One of the key findings that KidSense throws up is that kids play the role of consultants, especially so when it comes to eating out decisions for family or friends. Being a high involvement category this is evident with parents also endorsing the fact that they take their kid’s opinion seriously.

How involved are today’s kids with eating out decisions?

71% kids claimed that they like to talk about and be involved in decisions regarding eating joints. The involvement is quite similar across genders and age groups as boys (70%) as well as girls (71%) and tweens (70%) as well as teens (71%) turn out to be equally involved with eating out decisions. However, a substantial difference exists across town classes as Metro kids (75%) comes across as more strongly involved than Tier I kids (62%).

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

53% parents acknowledge the fact that their kids research and express opinion about eating out joints. Parents seem to be paying ample attention to their kids’ suggestions in this case as 31% parents agree that they turn to their kids for information and opinion.

Role of commercials

Half of the kids interviewed said they liked to watch advertisements related to eating out on television. Fast food eatery ads seem to be successful in triggering conversations as 36% of the kids claimed to discuss these advertisements with their parents after watching them.

Does the involvement translate into influence?

As it turns out, kids seem to be gaining quite a hold on where they eat and order from. A significant number of kids are making their parents listen to their judgment of the choice of place to eat/order from. 57% of kids claim that their parents frequently follow their choice of venue when eating out, while as high as 43% kids declare that their parents always follow their choice when eating out.

Parents too, are letting the kids decide the place of eating as 51% of the parents claimed to take their kid’s opinion seriously and follow their choice while eating out, hence, confirming the kids’ claims.

In terms of the influence differences across town classes, the influence factor comes across more strongly in case of Metro kids (61%) as compared to their Tier I (53%) counterpart.

Girls (60%) seem to win over boys (55%) when it comes to influencing the venue decision for the family. The gap is smaller across age groups with tweens (57%) almost at par with the teens (59%).

What is the frequency of eating out?