At the end of Back To The Future, Doc Brown tells Marty McFly that they have to go to the future. When Marty asks why, he replies: “It’s your kids, Marty!”
Well, judging by the results from the latest Eircom Household Sentiment Survey, it’s not just Marty’s kids but everyone else’s too. One of the most interesting findings from the survey was the influence that children had over their parents when it came to buying technology. It revealed that children between 5 and 17 years of age were more than happy to guide their parents when it came to buying mobile phones (42%), the type of broadband they should have (51%) and their TV service provider (56%).
Also of interest was that 80% of parents with children aged from 5 to 17 reported that technology helped to keep their children amused and more than half said it enabled a choice of media consumption in the home.
On the face of it, those appear to be encouraging figures in terms of the adoption and use of technology by Irish families but it does make you wonder. That 80% figure, for instance. Were those parents confusing keeping their children amused with buying something to do their job for them? Also, just how much amusement do children need to have? Should it be constantly available through a screen or should it be punctuated with moments of boredom? Is there a suggestion that parents don’t want to have to face ‘bored’ children looking for something to do?
Anyway, enough of these ‘heavy’ questions. Let’s look at it from a business perspective instead. The results would suggest that, as with food advertising, it might be worth technology companies, especially in areas like smartphones and tablets, becoming more kid-friendly in their advertising. Until now, pester power hasn’t been something people have tended to associate too often with IT and mobile technology but it could become a viable means of promoting products.
Given that 83% of parents believe their children know more about technology than they do (rising to 92% of those with children between the ages of 13 and 17), technology vendors have the potential to recruit children as evangelists for their products in the home. Why, you might even describe them as ‘trusted advisers’ to their parents. Now, where have I heard that phrase before?
Obviously this is mainly a consideration for the home market but with so much talk about BYOD it might also become a factor in decisions over what technology parents use at work. Wouldn’t that be interesting? Whoever thought technology might end up being ‘kid’s stuff’?
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