience branded’ mobile applications. We also want to analysehow parents’ perceive their children’s experience and react to this new form ofcommunication. This is done in the industry-specific context of retail brands. After areview of the literature at the crossroads of mobile technology and brand experience,the paper explains the methodology employed and proposes a classificationof children’s experience and parents’ attitudes towards this new technique ofcommunication.

Brand and mobile applications experience and the connected childDue to the fast pace of development of digital technology and its almost immediateadoption by children, academic research tends to lag behind industry practice andconsumer behaviour. Hence, to comprehend the children’s experience of a branded app,it is necessary to briefly call on the literature of experiential marketing in the contextof children’s use of mobile and digital devices in an attempt to delineate atheoretical framework.

Since the 1990s, contemporary consumers have been portrayed as emotionalindividuals seeking sensitive experiences (Maffesoli, 1990). Consequently marketers havebeen designing brand offerings that focussed on experiential differentiation (Schmitt,1999). Schmitt (1999) argued that five types of experiences could be created by marketers:sensory, affective, creative cognitive, physical behavioural and social-identity experiences.In a quantitative study, Brakus et al. (2009) found that social and affective items loaded onthe same factor and therefore labelled the four dimensions of brand experience assensory, affective (including social), intellectual and behavioural. The experientialdimension of consumer culture means that consumers seek hedonistic gratification in asocial context. Hirschman and Holbrook (1982) define the experiential consumption ashedonic and include playful leisure activity, sensory pleasures, daydreams, aestheticenjoyment and emotional response. This is especially true for children. Children look forpleasure, feelings and need to use their imagination (Damay and Guichard, 2011;

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Wiener, 2004). Experiential marketing has been shown to be effective in fulfillingchildren’s needs (Damay and Guichard, 2011). More specifically, the emotional dimensionis predominant in understanding children’s behaviour. This is true, for example, withregards to the edutainment experience which determines long-term orientation inchild-retailer relationships (Feenstra et al., 2015). Research on children also showsthat direct experience with the product creates safer beliefs and attitudes than TVadvertising for children and “tweens” (Moore and Lutz, 2000). Playing with an app is notequal to experiencing the product but it is a much more engaging experience thanpassively watching a TV commercial and induces a high level of user engagement. Youngchildren also tend to rely more on their own experience in a familiar environment todevelop learning strategies (Perracchio and Mita, 1991). An app which can be experiencedat home corresponds to that environment. In their consumption, children areprimarily seeking emotional benefits rather than utilitarian (Derbaix, 1982; Rouen,2002). This leads to the question of what benefits do parents and children derive fromtheir usage of a sponsored app?

Andrews et al. (2012) have analysed the experiential value of mobile phone usage ofadults and identified three profiles of mobile users, labelled as mobile pragmatists, mobileconnectors and mobile revellers. Those three profiles mirror the functional, social andemotional dimensions of experiential marketing. In his study of mobile phone usage,Wagner (2011) mapped the mind of the British smartphone consumer and found out thatthe hedonic and utilitarian functions were very much at the heart of consumers’ mentalmap. Shankar et al. (2010) identify “concerned parents” as one of the main segments formobile devices. Horgan (2006) outlined the differences between parents and childrenin a paper with the evocative title “Interactive kids, passive parents”. The idea putforth in Horgan’s paper is that if parents have more access to technology, theirchildren make more use of it in relative terms. Parents have also been concernedabout the effect of both traditional and digital advertising on their children(Rozendaal et al., 2011; Bergler, 1999). In the retail context, Taylor and Levin (2014)recently demonstrated that the level of interest in a retail app is positively related tothe consumer’s intention to engage in purchasing and information-sharing activitiesbut their findings only apply to adults.

The literature on digital marketing and brand advertising to children mainly focusseson the extent to which children understand advertising and the correlated ethical debates(Martin, 1997). For traditional media such as TV, it has been pointed out that children canrecognise an ad on TV as distinct from the main programme (Donohue et al., 1980). This,however, does not necessary mean that they always fully understand the persuasiveintent of advertising (Martin, 1997). In any case, mobile apps are different to traditionalinterruption-based advertisement, as the experience of the app is not interrupting anotheractivity. Children have traditionally used structural cues such as the length of theinterruption to distinguish the TV advertising from main programme. The absence ofinterruption may result in the children having more difficulties in identifying a digitaladvertisement (Ali et al., 2009; An and Kang, 2013). Boulay et al. (2014) recently indicatedthat children express a very negative perception of e-retailing website but the studyfocussed on e-retailing as sales channel not a communication medium.

