Last week, my pre-teen gave me an ultimatum. That is either I change my phone or stop coming to drop him to his bus-stop. The little fellow cheekily said that all other mothers had swanky phones while his own mom had a rather old-hand me down phone which not only made him feel less of a man but also didn’t have enough games on it. To him, it was the biggest sign of not being part of the crowd or ‘peer-group’

That brings me to the moot point. Does pester-power really work?

Marketers seems to say yes. Dictionary defines pester-power as the ability possessed by a child to nag a parent relentlessly until the parent succumbs and agrees to the child's request.

Everything from cars to detergent and mobile phones that makes its way into the billing section, seems to have been influenced by young adults.

The 400-million odd children’s population under the age of 15 in India are in fact becoming key target audience for marketers. They not only egg their parents to part with their disposable incomes but also are consumers of tomorrow.

Marketers too don’t seem to be shying away from using kids as brands ambassadors. Rough estimates point that as much as $100 billion worth of products and services rides on kids influencing power alone. These include jams with Tom and Jerry images, a shampoo which recreates the strawberry smell in the hair and bathroom, bed-sheets and even tissue papers which have popular cartoon characters.

Place it strategically in the mall or high street counter and lo behold, you have a consumer waiting to egg the parents to buy the same.

While media exposures and internet seems to be the culprit in creating the new adults, companies themselves are laughing their way to the bank. They seem to say that “Relevance is king” and today it is important to be relevant to kids more than their parents.

Interestingly, Delhi is once again playing host to Children Expo which will debate on how to create children-centric consumer brands.

And parents like myself, straddling somewhere between the old value systems of altruism and new wave of consumerism are still grappling with the situation. To say the least, consumerism wins as I watch my kid engrossed with latest gizmo – a swanky new mobile handset.

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