children influenced nearly half of all US household spending in 2005

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by: Lynette Webb

This is one of those things that’s common knowledge, but it’s still nice when you stumble across some numbers (or at least educated estimates) to reinforce.

From the article: “Children are making decisions about most household products,” says James McNeal, a consultant who has been writing about marketing to children for two decades. He estimates that children under 14 influenced as much as 47% of American household spending in 2005, amounting to more than $700 billion. That is made up of $40 billion of children’s own spending power, $340 billion in direct influence (“I want a Dell”) and $340 billion in indirect influence (“I know little Timmy would prefer us to buy the Lexus”).”

Image from Flickr CC www.flickr.com/photos/paseodelsur/91210274/ thanks to CarlosLuis
Quote from www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?story_id=… 

Original Post: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynetter/323025067/