Pinching pennies? Shop with a consumer-savvy teen
Contact(s): Nancy Granovsky, 979-845-3850, granovsky@tamu.edu
Micah Holcombe, 254-933-5305, mlkarber@ag.tamu.edu
Not just any teen, mind you, but one who has spent hours studying the pros and cons of products like digital electronics, compact fluorescent light bulbs, gift and pre-paid cards, used cars and sun-protective clothing, say Texas AgriLife Extension Service specialists.
In Texas, more than 6,500 youngsters annually delve into the facts and fiction of buying all sorts of goods and services in 4-H consumer education projects, according to Dr. Toby Lepley, AgriLife Extension 4-H and youth development specialist.
“It’s important because these kids are building and reinforcing consumer skills that will last a lifetime,” said Nancy Granovsky, AgriLife Extension family economist specialist. “They learn how to evaluate a product based on quality, price and how it fits into the needs of a particular situation.”
Granovsky oversees the 20-year-old statewide project in which youths in local 4-H clubs learn to determine the worthiness of various items. Each year she and her team select goods and services that appeal to younger buyers and write study guides to teach ways to make selections for those products.
As the youngsters hone their buying skills at a local level, they may also opt to test their consumer prowess against other teens at district- and state- level matches, Granovsky explained. “Kids learn how to read labels and to check out statements that are made about products,” Granovsky said. “They learn to not just rely on what is advertised to them.”
She said lessons learned from the project are carried into adulthood because kids learn to compare what criteria are most important for them in making a purchase, and then what is the best price for that important criteria.
“That’s an important aspect to develop in the youth of Texas,” Granovsky added.
Marketing to children is listed as one of the industry’s five major global debates, according to the International Journal of Advertising. Granovsky believes teaching children consumer-decision skills will help them learn how to make good choices regardless of messages in advertising.
One such group of teens from Bell County spent some 300 hours over a nine-month period in 2008 deciding the best-to-worst purchase decision for seven classes of items, according to Micah Holcombe, AgriLife Extension agent in Bell County and one of their coaches. Their payoff was national first place at the 4-H consumer decision-making contest in Denver last month.
“At the national level, they judged and placed classes such as light bulbs, MP3 players, toys, savings accounts, backpacks, trail foods and digital photos,” Holcombe said. “Based on a scenario they were given, they had to place four items in order from the best buy to the worst buy.”
She said the four team members also had to give reasons for their rankings of the best-to-worst buys on digital photos and toys. And they were judged in a new portion of the contest – group think – by presenting their team’s decisions about various Roth savings accounts on the basis of their worthiness for working teens.
Not only did the Bell County teens win the national title, but 18-year-old David Fasolino of Belton was No. 1, and 17-year-old Victoria Eller of Temple was No. 3 in overall individual scores. Other members were Dorothy Wood, 15, and Elizabeth Wood, 17, both of Belton. Debbie Fasolino coached the team with Holcombe.
Granovsky noted that looking over about two decades of products and services examined by the consumer decision-making project provides an interesting historical perspective on what Americans have been buying.
“We’ve been looking at everything from paper towels to fishing rods, pickup trucks and athletic shoes, for example,” she said. “Some items go out of popularity like the telephone answering machines that were judged in 1993 and the CD players in 1995.”
She and her team are constantly considering what products with youthful appeal to use in the annual teaching and contests.
Granovsky said the project is supported by the Texas Credit Union Foundation and the Texas 4-H Foundation. For more information on the 4-H consumer decision-making project, see http://consumerdecisionmaking.tamu.edu.
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