Where are kids getting information about Products?

Just wanted to share an article from Marketing Forecast and some of my thoughts

What are the trends in how kids garner their information?

Kids today are more tech-savvy then at any time in history. For example, kids are using Ipads and Smartphones to access information at anytime and any place learning about new products and activities. The question then arises what are other sources of information for kids? The go to sources for Kids 6-11 are friends, internet, and television ads. An interesting statistic that I stumbled on was that 48% of these kids are still learning about things they want to do or own from their parents. Think Behavioral marketing or Behavioral learning (Observant learning). Kids observe and learn what rewards them or what punishes them based on decisions that adults make.

Not surprisingly 84% of 6-11 years old find about new things from their fellow classmates. A close second at 81% is television ads.

Looking into age range further in depth. 9-11 year olds tend to turn to more sources for information including online advertisements and social media websites. 6-8 year olds rely on their parents more for information.

The bottom line here is that children tend to observe their parents and how they make decisions about products from their parents at an early age. However, It also shouldn't be ignored that Kids are key decision makers at a young age. As children grow older and have more access to additional resources such as word of mouth about products from their classmates or friends and the use of the internet to gather more information about what the product is/does (this could be a new toy or the latest video game). With this additional information kids now have more knowledge at their fingertips about what the product is, how much it cost, what the features are, and can effectively explain why they want the product. The explanation may not be in the most understandable way but kids are going through a response process such as the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model or Innovation adoption model process. When making the actual purchase kids then to either ask their parents to buy them the product or they may be saving money from chores in order to purchase the product. With so much information out in the internet don't be surprised to hear your kids explaining all the features, price points, and where you can buy their next birthday or Christmas present in the future.