PESTER POWER
They decide the kind of clothes to wear, where the family goes on Friday night dinners, which movie to watch and what books to buy. They are the new breed that advertisers hope to hook. No we’re not talking of high profile businessmen or jet-setting executives, here. We’re talking of little children. No longer, someone we can ignore or dismiss, the child has grown in more ways than one.

Consumerism has taken a tangent hitherto unforeseen in urban India. We just have to look at the way children influence our buying decisions to understand that. Marketing efforts are now directed towards this major section which is fast becoming a key segment for marketers to target. Surveys show that children are one of the strongest decision makers when it comes to family decisions.

So you have movies like Ra.One desperately attaching itself to toys, and fast food meals specifically tailored for kids at leading fast food restaurants; then there are malls, the food industry and even corporates who know an interactive session for children will be a definite success, as kids come with mothers in tow, and the situation can be utilised as a marketing event. So, when children want to frequent malls and spend time at restaurants and bookstores, you can be sure their parents will land up there, and shop, eat, or utilise some service, even if this wasn’t initially on the agenda.

This may be hard-core marketing to entice kids, and in the bargain get their parents to spend. However, aren’t kids becoming decision makers at home too? There are many families out there who instantly acknowledge that eating out decisions are made by children, who pick the restaurant and cuisine they want. Social upbringing, values taught at school, the icons that children idolise are all independent and have definite goals. These days, it is common to find young people to be expressive, extroverted and having a definite opinion. No wonder children are growing up to be assertive and opinionated and participate in family decisions.

Says Poornima Girish, a customer relationship manager who has taken a sabbatical from work to pay attention to her teenaged daughter who is in Class X, “Right from breakfast options to holidays, almost every major decision in my life gets materialised with my daughter, Deeksha’s opinion. It is obvious that in nuclear families children’s opinion is highly regarded. I remember when I was her age; my parents hardly considered our opinion in major buying decisions because the social environment was not as open as it is now. Neither were we as smart as today’s kids.”

Cute and smart kids always attract attention. In advertisements, the featured child models are shown to give tips to their parents and suggest solutions too. Children are shown to have an opinion right from the brand of dog food to buy for pet puppy, to the hair oil to get for mother, and the detergent to be used for clothes. A child’s pester power is of huge value.

The recently launched show on Colors, Badmaash Company-Ek Shararat Hone Ko Hai featuring Juhi Chawla has got her talking to kids as young as five on various subjects and each has an opinion on everything under the sun. That’s marketed as the highlight of the show and one can see kids wanting to be part of the show to prove they are smart as they hold an opinion. Children are being encouraged to be expressive in school and at home while advertisements are re-enforcing these values and opinions

Bhavana B, a marketing professional was surprised when her older son, Vishnu, all of twelve, commented on her dressing ways. “Yes, children these days are more expressive and that’s how the world works now. Children have an opinion on everything and I see all my son’s friends being assertive and influencing parents in major decisions at home. We encourage children to be open so why complain when they have an opinion or help us take decisions? Almost all our holidays are decided by my children and I have to acknowledge even my career choice was made, considering my children’s opinion and welfare.”

So you have electronic stores, bookstores, cinemas, fine-dining restaurants and branded pizza chains like Pizza Hut doing promotional activities, having a designated play area for kids, story sessions, merchandise, toys attached to favourite movie characters, to attract children. Weekends at libraries, theatre spaces, malls are sure to have fun and informative sessions to attract children. The idea is to get children enthused in these arenas and make them step in thus making way for adults too. Marketers can be sure they’ve hit the bull’s eye once they succeed in getting children convinced about buying something. Surely, when children demand, can parents refuse?

Double incomes and new lifestyles have meant higher pocket money for children. Kids have the option to spend on clothes, books, movies, restaurants, electronic gadgets, be seen at hangouts, or attend courses of their choice. The list goes endlessly on as far as opportunities for a child in an urban scenario is concerned. Technology, new career choices and education have made growing children feel it is their right to hold an opinion on every topic and they have every right to contribute to decisions at home, be it minor or something major.

Undoubtedly children are far more smarter than their parents who at that age were not allowed to even overhear the conversation of elders let alone participate in it. Today, you have parents who will involve children in a majority of their decisions, be it buying a new pet, making a career move or even the clothes mother should wear. Of course, mothers may not change their entire wardrobe, but there are moms like Kavitha Prasad, a communication professional, who gets constant feedback from her eleven-year-old daughter, Kruthi, who tells her what’s cool and what’s not.

Child psychologists and sociologists may opine that encouraging too much independence at such a young may not be such a wise thing. For how can a child of five decide on what his parents with all the wisdom of their combined ages, cannot? Parents and marketers couldn’t care less. For them at least, the world belongs to the brats.
Published in Deccan Herald in the Living supplement as cover story on December 3, 2011