The app experience is, however, different to visiting an e-retailing website as it is afully immersed experience which may be comparable to an advergame. Advergamesoffer children a fully immersive, fun experience (An and Kang, 2013). An et al. (2014)found that three-quarters of the children that they tested did not categorise theadvergame as a type of advertising and accordingly those children were less sceptical

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about the ad than those who identified the games as ad. To overcome ad recognitionand avoidance, advertainment blurs the line between entertainment and advertising.Similar to product placement, advergames are believed to create positive emotionalassociations and increase brand memory and loyalty (Lee et al., 2009). As children aresusceptible to affective communication advergames are extremely effective whentargeting children (Van Reijmersdal et al., 2012). Recently, Noorhidawati et al. (2015)found that collective sensory skill, emotional expression and verbal expression werethe conditions of children’s learning engagement with mobile app. Could the samecontentions be made for sponsored branded apps?

In sum, the marketing literature construe the emotional consumption experience ofchildren while the advertising literature provides some interesting insights about theeffectiveness of the advertgame as a communication medium while acknowledging thatthe legitimate ethical concern of parents.

To date, however, there has not been a study that clearly describes the children’sexperiences of branded mobile applications, the potential benefits of this newmarketing channel for the retail brand and the attitudes of the parents’ towards thisnew form of communication. This study aims to fill this gap and seeks to analysechildren’s experiences of tablet apps and determine the nature of that experience.It does so by analysing the experience using the dimensions developed by Brakus et al.(2009). It then analyses how the parents’ perceived this experience and evaluate theretailers’ intentions towards their children.

Research design and methodologySampleThe sample consisted of 20 children in total; ten were aged between six and seven yearsold (application 1: La Grande Récré) and ten children were aged 9-12 years old(application 2 MonkiMi). Those two age groups correspond to two stages of Piaget’stheory of cognitive development, i.e. the intuitive thought substage – within thebroader category of the preoperative stage – and concrete operational stage.

The intuitive thought substage is when children realise they have a vast amount ofknowledge, but they are unaware of how they acquired it. Piaget estimates that thishappens between the ages of four and seven (Wadsworth, 1999). This age group wasfurther restricted to children aged six to seven as it corresponded more closely to theaudience of the application (La Grande Récré) for which reading or pre-reading skillsare instrumental in experiencing the app.

The concrete operational stage occurs between the ages of seven and 11. At this age,children can now conserve and think logically and are no longer egocentric (Wadsworth,1999). Siegel et al. (2001) consider children aged 7-12 years old to be a specific consumergroup while Lindström and Seybold (2004) believe that children aged 8-14 have similarconsumption patterns. The sample for the second application (MonkiMi) corresponds tothe core of this age category as all respondents were aged 9-12.

ApplicationsTwo applications were selected following an inventory of all available retail brandsapplications in France at the time of the experiment: La Grande Récré Application forsix-seven years old and MonkiMi H&M for 9-12 years’ old. The choice of theseapplications was therefore made very simple as they were the only ones that fit thethree criteria necessary for that study which were retail brand applications; aimed at

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the children at the preoperative stage and concrete operational stage of their cognitivedevelopment; and were available for download in France at the time of the study.

La Grande Récré (Groupe Ludendo) is the French retail leader in games, toys andentertainment. The chain has over 300 stores in France. The application includes sixunreleased tales to read or listen to. The child selects a story and drags the pages withhis finger just as he would do for a standard book. The child can choose the soundoption (the story is recounted to him) or the text option (the text appears at the bottomof the screen). The logo “La Grande Récré” is present on the first page, then at the end ofthe tales, a discreet button “i” refers to the mobile site of the retailer and a geolocationoption indicates the nearest store (Plate 1).

Monki is a store concept developed by H&M which, while selling clothes andaccessories, focusses on creativity and experiential marketing. Monki stores are locatedin Scandinavia, London and Paris. The application MonkiMi (in English) allowschildren to take a picture of themselves or their friends and then transform this photoby adding physical features (beards, makeup) or accessories (hat, necklace, beard) tocreate a look or a self-parody. The accessories are usually available in Monki retailoutlets (see www.monki.com). The application includes a link to the community Monkiand a geolocation feature (Plate 2).

