Serious kid's stuff

Editor's note: Art Shulman, Ph.D., is president of Shulman Research, Van Nuys, Calif.

Market research with kids is not simply market research with adults using smaller questions. From the broad base of studies we've conducted with kids - defined here as those 12 and under - for products such as toys, movies and promotional items, we've gained a great deal of experience regarding what kids are like and what we can expect from them in a research situation.

Shy and polite

Many kids are shy, at least initially, and want to behave correctly and say the correct thing. Consider a typical interview situation. A parent brings the child to an unfamiliar location (such as a research facility in a mall), and an unfamiliar person (the interviewer) begins to ask questions about subjects the child may know little about, is unfamiliar with, and hasn't talked - or even thought - about in the same way before.

Can we really expect kids to open up and honestly provide their opinions? We can if we take steps to maximize our chances of collecting valid and complete information.

  • Ask some warm-up questions that a kid can easily answer - questions that may have no bearing on the real research: What TV programs did you watch yesterday? What sports do you play? What is your teacher's name?
  • In the real interview, start with a few easy-to-answer questions.
  • Use interviewers who establish a rapport with kids. Get on the floor, if necessary; don't be condescending; and express real interest in what they have to say.
  • Because children may be reluctant to say negative things (out of good manners, or because they don't want to hurt the interviewer's feelings), certain types of questions need to be phrased in a way that allows the child to answer honestly. Instead of asking a child what he or she dislikes, ask about how the product could be improved. Or ask the child to compare the test product to a particular control product so that opinions can be expressed in relative terms.
  • Sometimes children provide socially desirable responses or answers their parents have drilled into them. Many children, when asked how they'd play with a toy, will answer, "carefully, "or" I won't break it," or "with my sister." Be prepared to probe beyond these answers.
  • Some kids are not shy, and in a group situation, such as a focus group, it may be necessary to take steps to ensure that individuals don't dominate the sessions and deter other kids from contributing. There are many techniques for controlling the contributions of dominant respondents, including simply telling the talkative child that you want to give other children the opportunity to respond.

Cognitive development

Kids differ in their development in areas such as attention span, ability to conceptualize or abstract, and ability to express themselves and verbalize. Research design should take children's cognitive development into consideration.

  • Because kids, especially younger ones, have a limited attention span, keep the interviews relatively brief.
  • To reduce fatigue, keep the interview interesting. During the course of the interview, show the child some material, or change the direction of questioning so that the child's interest in answering questions is maintained.
  • Because younger kids are limited in their ability to verbalize, we recommend against interviewing kids under 5. With some products - in studies of toys, for example - it may be possible to use observational methods instead.
  • Research should not rely on the responses of 5- or 6-year-olds to open-ended questions. Some kids are very verbal and have no problem with open-ends. Others shrug their shoulders and say nothing, no matter how good the interviewer is at probing. If possible, use closed-ends with younger children.
  • Questionnaires should use only words kids understand.
  • Stimulus material - product, commercials and so on - should be presented in a way and in an amount that the child can handle. Don't display 15 products, then ask which one the child likes most. If you absolutely need to show a number of products, simplify the evaluation process. Divide the products (or have the child divide the products) into a number of groups, then rank or rate within the groups.

Age

Different age groups' reactions to products, packaging and marketing communications differ substantially. Products often appeal to kids in limited age ranges. An older child may not want to be seen with a product that a younger kid finds highly appealing.

The implications for research are significant.

  • Research should represent all age groups to which the product might appeal.
  • There should be sufficient sample sizes to analyze results by age, especially at the ends of the relevant age spectrum.
  • It's extremely important for a product not to be perceived as targeted at kids younger than those participating in the study. Advertising that appears aimed at younger kids may not only be of little value, it could be counterproductive, a kiss of death.

It can be useful to include measures of age appropriateness in your study. Kids can be asked if the product is for kids older than themselves, younger than themselves, or their age. Another option, most useful among older children, is to ask the kids to describe the appropriate age for the product.

  • Products should be presented to kids at their eye level or lower. In some cases it is appropriate to place the product on the floor. Don't place products on tables or shelves, where they will be too high for kids to see.

Sex

Many kids' products are heavily segmented by sex. If a product appears to be aimed at the opposite sex, the child is likely to lose interest. This is especially true in studies with toys, where role playing comes to the fore.

