With 80% kids displaying a high involvement in bicycles, this is the second most involving product category for kids, next only to clothes. This category sees a very high conversion of the kid’s involvement into influence and actual purchase with parents not only turning to the kids for information but also by taking them along for shopping.

How involved are today’s kids with bicycles?

Boys (83%) come across as more involved with bicycles as compared to girls (77%). Looking across age groups, bicycles turn out to be a more important category for 8 to 12 years olds (82%) as against 13-14 year olds (77%).

Do kids play a role of consultants to their parents in case of bicycles?

67% parents acknowledge the fact that their kids research and express opinion about bicycles. Being an important and highly involving category for the kids, a majority of the parents too agree that they turn to their kids for information on bicycles before making the final decision.

Role of commercials

A sizable 82% kids like to watch bicycle advertisements on television. Television ads also seem to make good conversation pieces as 57% kids claim to be discussing these advertisements with their parents. 39% parents too agree that their kids discuss the ads after watching them on television.

Does the involvement translate into influence?

Kids seem to be making sure they get the bicycle of their choice. While 72% kids state that their parents frequently follow their choice when buying bicycles, 59% kids declare that their parents always follow their choice when buying bicycles. 67% of the parents, too, claim to take their kid’s opinion seriously and follow their choice while buying bicycles, hence, validating the kids’ claims.

The research threw up some interesting skews with respect to gender, age and geographies highlighted below

Gender

· As opposed to other product categories, Girls (69%) come pretty close to boys (68%) when it comes to being brand conscious in their choice of bicycles.

Age differences impact the choice of influence drivers

· The teens (73%) turn out to be more brand centric than tweens (67%).

· It’s the younger ones who pay more emphasis on the looks and style as 8-12 year old kids (61%) give looks and style higher rating than 13-14 year olds (58%).

Metros and tier 1 towns are on an almost equal footing

· Metro kids (71%) rate brand higher than their Tier 1 counterparts (69%) though the difference is very marginal

· Tier I kids (62%) give a marginally higher rating to looks and style of the bicycle as compared to their Metro counterparts (58%).

Finally, does it translate into actual purchase?

The involvement and influence gives way to actual purchase as well since 63% kids claim to accompany their parents while going shopping for bicycles. 52% parents too corroborate the claim by stating that they take their kids along when shopping for bicycles.