Plate 1.“La Grande Récré”application

Plate 2.“MonkiMi”application

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Data collectionFor this study, 20 semi-structured interviews were implemented. Lawlor and Prothero(2011) posit that the in-depth interview approach “can draw rich representations ofchildren experiences while facilitating the pursuit of other avenues of interests as theyemerged in the conversation”. Yet three major limitations must be overcome wheninterviewing children: their understanding of the issue, the child’s ability to give back aresponse verbally and their level of attention which may dull very quickly (Banisterand Booth, 2005; Perrachio and Mita, 1991). The first two limitations were overcomethrough participant observation and by concluding the data collection process with aninterview of the parents (triangulation). To overcome the last limitation, children werenever interviewed for more than 20 minutes.

The choice of protocol and sequence of the interviews was driven by the aboveconsideration. The children were first asked to use the selected application from an I-Padtablet. The interviews had then three phases: a first phase of questioning the parent whilethe child played with the application (the questions relate to all applications used bychildren and the media consumption habit of the family). In the second phase theresearcher observed the child for a fewminutes and then questioned him/her on his use ofthe app while he/she was still partially using it. The last phase consisted of a sessioncombining questions to the parents and the child together once the child had finishedplaying with the app (questions related to their experience of the application, the brand,and finished with questions on the ethics and motivations behind brand marketing withthe parents). Interviews were taped and transcripts subsequently made of each interviewand combined with the field note (observations) of the researcher.

Data analysisTo analyse the data, some guidelines provided by Miles and Huberman (1994) werefollowed. Miles and Huberman talk about a ladder of abstraction where the researcherstarts with a text and codes the text into categories, then moves on to identify trends andthemes, relates them back to the literature and delineates deeper structures. The initialwork was to sort out the different forms of experience by respondents. The answer of therespondents were classified according to Brakus et al.’s (2009) four dimensions of brandexperience (sensory, affective, intellectual and behavioural) as shown in Table I.

To move to the next ladder of abstraction, themes were identified and related to theexisting literature. Through the process of moving back and forth between the data, theinferences and the literature, themes that describe the nature of the branded appexperience were identified.

Results: characterising the branded app experience for childrenThe use of tablets and mobile phone is very well accepted and understood by children.Of the 17 families interviewed (20 children), only six families do not have a tablet at

Sensory Appeal to someone sensesAffective Induce feelings and sentiments

Generate strong emotions and/or social interactionsBehavioural Engage in physical actions and behaviour when using itIntellectual Engage in a lot of thinking

Stimulate curiosity and problem solving

Table I.Definition and

categories of brandexperience

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home, while all have a smartphone. All children use applications on a regular basis(daily or weekly use, e.g. on weekends). The children were very receptive to the use ofthe selected applications.

Our initial purpose was to analyse the children’s experience of the tablet and tounderstand the nature of that experience. All four dimensions of experience, i.e.sensory, affective intellectual and behavioural described by Brakus et al. (2009) arerepresented in the branded app experience by children in Table II.

An affective and intellectual experience for six to seven years old: a branded escapeChildren initially experienced the apps through their senses and reacted positively ornegatively to pictures (“I look at the picture”, Augustin, age seven) and sound (“I don’tlike the song”, Agathe age seven). The behavioural dimension corresponds to thechildren being able to easily play with the interactive book. Those two dimensions areless prominent. The affective dimension and the intellectual dimension (for the parents)are the two most salient elements of the branded app experience.

Consistent with previous studies (e.g. Wiener, 2004), the data suggests that the mostnotorious aspect of the application experience for children is the affective dimension.The affective dimension encompasses the emotional experience (feelings) induced bythe story and the hedonist experience of reading. The excitation and degree ofimmersion of the children with the app appeared to be more than one would havewitnessed for a regular book. The children did enjoy the reading and/or the story tellingand one could speculate that they found it more ludic than reading a book. There istherefore a cross-over between the hedonist experience of the story (“At some point, thewolf has hit a fire truck […] it was a little funny!”, Amaury, age 6), and the cognitiveexperience of discovering a new story (“It is a beautiful story”, Blandine, age 6).The related educative aspect of the experience is what mattered most for the majorityof parents: “Through this type of application we were able to discover stories in a way alittle more fun than opening a book would be[…] One can simultaneously read the text

