Czym się bawić? Funkcje marek dla dzieci – raport z badań siedmiolatków

The purpose of this article is to provide a theoretical and empirical explanation of how the consumer socialization works with children of 7/8 years. This paper poses questions about the way brands are discussed in social situations in the environment of school class. It explores children’s socializations into consumer-brand relationships and the influence that marketing texts have on their everyday social experiences. The analysis of children’s talk about brands is critical in order to understand the ways that brands (with parents, siblings and peers) socialize them into consumer culture. The first section presents contemporary discussion of children’s consumption phenomena. The second section emphasis on researching with 14 groups of primary Polish pupils in Lublin. It uses data analysis born of in-depth interviews analysis. This study is based on principles of cultural studies and discourse and functional analysis which approach as a means to enhance richness and uniqueness in the area of children’s consumption. In order to understand children’s brand consumption the paper indicates five main functions emerged from the data: 1. Exploring consumer culture through play and gratification 2. Seeking safety in an overabundance 3. Identification and gender socialization 4. Belonging to a group and rivalry 5. Utilitarian functions. Author argues that consumption ideology and their discourses are not increasingly define children’s everyday social experiences. 7/8-year-olds were not a coherent group significantly interested in brands and consumption, but on the other hand, they were not a group that did not interested in them at all. Counter to the (mainly polish) literature children have not extensive knowledge of brands and brands are not so emerging in their lives.