Report: Parents with Kids 12+

Top Brands

What are your favourite food brands and why?
More than half of the respondents mention Heinz as their favourite food brand, followed by Marks & Spencer’s food. Further brands are Cadbury, Sugarpuffs, Anchor, Earl Grey and Nescafe.

Do you buy more own label or branded goods?
The group splits very distinctly into two camps: some buy branded goods because they believe the quality is better and the others buy own label products because they cannot see any difference in the quality and therefore prefer the cheaper goods.

What brands do you buy specifically for your children?
Most mentioned brands are food brands; Kellogg’s Cornflakes and Walker’s Crisps head the list of children’s favourites. Fashion-wise, sportswear from Nike or Adidas is very popular.

What are your favourite technology brands?
Apple, Panasonic and especially Sony came out top. Regarding mobile phones Nokia is very popular.

What are the top insurers for house, car and life?
Top insurers are not identifiable because the answers differ very much. Only few respondents have one insurer for house, car and life, most mix them and tend to switch when there is a better deal available.

Finance

How much of your money do you spend on yourself and how much on your children?
The satisfaction of their children’s needs has absolute priority for nearly all respondents. They spend most of their money on their kids and think about themselves eventually.

Have you saved money towards your children’s education or to help them onto the property ladder?
Many have saved some money for their children’s future but leave the decision what to do with the money to their children.

Have you switched banks or mortgage providers recently?
Many of the respondents have stuck with the same company because they are happy with the service or admit to being to lazy to switch. However, the motivating factors to move include getting a better interest rate and more helpful staff. Being able to speak to the bank and operating the account over the phone are some of the services the over 50s require from a mortgage provider.

What is important in a bank?
The overwhelming majority regards customer service as the most important feature of a bank. Also relevant to many respondents are good interest rates.

Do you have a high level of debt? Which credit cards/store cards do you use?
Only few respondents have a high level of debt. The majority have a mortgage but are dept-free apart from that. Most deal credit and store cards with great care, don’t use them at all or make sure to pay them off at the end of each month.

Work & Leisure

What career subjects have your children shown interest in?
Very few of the respondents’ children were pursuing vocational options and the most popular answers were artistic subjects such as arts, drama and dancing. Being a vet, working with children and a career in the beauty industry were also popular choices.

How often do you talk to your children about their future careers? What careers would you encourage them to follow and why?
Most parents talk quite regularly to their children about their plans for the future. They want their children to be happy and, therefore, try to give advice rather than pushing them into a certain direction.

How has your career been affected by your children?
Most women and some men put their career on hold while their children were little or gave their work up completely.

How much leisure time do you spend with your children? Where do you go?
The leisure time parents and children spend together is getting less because the respondents’ children become more independent, spend their time rather with their friends than with their family. The remaining mutual time is preferably spend in restaurants, cinemas or taking exercises.

How has your social life changed since having children?
Parents admitted that their social lives slowed down when the children were small but as they have grown older they include their children in their social time and it is very common for this age group to take their children along to restaurants or use babysitters in order to regain more personal social time. The financial restraints of having children also hinder the amount of time they go out.

What do you look for when booking a family holiday? Where do you like to go?
The best holiday for this life stage is somewhere that offers lots of activities for all the family but isn’t too commercialised but is set in a natural environment, which is child friendly but doesn’t just have clubs that take the kids away from their parents. At a reasonable price!!

Retail/Shopping habits

How often do you go shopping with your children? What shops do you visit?
The frequency respondents shop with their children is on average once a month. The shopping trips are most commonly for girls clothing and sporting goods for sons.
The top shops to take daughters to are New Look and Tammy.

What are your favourite stores for clothing? Why?
The female respondents favourite store was Next because of their extensive product range and affordable prices. Other stores they enjoy visiting include Wallis, Primark, Evans and Marks & Spencers.
The men also like Next but also love a bargain, choosing shops such as TK Maxx, Tesco and River Island for their clothes.
Do you prefer to shop on high street, at supermarkets, markets, car boots?
Interestingly, while the high street was the definite favourite, many of the respondents love to shop at car boot sales to grab a bargain.
The poll revealed that this age group prefer not to buy all their products from one place like the supermarket and like to have a wider selection of goods and brands to choose from.

Do you use the internet to research before you shop? Has the internet changed the way you shop?
More than half use the internet either to purchase goods or check prices and availability before they go to the store.
Respondents are increasingly turning to the web to get items that are not available on the high street; respondents want specialist items at low prices and are using sites like Ebay to obtain them.

What items do you like to buy and which are your favourite retailers and why?
Shopping for food and clothing items such as shoes and underwear are how this age group like to spend their money

Media & technology

Do you have a mobile phone? Which tariff are you on? What do you look for in a mobile phone provider?
The majority of respondents are on pay as go tariffs because their usage is so low. They do not mind receiving cast off phones from family members and new gadgets and functions are not important to them, they prefer good coverage to the latest technology.

What are your favourite TV shows?
The parents love to watch soaps, DIY, garden and home improvement shows. There are also fans of reality shows like Big Brother.

Which magazines/newspapers do you buy?
Buying a Sunday paper was popular and the women like magazines like Hello, OK, Take a Break and Good House Keeping.
The top papers were the Daily Mail, The Times and The Sun.

What are your favourite websites and why?
The top websites are Expedia and Last Minute.com, Play.com and Ebay. Interestingly family sites like British origins are mentioned.

Do you shop online? What do you buy?
Respondents use the internet for Grocery shopping at Tesco, to buy books and to shop for their children, particularly for clothes. They also use the internet at busy times of year, especially for Christmas shopping.

Do your children use the computer? What for?
The top three uses of the computer are:
Homework
Playing games
Contacting friends – either msn or social networking sites like myspace

If you could have one new piece of technology what would it be and why?
The winner was a new state of the art television, closely followed by a new computer. Respondents would love to have their own personal computer because they never get to go on the family one as the kids are always on it!
Other answers include satellite navigation, Sky Plus and DVD recorders.

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