Dimensions La Grande Récré Target: 6/7 years old MonkiMi Target: 9/12 years old

Sensory Visual experience (positive reactions toillustrations/images)Hearing experience (positive reactionsto music)

Esthetical experience (beautyof the self-made character)

Behavioural Active experience (ease of navigation) Active experience (ease ofnavigation, personalisation)

Affective Emotional experience (feelings inducedby the story)Hedonistic experience (pleasure ofreading)

Socio-affective experience(parent-child playtime)Hedonistic experience (pleasureof creating a style, a characterand self-parody)

Intellectual Cognitive experience (discovering anew story)Educative experience (improvingreading skills with entertainment)

Cognitive experience(discovering of accessoriessold in the store)Functional experience (findinga style, find accessories via theapplication)

Overall characterisation ofthe branded app experience

Branded escape Branded socialisation

Table II.The four dimensionsof the branded appexperience

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as it appears and therefore it combines an image with reading practice so it can makereading more fun for children who would not have a particular attraction for books”( Jean-Christophe, father of Aurore, six years). Parents perceived their children’sexperiences of the app as an opportunity for them to gain independence throughcognitive and hedonic experiences such as reading. In addition, the mobile app isperceived as less “numbing” than video games or television.

Yet, the combined effect of those experiential dimensions resulted in a degree ofimmersion in the fiction not dissimilar to what children experience when playingvideo games. This immersion was characterised first by an inability to disconnectfrom the story once the child started to read or follow it (inability to pay attention toquestions/requests to interview). It was also characterised by an inability todistinguish between the experience of the app and the story (content) of the app.Hence, the theme that best describes the experience may be “escapism” as “escapism”corresponds to a mental diversion by means of entertainment. Contrary to theliterature in psychology which often view escapism as negative (e.g. Hagström andKaldo, 2014), escapism could also be interpreted as a neutral or even positive intenseimmersion. Consumers may consider using a product to escape from reality, and tohelp deal with loneliness or unwanted social situations (Korgaonkar andWolin, 1999).As Calleja (2007) argues, escapism may be a form of engagement that is inherent to afinely crafted fictional or virtual world. This evocative power of fiction is one of thereasons why the Grande Récré app offers an escapist experience. The narration of theexperience is a narration of the story (“the wolf […] he was looking for Santa Clausand each time he bumped”, Aurore, age 6)”. Similar to a video game (Calleja, 2007), theconjunction of the aesthetic quality of the fiction and the engaged consciousness ofthe child (“The story is what I like”, Augustin, age 7) can lead to a sensation ofinhabiting him/her, because that experience becomes part of his/her immediatesurroundings. Interestingly, escapism is now considered to be a powerful source ofmotivation for brand loyalty (Labrecque et al., 2011). We have labelled thisexperience: a branded escape.

An affective and behavioural experience of 9-12 years old: a branded socialisationSimilar to younger children, the sensory dimension of the experience is limited andconfined to visual impression with regards to colour and aesthetics. The affectivedimension of the experience is underpinned by a behavioural dimension; i.e. theenjoyment of the children to being able to handle and choose accessories and picturesby themselves. (“It’s funny because we can all dress up.” Sophie, age 12 or “It’s easy, butit’s fun because you can customize an image” Noemie, age 10). The affective dimensioncorresponds to a hedonistic experience derived from the pleasure of creating a style, acharacter and self-parody as well as a socio-emotional experience (disguising theirmother or brothers and sisters). Here, an intra-family socialisation experience describedthe interaction between children and parents; the brand experience offered newopportunities for exchange with parents. “Mother of Aymeric: ‘Oh you’re so cute’(Laughter) (Aymeric is decked out with glasses, a hat […])”. The children’s experiencecontributed to the development of the parent-child relationship, leading to greaterreciprocity in the family environment. Whereas previous consumer socialisationliterature suggests that as children age, parental consumption influence wanes (Ward,1974), the current study indicates a greater level of interaction between the child andthe parent as children age. The level of socialisation seem to increase as the older thechild was as parents and children were able to play but also comment on the utilitarian

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value of the Monkime app. Similar to their parents, the functional value of theapplication become more prominent, the older the child. The experience of applicationwas evaluated for its usefulness to accomplish a goal – in this case, finding a newfashion accessory (“I’d like to have more accessories! More hats!”, Aymeric, age 12).We have characterised the overall app experience: a branded socialisation.

