The Power of Kid-Fluence

While parents may not always acknowledge it (or even be consciously aware), kids influence their decisions in five different ways:

• Subconscious influence: Parent always have their kids “in their heads,” so to speak. They have beliefs about what their child wants, and they also have beliefs about what is “best” for their child. When the child’s desires conflict with what parent’s think is best, parents automatically (subconsciously) reconcile the conflict. This kind of tension often happens in grocery shopping, for example, where the parent must balance a child’s desire for sweet cereal with a parent’s belief that unsweetened whole grain cereal is best. Understanding how parents make these subconscious tradeoffs is critical to any marketer in a business where children’s desires are different from those of their parents.
• Indirect influence: In modern families, kids’ opinions are considered when making decisions simply because the child is part of the family. Kids today are welcome, and often encouraged, to share their thoughts and opinions. They participate in family conversations, talk about their personal interests, and often are present on shopping trips. As a result, their feedback is taken into consideration, sometimes deliberately and sometimes inadvertently. This kind of influence may, for example, influence family travel/vacation and entertainment decisions as parents try to strike a good balance in making sure the whole family is happy.
• Unsolicited influence and requests: Most kids aren’t shy about asking for what they want, often without prompting. They ask for something while at the store, add to the family grocery list, point out ads they see, and talk about products their friends have. Family dynamics dictate whether these requests escalate to begging and tantrums or parents use this unsolicited input as an opportunity to teach their child about consumerism. Regardless of how it plays out in the moment, parents mentally catalog their kids’ requests, which informs their beliefs about the child’s desires, and further fuels the subconscious influence children have.
• Solicited influence: Parents also directly ask their children for input. The obvious examples are categories the children themselves will use, or in gifts for childrens’ friends. But increasingly, there are areas where children (especially in the pre-teen and teen years) are considered the experts within the family, because of their personal interests or product experiences. Technology and electronics products are great examples of categories where parents may really depend on a child’s advice.
• Complete or active influence & delegation: Finally, there are categories where children are given complete authority to make the decision, sometimes within constraints. Even with children as young as 3, we’ve seen parents provide the child with an acceptable subset of options and allow the child to make the ultimate decision. Parents’ motivations for doing so can be complex – from simply wanting the child to have maximum enjoyment to wanting to instill critical thinking skills about how to make consumer tradeoffs. This kind of delegation is common in many categories that children use, including toys and school clothes.