Targeting Young Consumers: How Family, Friends and Advertisement Shape Materialism in Pakistan

The purpose of the study is to investigate materialism among the youth of Pakistan. The paper examines the impact of age, self-esteem, social comparisons, and attention to television advertisement on materialistic values. The study employs an empirical approach using self-administered survey technique on the youth living in KPK province of Pakistan. The final sample consisted of 280 respondents between 14-22 years of age and registered student. Descriptive statistics, Correlation and Multiple regressions is estimated through SPSS (version 17.0). Results indicate age as a major antecedent in measuring materialism. Adolescents are found to be more materialistic as compare to young adults. The relationship between materialism and age is found negative. The influence of frequent communication with friends and social comparison of consumption was also found related with materialism. Attention to television advertisement is not found to be associated with developing materialism among young consumers. The inbuilt data limitation with cross sectional data is inevitable. Future research may employ longitudinal or qualitative i.e. interviewing techniques to secure data. The study imparts practical implication for parents, academic and professionals. The study is among the pioneer studies examining materialism among youth in Pakistan. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n4p703