Cartoon Network releases New Generations 2002 research

When it comes to cartoon shows, kids just love Tom & Jerry. Kids like ads that "make them laugh". Coca-Cola ads are the most recalled by kids, while Frooti is their favourite fruit juice. And they prefer Coca-Cola to Pepsi. Chennai and Bangalore top in computer usage, among children. Discovery is more popular than National Geographic and, surprisingly, conventional careers still top, with children aspiring to become doctors, engineers/computer engineers and teachers.

These are facts culled from the topline findings of Cartoon Network's New Generations 2002 research, conducted in association with NFO. New Generations 2002 is an attempt to gain insights into various aspects of children's lives, including such things as pocket money, media habits, values and attitudes, product consumption habits and, of course, pester power.

The fieldwork for New Generations 2002 was conducted in December 2002, and surveyed 3,218 children from SEC A and B, in the 7-14 age group. Interestingly, the research also surveyed the mothers of each child, taking the total sample size to 6,436. The study covered 14 cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Nasik, Guwahati, Cochin and Madurai.

The study reveals that in terms of media habits, during children's prime band (4.00 pm to 8.00 pm), three quarters of the kids surveyed believe that they have the authority to choose the channels and programmes they want to watch on school days. Irrespective of the percentage of autonomy, television viewing among children peaks between 4.00 pm and 8.00 pm, during both school and non-school days. Cartoons, sports and movies are the top three genres among both boys and girls. While boys show a strong preference for sports, girls enjoy watching family serials. Besides cartoons, of course.

Among television channels, Cartoon Network finds pride of place with kids, with 46 per cent of respondents naming it as their ‘favourite channel'. Star Plus (with 22 per cent) and Discovery (5 per cent) are the other two channels that kids accord respect. Vis-à-vis cartoon shows, all-time classic Tom & Jerry remains the hot favourite (among both genders), followed by The Popeye Show and Scooby/Scrappy Doo. Interestingly, with regards to what mothers think their kids should be watching, 76 per cent of mothers named Cartoon Network as one of the five channels they would choose for their kids. Discovery followed with 70 per cent, while National Geographic had the support of 55 per cent of the respondents.

Advertising works on kids, the research suggests. A majority of the kids surveyed - 69 per cent of the boys and 68 per cent the girls - like ads which "make them laugh". Ads that have nice music in them also seem to strike a chord somewhere (45 per cent of boys and 51 per cent of girls think music matters), and ads that feature their favourite sports personality also get noticed (45 per cent of boys and 25 per cent of girls).

Among the ads that were most recalled by the respondents are Coca-Cola (23 per cent), followed by Colgate (20 per cent) and Pepsi (15 per cent). Among promotions, 91 per cent kids recall the Boomer Tattoos (Scooby, Tom & Jerry, others). Rasna Prankies (tattoos) promo is remembered by 67 per cent, while the Tom & Jerry comic books that came with Britannia Cream Treat got noticed by 58 per cent.

In terms of city-wise computer usage, Chennai and Bangalore top, with 81 per cent of respondents from the two metros having used computers in the past three months. Surprisingly, Nasik comes in at number two, with a usage percentage of 79 per cent. Delhi and Mumbai show the same level of computer usage - 59 per cent. Chennai also tops in Internet usage, with 27 per cent of computer users having accessed the Internet in the past three months. Cochin and Hyderabad (at 24 per cent each) follow Chennai. Kolkatta, Delhi and Mumbai recorded percentages of 20 per cent.

The research also looks at how many kids receive pocket money. Thirty-nine per cent of kids (from all cities, combined) receive pocket money. Ludhiana leads the list, with 69 per cent of kids receiving pocket money. Delhi (with 67 per cent) and Mumbai (with 57 per cent) follow. Of the kids receiving pocket money, 75 per cent of them receive it weekly or more often. 32 per cent get a daily allowance. And of the kids getting pocket money, 53 per cent get Rs 100 and more every month.

In order to gauge pester power, questions were put to the mothers of all the kids. Questions essentially revolved around the degree of influence kids have on purchase of product categories, their influence on brand choices within brand categories, and their influence on the purchase of durables. The percentage of parents saying their kids would accompany them to buy a children's bicycle is 86 per cent. Wristwatches (77 per cent), computer (43 per cent), music system (39 per cent), TV (38 per cent), car (32 per cent) and refrigerator (31 per cent) are the other broad product categories.

Vis-à-vis indulgence purchases (chocolate bars, bubble/chewing gums, chips), advertising appeal is a leading contributor to brand choice. And kids are very strong category purchase drivers for chocolate bars (81 per cent) chewing/bubble gums (70 per cent), carbonated soft drinks (56 per cent) and ice candies (54 per cent). Among kids, Frooti (fruit drinks), Britannia (biscuits), Kwality Walls (ice creams), Cadbury Dairy Milk (chocolate) and Lays (chips) are extremely popular brands. And the research says that kids prefer Coca-Cola to Pepsi. That does put a spin on the whole issue of bachhon-ko-meethi-cheezein-pasand-hai, doesn't it?

While the above-mentioned brands are favourites in the traditional ‘kids' categories, in the non-traditional categories, Titan is the favourite watch brand, while LG is seen as the best in refrigerators and televisions. Santro is the most-liked car, Samsung is the desired computer brand (a big surprise) and Sony is the preferred music system.

As far as career preferences go, today's kids appear as conventional as can be had. While 34 per cent of kids aspire to become doctors, 21 per cent want to end up as engineers/computer engineers and 11 per cent dream of becoming teachers. Interestingly, more girls want to be doctors (45 per cent), while boys would like to become engineers/computer engineers (30 per cent).

Under the values and attitudes findings, consistent to previous surveys, achieving good grades in school is recognised as being important by 100 per cent of the kids surveyed. Being religious/traditional remains important to 84 per cent of today's children, while freedom to do what they want is important to 72 per cent. © 2003 agencyfaqs!