AN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION MODEL TOWARDS CHILDREN IN TURKEY: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON MILK DRINKING HABITS

The milk consumption in Turkey is far behind of that of the EU states. Taking this as a starting point, our study explored the underlying reasons why in our country and how this gap could be bridged. Parent-child communication, the communication technics of milk firms, competitive communication strategies employed by substitute drinks, have been found as important factors with effect on the issue. In-deep interviews with experts of the field and focus group studies with children revealed important results. At the focus interviews, it’s been found that children were perceiving milk as a duty to please parents and get a preferred entertainment as reward. The main reason for this perception amongst children is the insufficiency of parents as positive role models. The milk firms also have established a communication similar to parents which causes to the perception of the “duty drink”. “Duty drink” communication without insight to the children is thus not able to reach sufficient motivation on them. At this point, a model communication campaign to carry the milk perception towards a positive approach has been designed and tested. This aspect of the study suggest a model for integrated marketing communication towards children.