With the penetration of computers on a steady rise in recent years and with the category touching a penetration of close to 40 mn according to latest figures, it becomes imperative to study the consumer behaviour for this category.

Disney’s KidSense-2007 has revealed that kids also do play a role in the purchase process of this category.
42% of all kids’ respondents for the study* own either a computer or laptop in their households.

How involved are today’s kids with computers?

61% of the kids display high involvement in computers as a product category where they claim to frequently talk about computers. However, there is a visible gap in the involvement levels across markets with Metro kids (69%) showing significantly higher levels of involvement as compared to their Tier I (50%) counterparts.

The role of kids as their parents’ consultant in the computers category

Parents do acknowledge the prowess of kids when it comes to buying computers with 35% of the parents claiming that their kids do research and express opinion about computers. Furthermore, 18% parents also turn to their kids for information on computers.

Role of commercials

53% kids claimed that they like to watch computer advertisements on television, while 31% claimed to be discussing these advertisements with their parents after watching them.

Does the involvement translate into influence?

With 37% kids claiming that their parents frequently follow their choice when buying computers and 23% kids declaring that their parents always follow their choice when buying computers, a significant number of kids are influencing their parents into listening to them.

This is also validated by the parents where one fourth of the parents interviewed say that they endorse their kid’s opinion and follow their choice while buying computers. Unlike other categories, computers are highly skewed towards Metro kids (44%) who have an upper hand then Tier 1 kids (29%) where influencing parents is concerned.

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

Another interesting finding is that while for the younger kids, games is the most important computer feature, the older kids attach more importance to utilities like the latest software, high storage capacity and USB connection in their computers.

The other important features in computers are latest software and internet connection (59%), latest processor (58%) and CD/DVD writer facility (53%).

It is also interesting to note the contrast between the kids in south India vs rest of India. While the kids in rest of India are more enamoured by games, for a feature like “latest software”, it is the southern kids show a greater skew

Finally, does it translate into actual purchase?

27% kids say they are taken along for shopping by their parents when buying computers and this is also stated by the parents (16%) about their kids.

*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).