A recent study by Cartoon Network, New Generations 2011, reveals that the spending power of children in the 7-14 age group has increased dramatically
All in a day’s work for a tech-savvy kid? There’s more. Prajal never misses Ben 10 on Cartoon Network, Googles regularly for home assignments, loves to flaunt his cool Arsenal jersey. The list runs along...
Welcome to the new and fast-growing segment of child spenders. Children today are not just connected and spending more, they are also driving spending patterns of families. For marketers, this is both a reason to rejoice and a huge opportunity waiting to be tapped.
A recent study by Cartoon Network, New Generations 2011, reveals that 79 per cent of children in the age group 7-14 are mobile phone users today, and that their spending power has gone up sharply — pocket money has shot up by over 200 per cent in the past 10 years, and 59 per cent in the past five. Internet access for the age group has quadrupled in the past 10 years.
“Children are becoming more informed, they have more income, and more importantly, they are becoming more influential,” says Duncan Morris, vice-president (research and market development), Turner International Asia Pacific. Today, a majority of parents recognise that their children can be involved in family decisions, and that they have an opinion that matters. This is because unlike earlier, the general awareness of children as consumers has grown.
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The influencers
The next time you are looking to change your cell phone or upgrade your car, you need not look far. Indeed, India’s close to 400 million kids below the age of 15 are the experts their parents actively seek out. “One classic example is children’s influence in household purchases which has grown significantly over time,” says Morris. “Consider the example of cars: 10 years ago 25 per cent of the parents would involve their children in a decision to buy a car; today the figure has grown to 63 per cent.”
One reason children’s opinions have started to matter more is because, in many cases, such as consumer electronics and technology, they are better informed than their parents. As Morris says, they are tech-savvy and keep a tab on the latest products and their features on the internet. This gives them an upper hand in buying decisions. The Cartoon Network study, which surveyed a total of 3,759 children of 7-14 years and 1,121 parents of 4-6 years olds in SEC A, B and C across 19 cities, predicts that as many as 48 per cent of the parents are likely to consider their child’s opinion while buying a personal mobile phone.
For advertisers this is a goldmine. While there is general agreement that there is no single influencer in making buying decisions — it could be the child, wife or a colleague — children’s say is certainly becoming important. “They have made our jobs more difficult. Children don’t just dictate the restaurant you go to, but also pick the car that needs to drop them at school. Besides, the internet has democratised knowledge. Today, children Google and know more about a home theatre system than we do,” says Aneil Deepak, senior vice-president, innovation & integration, Mudra Max, the Mudra group’s integrated communications planning and implementation agency.
In spite of this, Deepak laments that these trends aren’t reflected much in advertising. “Most advertisements still portray children as sweet and cute. That they are. But they are more multi-faceted than we ever were. Brands that treat them as adults and give them that respect are going to end up winners.”
The study throws up some interesting insights for marketers on children’s access to media and their connectedness. Television has been the most universal medium for media access for children — their window to the world, so to speak: 95 per cent have colour TVs at their home, and 95 per cent said they had watched TV a day before. The number of homes having DVD players has shot up from 2 per cent in 2001 to 61 per cent today. (Click here for tables & graphs)
Digital connect
Even though television has been the most accessible medium for the 7-14 age group, marketers and advertisers are unanimous that digital (internet and mobile) is the medium to reach out to this segment, particularly in urban centres. “Unlike the older generation which is exposed to the passive medium (TV, radio, print), the initial exposure to media for this generation is interactive. The way they consume media is different from those who consume passive media,” says Samit Sinha, managing partner of Alchemist Brand Consulting.
Sinha adds, “This builds a strong case for marketers who want to reach out to this age group. The return on investment in the digital medium is significantly higher than any traditional medium. We see a lot of money shifting away from television to digital.”
Numbers for the digital segment are encouraging. The number of children with computers at home has gone up from 6 per cent in 2001 to 22 per cent today. Eight per cent homes of 7-14-year-olds have internet connectivity, up from 2 per cent in 2001. The number may look relatively low, but 48 per cent children in the age group have used a computer; home and school being the top places for internet access at 46 and 29 per cent respectively.
As for internet usage, almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of children who use the internet, log on multiple times a week. Among children who surf the internet, playing games (67 per cent) and listening/downloading music (51 per cent) have been the top two activities. Girls are just as active online as boys and no different when it comes to top online activities — games, music and search are the top activities for both. Email (26 per cent) and homework (23 per cent) score above social networking (19 per cent) as the top online activities for the age group. Facebook ranks as the number one social networking site (93 per cent) for the young ones followed by Orkut (50 per cent). Parents seem to be a concerned lot when it come children surfing the internet: 79 per cent say they have at some point monitored their children’s usage of social networking sites.
Mobile phones have seen a high adoption rate among children. The survey revealed that 28 per cent of children in the 4-6 years age group already use mobile phones. The number is as high as 71 per cent in the 7-10 years age group, and 84 per cent in 11-14 years group. Nine per cent of the children surveyed have their own mobile phones, with the highest incident of ownership among the 11-14 year age group at 13 per cent. And what do children use mobile phones most for? Of course, playing games (87 per cent) and making calls (84 per cent), followed by listening to music (48 per cent) and SMSes (29 per cent).
Children today have more money in their hand than ever before. Fifty-seven per cent of parents of children in the 7-14 years age group give them pocket money, up from 41 per cent in 2009. Also, 35 per cent in the 4-6 years age group receive pocket money. Girls’ average monthly pocket money is as much (Rs 280) as boys (Rs 277). Further, 58 per cent children receive gift money and the average annual gift money stood at Rs 845 in 2010 compared to Rs 567 in 2009 and Rs 306 in 2006. The consumer of tomorrow certainly looks ready. Are marketers up to the task?