Children increasingly influence elders in purchase decisions

By Our Corporate Bureau | 20 Feb 2003

Mumbai: Pester power is now gaining new heights.

A study conducted by Cartoon Network and NFO across 14 A- and B-class cities with 6,436 respondents, which included kids in the age group of seven-14 years and mothers, reveals that children are now not mute spectators in major purchase decisions. Even in items not directly concerning they have strong preferences.

In cars, it was found that the preferred brand of kids was the Hyundai Santro and that around 32 per cent of kids accompany parents when they go buying a car. Among watches the favourite brand of kids was Titan, while in TV the preferred brand was LG. And in music systems it was Sony.

Among products that directly concern kids like colas, chocolates, biscuits and chips, children’s preferences have changed somewhat. As against Pepsi some years ago, Coca-Cola has emerged as the favourite brand of fizzy drink for kids in India, while Britannia is the most favoured biscuit brand. In chocolates Cadbury’s has beaten Nestle to being the kids’ favourite brand. Among chips, the kids prefer PepsiCo’s brand Lay’s.

Among television channels Cartoon Network was preferred by 46 per cent of kids over any other channel. Here it should be kept in mind that Cartoon Network is one of the sponsors of the survey. Star Plus came next in popularity to Cartoon Network, followed by Star Plus, Discovery and Star Sports.

As far as career options go, the No 1 career choice of kids across India is to be a doctor, followed by engineer and teacher. There is also a clear gender split among career options and more girls want to become doctors while more boys want to become engineers.

The second-most popular profession with girls was teaching.