Disney’s KidSense has revealed that today’s kids have evolved from active influencers to consultants for purchase of the non conventional product categories. This is corroborated by a key finding that kids play the role of ‘information providers’ even for high end product categories such as mobile phones.

Also the parents seem to be endorsing this line of thinking by recognizing the role of kids as active participants in the buying process by taking them along to buy big ticket items.

How involved are today’s kids with mobile phones?

76% of the kids display high involvement in mobile phones although there is a slight difference in the involvement levels between markets. But the Tier 1 kids (73%) are fast catching up with the metro kids (79%) in terms of involvement.

Do kids play a role of consultants to their parents in mobile phones?

Kids play the role of information providers to their parents with 53% parents acknowledging the fact that their kids do research and express opinion about mobile phones. Taking it a step further, parents (32%) also turn to their kids for information on mobile phones.

Role of commercials

Among all the product categories mobile phones advertisements are the most watched with 92% kids watching these advertisements. These advertisements are also one of the most actively discussed upon category among kids (58%).

Does the involvement translate into influence?

With 56% kids claiming that their parents frequently follow their choice when buying mobile phones and 29% kids declaring that their parents always follow their choice when buying mobile phones a significant number of kids are influencing their parents into listening to them. This is validated by the parents where 46% parents say that they are endorsing their kid’s opinion and following their choice while buying mobile phones. Metro kids have a slight upper hand where influencing parents is concerned although Tier I is catching up with them with the influence level of Tier 1 kids (54%) being slightly lower than the Metro kids (60%).

Which are the mobile features that are influence drivers for kids?

Hence, we see that mobile phones as a category sees a high involvement among kids, a significant amount of which is converted into influence.

*Scope of the study:
The Quantitative Study covered Kids aged 8-14 years & Parents of kids 4-14 years across 10 markets - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana and Jaipur.
The sample for this study was 3560 respondents, Kids (2240) and Parents (1320) who belong to SEC A and B households, have a monthly household income of Rs 10,000 plus and owning at least 4 out of 8 consumer durables in the house (Air Conditioner, Color Television, Microwave oven, Personal Computer or Laptop, Refrigerator, Telephone or Mobile Connection, Two wheeler or Four wheeler, Washing Machine).