No Kidding About This One
–Contributed by Vivin Wason
Children are fast becoming the influencers in Indian families' spending habits. A news article published by BBC reveals: 66% of Indian kids have articulated a brand preference to their folks – an average of 47% of kids are curious about their parents' purchases across different categories. So, is this really something new. According to a report the purchase decision for the same products hugely varies in households without children from those with children. For products, such as ones which are used by the entire family unit, they may influence purchases made by the parents. There are some products where children wield direct influence or pester power by overtly specifying their preferences and voicing them aloud. For other products, parents' buying patterns are affected by prior knowledge of the tastes and preferences of their children. This 'passive dictation' of choice is prevalent for a wide variety of daily consumed product items as well as products for household consumption. Also, decision making in households is seen to change with the mere presence of children.
Though, it is difficult to influence the adult who makes the purchase as well as the kid who acts as a major influencer. But, there is still a lesson here for the retailers. The interesting fact about kids is they appreciate things in natural settings. For instance if you home décor goods, try and make the store setting as natural as possible and as close to what it would look like at home. Though adults would prefer a certain level of clinical settings where the product features and technicality could be demonstrated with ease.
Kids appreciate bright colours so do not even think about the greys, browns and blacks. A lot of commercials use chicks, puppies and kittens to grab the attention of this highly empowered segment known as children. So incase, in the festive season if you are going by the previous records of the male:female ratio in order to woo the right customer, you might be totally baffled when you find out that none of them carry the power to influence the other, as compared to their young ones.