Results: parents’ attitude towards the branded app experience. Children seemedunaware of the retailers’ brand names prior to using the app; hence the experience ofthe app was the primary source of brand associations for the children. Due to the natureof the app “La Grande Récré”, (five interactive books), many children believed that thebrand was selling books. The six- and seven-year-old children found it difficult to recallthe name of the sponsor; there does not seem to have been an immediate and tangibleeffect on children’s attitudes towards the brand. Some older children, however,recognised that the application could induce them to go shopping at MonkiMe (“I thinkit could at least make me want to go to the store to see it!” Bathilde, age 11).

This contrasts slightly with the overall lucidity of parents with regards tocommercial intentions of the two brands. They were fully aware of the potentialinfluence of these applications on the development needs and wishes of their children(“It’s a very smart from a marketing point of view. Children can spend hours playingand it’s going to get their head and they will want to go in the shop – for sure”Motherof Cyriaque, age 7).

They nevertheless accepted this new form of advertising to the extent that thebenefits are not one-sided; i.e. not solely on the benefit of the advertiser. On the userside, they evaluated positively their children experience of the application in two ways.

First, they greatly appreciated the cognitive and/or affective benefits of the apps.Parents valued the quality of the stories, the educational or socio-affective intentions ofthe games and the fact that the app was free. Parents were particularly excited to receivefree content (“brand content”). This situation can be equated to a “give and take”situation. The child receives free and useful content in exchange for a relatively smallmarketing exposure. The mother of Amaury, age six summarises the mood: “It does notshock me! It’s on books too and books are everywhere! The brand image is not on allpages. It is at the beginning and at the end like all the books where it was purchased […]no, it does not shock me, as it allows children to read if they have trouble reading or […]makes them love reading!” The mother of Bathilde, age 11 asked “Is this free? (Yes, it is).Then if it’s free, I think it’s a good way to advertise! It’s funny! I think it’s cool, fun and ifthe store that I like were doing this app, I would go there! I think this style of advertisingis helpful, and you Bath? (Bathilde): yes! I also agree!” It is worth noting that this does nottranslate necessary to immediate purchasing intention and that the notion that this couldbe introduced provoked some negative reactions.

In fact, the second perceived benefits for the parent is their ability to control theirchildren’s advertising exposure through the choice of the app., a limitation of theexposure time, no links to commercial sites (“I do not want my kid to go to the website;it is up to the parents to decide. So if it is free and there is no obligation to purchase,then it’s ok.” Father of Aurore, Age 6). The mobile app was therefore perceived as asuitable communication channel but an inappropriate sales channel. “I don’t mind adlike that t, it does not bother me, however, if you could click on a link to go to thewebsite (e-commerce), that would be a different story […]” Mother of Tanguy, age 7).Children’s exposure to this new form of advertising is tolerated as part of theconsumerist environment in which children grow up today. However, the presence of

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trade links seems prohibitive. The attitude seemed to be the same for parents of olderchildren (MonkiMi). Blandine’s mother confirmed: “From a marketing perspective, Ithink it’s perfect! […] I find it normal that they use these means to make themselvesknown. This is better than annoying ads!” Figure 1 summarises the variables thatinfluences the attitudes of the parents towards the branded app.

In summary, this study offers a number of findings. First, children aged six andseven immersed themselves in the app to the point that they could escape theirimmediate environment; this affective dimension of the experience was complementedby the intellectual dimension of the pleasure of learning. In other words, it seems thatwith younger children, the app had the effect of emotionally and intellectually movingthe children into the branded fictional environment (escapism). Not surprisingly, theuse of the apps triggered brand associations related to the nature of the app, i.e. storiesare associated with a book store, but there was limited effect on brand awareness. Withregards to the older children (9-12), the self-parody and socio-emotional games playedwith their parents are best described in the context of the affective experience. Olderchildren and their parents valued the free content that was offered to them through thesponsored app. They enjoyed the socio-emotional experience of the app and derivedpositive attitude towards the retail brand as a result.