  • Research with kids should, like all research, be conducted with the appropriate target group. If an item or a marketing communication is to appeal to all kids, it must be evaluated among both boys and girls, with sufficient sample size to permit analysis by sex.
  • For certain products, or in certain types of studies, such as evaluations of commercials or packaging, it may be useful to include measures of sex appropriateness. You may want to ask, Is this product mostly for boys, mostly for girls, or for boys and girls equally?

Video oriented

Most kids are more video- than audio- oriented. Moreover, they have limited ability to conceptualize how things might be. One implication is that in testing new product ideas, it is desirable to show actual products, models or videos rather than relying on drawings or verbal descriptions. This is especially true if the product involves action, as many toys do.

Rating and ranking

Both ranking and rating procedures can be used to obtain kids' opinions, and neither is necessarily better than the other. It's true that some kids have trouble with rating scales. Younger kids in particular may have trouble understanding anything but a simple scale. What's more, kids tend to use only the "top box," rather than all the points on the scale. Research procedures must account for kids' level of comfort with rating and ranking systems.

  • Keep rating scales as simple as possible. Most kids as young as 5 can understand a four-point verbal scale. For example: Compared to other dolls you own, would you say the doll you just saw is...

A lot of fun to play with,

A little fun,

Not very much fun,

Not at all fun to play with.

  • When using scales, provide an anchor that deters kids from using the top box too often. Notice that in the example above, the scale was prefaced with, Compared to other dolls you own...
  • In certain instances it may be possible to use words that kids understand and use to evaluate products.

Testing with kids often involves placing the test product in a competitive frame, where the respondent is exposed to competitive products as well as the test product. Kids are shown an array of toys and asked to order them by preference. However, the competitive frame for kids' products often varies dramatically over time. Hot items one year are passé the next. This can also happen with adult-oriented products, but it's probably more true for products targeted at kids.

This transience does not mean that competitive arrays should be avoided. On the contrary, to find out what kids really think about products it is necessary to place them in context, even if the real-world context changes by the time the product comes to market.

The transient nature of competitive frames has certain implications, though.

  • Studies should be conducted as close as possible to the time the product will be available to the public. This may be difficult to accomplish given the time line typically necessary for producing and marketing products.
  • There may be some danger in using ranking procedures to evaluate items within a competitive frame if the real world competitive frame is likely to change. It may be more productive to use rating scales, which make the study less susceptible to changes that result from certain competitive products becoming exceptionally - perhaps faddishly - appealing at the time of the testing. On the other hand, some kids, especially younger ones, understand the concept of liking one product more than another (i.e., ranking), but find the concept of rating more difficult.
  • If children are asked to rank products, either on an overall basis or on selected attributes, the ranking should extend beyond first preference. Kids' overwhelming preference for one product may prevent them from discriminating among the remaining items in the array. In recent years, a number of toys - Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Cabbage Patch Kids - have enjoyed this kind of extreme popularity. Asking which item kids like next best permits this discrimination.

Interviewing parents

While certain products, especially toys, are heavily requested by kids, their contribution to the purchase decision varies by their age and the product category. In terms of parental influence, moms generally wield more than dads. Parents' influence may be most keenly felt when they act as responsible gatekeepers, refusing to buy certain harmful or disreputable products. They may also have a say in the decision to buy a particular product in a product category. For example, parents selecting which die-cast small cars to buy may select the functional vehicles - tractors, mail trucks - while their kids select the fast race cars. Researchers need to account for the different influences on purchases for kids.

  • Consider interviewing parents as well as kids.
  • Because parents might choose different products than kids, it may be necessary to develop a research design that takes in account this difference. In some cases, this may involve interviewing the parent and child concurrently, and obtaining the kind of consensus that would be reached in a shopping experience. In other cases, it may involve interviewing the parent separately, or not interviewing the child at all. This may be the case with a very high-priced item, where the parent's attitudes are crucial.

In designing market research with kids, it's necessary to take into consideration the cognitive development of the child as well as the unusual situation the child is in - doing an interview in a market research facility. Both factors have implications in terms of how we make the child feel and the types of questions we ask. Age and sex considerations also play heavily in the appeal of different products, and measures of both should be incorporated into studies.