Targeting Teens – The Power of the Parent

Tue, August 07, 2007

Tags: Brands, Teens, Tweens, Word-of-Mouth

We’ve had a lot of coverage on how teens interact with brands. The following article covers many of the trends and habits of teens but pointed out some interesting data on the role that parents play in influencing teens’ online habits.

While teenagers often have the greatest word-of-mouth influence on their peers, parents play a large role in influencing teens’ online habits, according to the study, which found that 50 percent of online tweens and teens hear about new Web sites from their parents. Fourty-four percent use Web searches to find new sites. In addition, 66 percent of teens have been on the Internet together with their parents in the past month, and 71 percent discussed the Internet with their parents. Over 90 percent of teens have one or more rules or restrictions over their Internet use in the home.

I wish the article dove a little deeper into the parent/teen relationship but it’s an interesting point to recognize that the word-of-mouth effect is not all peer-to-peer. The rest of the article is a great read that touches on other overall teen habits online.

Read On