Theoretical and managerial implicationsThere are a number of implications that could be drawn from this initial study. From atheoretical point of view, the study relates to a number of projections already put forwardby other authors. First of all, the study confirms the potential of experiential marketingwhen targeting children (Damay and Guichard, 2011). The emotional rather utilitarianbenefits of the apps were fully embraced by children. Tablet apps seem to combine someof the feature of experiential and digital marketing. The notion of escapism, the result of afully immersive experience seems to corroborate previous evidence on video game andadvergame studies (Bailey et al., 2009). Similar to the findings on advergames, theyounger children seem to have difficulties in recognising the branded nature of the app(An and Kang, 2013); in the case of the tablet app, this resulted in the children notrecalling the name of the sponsor. This is possibly due to the discreet nature of the logo.

Perceived benefits for ChildrenCognitive (educational),

affective (socio-emotional andhedonist) experience

Attitude of the parentstowards the Branded App

Perceived control for parentsApp choice: free vs paid, control ofthe time children are exposed tothe app, Incentive to purchase

Figure 1.Antecedents of

parents’ attitudetowards thebranded app

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Children consciously or unconsciously seem to keep a cautious distance from brandswhile embracing the experience that they may offer (for free). In that regards, thestudy does not seem to conclusively corroborate the findings of Lee et al. (2009) onthe effectiveness of advergames in increasing brand memory and loyalty.

On the other hand, the study shows the very positive benefits that responsiblesponsored apps may offer to brands when developing their relationship with parents.With mobile apps, parents negotiate confidently with brands in a give and takerelationship: parents accept that their children be exposed to a branded messageprovided that their children derive value (emotional or cognitive) from the appexperience. As concerned parents (Shankar et al., 2010), they are particularly attuned tothe educational aspects that could be offered by the sponsored app. At the same time,parents seem remarkably open to the idea of sponsored apps. This contrasts withprevious studies which have outlined parents’ concerns and scepticism towardstraditional and digital advertising (Bergler, 1999; Rozendaal et al., 2011). This ispotentially due to the non-intrusive nature of the sponsoring in the apps investigated,which meant that the children were immersed in an environment that was less brandedthan an advergame would be. This also may explain the positive response from parentsto this type of advertising exposure.

From a managerial point of view, the study confirms the huge potential offered bymobile applications to reach and connect with new and potential consumers. The lownumber of free branded applications targeted at children contrasts with parents’ andchildren’s enthusiasm for applications such as MonkiMi or La Grande Récré. Thechallenge for retail brands is to meet those expectations. However, it should be noted thatmobile applications on tablets and smartphones appear to be less a distribution tool thana great communication tool. The prospect of possible cross-selling triggered somenegative reactions in the sample audience, which then started to look at thoseapplications with greater caution. The good “fit” between retailer’s values and offeringsand the nature of the apps experience is also an essential component of the success. Mostchildren and some parents who were less familiar with “La Grande Récré” (a toys retailer)thought that the companies specialised in selling books. Yet, retailers and brandsdeveloped relevant applications that created experiences of high cognitive or hedonicvalue. Those applications could be quickly embraced by parents and children alike. Forlimited development and distribution costs, brands have the opportunity to enter into thelives of children and parents if they offer quality content. Sponsored mobile apps allowmarketers to develop an approach that is more intimate than traditional advertisementand potentially less subject to ethical controversy than advergames.

Limitations and future researchThis study represents an initial foray into research in the area of sponsored mobileapps aimed at children. Although the present study has yielded some preliminaryfindings, it is not without limitations. The limited number of applications availablerestrains the generalisability of the findings as the nature of the children experience ofa mobile apps could vary significantly depending on the type of apps used. Althoughthe number of branded apps aimed at children is increasing, future research mayconsider the experimentation route in order to control the variable of the contentand type of app used. Further investigation is also needed on a larger sample ofchildren and parents to determine the impact of various execution variables suchas children and parents’ preferences including a predisposition to advertising andgaming to assess the effect of sponsored apps on brand attitudes.

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Note1. Source: www.emarketer.com/Article/Tablet-Users-Surpass-1-Billion-Worldwide-2015/1011806

(accessed 26 October 2016).

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Corresponding authorLaurent Muzellec can be contacted at: laurent.muzellec@tcd.ie

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