Recently conducted study explored the role of North American kids and their parents in the cell phone purchase decision making process.
The main objective of the study was to identify barriers and motivations of the first cell phone purchase for kids, explore intentions to buy and pricing expectations.
The study revealed that only 10% of tweens currently have a cell phone. 20% of parents of tweens are, generally, open to the idea and 70% reject it.
As expected, parents’ rejection of the idea decreases with increase in their kids’ age. By the age of 16 almost 60% of teens own a cell phone and only 20% of parent reject the idea.
Tweens see the importance of having a phone in case of emergencies or to call their parents. Safety is more important for them than social connection.
Teens, on the other hand, see the value in being able to connect for social reasons and to keep in touch with friends and family.
Parents of tweens are more inclined to want their child to have a cell phone in case of emergency (the same as tweens themselves), to teach them responsibility and time management.
Parents of teens are more interested in being able to reach their teen when needed and to keep in contact.
The “optimal” plan desired by parents and their tweens/teens include:
-Unlimited text and call display (common in parents and teens wish lists)
-Parents, in addition, would like the ability to monitor their child activities and handset replacement guarantee
-Kids, on the other hand, following text and call display, would like a cool phone, games and limited voice calling
Parents don’t want their kids to have long distance calling, BBM and unlimited data.
Parents’ purchase intent is strong at $20 level for single line and $15 for an additional family plan line.