Car salespersons may be targeting the wrong prospects when they flash their pearly whites at mom and dad. They should be concentrating on the rug rats with them, a survey shows.
Researchers report 78% of U.K. parents say having children forced them to buy a new car and 37% insist those children go on to influence decisions on buying their next car.
The research carried out for Auto Trader, a digital automotive marketplace, suggests U.K. fathers probably should be the target of lobbying; 39% of dads said they were open to influence compared with 33% of moms.
The results are based on responses from 1,000 parents and from children aged between 5 and 11. The aims were to look at what parents and children looked for in their perfect family car, and to what extent children influenced their parents’ buying decision.
Overall, color is the most likely area for successful persuasion by children with 26% influencing their parents’ choice. Kids are most likely to push for red (28%), followed by blue (21%), black (14%) and pink (13%). Perhaps unsurprisingly, boys tend to favor red cars (28% to 23%) and girls preferred pink (26% to 1%).
Only 2% of the kids say they prefer a white car, despite Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders data showing white is the U.K.’s most popular new-car color.
Children also influenced their parents in terms of the comfort (13%), size (12%), design (12%) and entertainment systems (9%) in a new car. Safety, however – atop of the list of priorities for parents at 27% – is not an overwhelming concern among kids.
After safety, parents are most concerned with the size and space of the new car for extra trunk room or more seats (25%), comfort (23%) and reliability (19%). Only 2% of parents consider entertainment systems important.
For children however, their wish list in a family car includes TV screens, DVD players, Internet connectivity and video games. They’re also interested in kid-centric items such as snack dispensers and toy-storage space.
Features unlikely to win parental approval include a turbo button, steering wheel in the back seat, an ejector seat and flame-emitting exhausts.
Auto Trader spokesman Nathan Coe says U.K. car retailers are becoming more aware of the need to include children in the sales process, both in terms of providing entertainment for them while their parents are shopping, and actively pointing out features kids would be interested in, such as in-car entertainment systems.
“A substantial amount of research has been done looking at how the decision of the car buyer can be influenced and at what stage in the buying journey, but few have really considered the role that children play, or the influence of pester power.
“If one of the kids doesn’t like the shape or color of your next car, or it doesn’t come with plug-in for an iPad, then you’d better be prepared for some serious pestering.”
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