Vendor Lessons Back to School

Joe Wilcox | August 30, 2004, 08:04 AM

I wonder how many vendors recognize kids as a great way to sell more products to adults.

Last week, when dropping my daughter's friend home, I saw a HP notebook box sitting in the living room. So, I asked the mom if she had bought a new computer. Yes, for 14 year-old--that would be the oldest--daughter. She also had given in to broadband, putting in DSL and adding wireless networking for good measure--all for her three daughters headed back to school. Day one is today in my area.

I had prodded this woman to go DSL for more than a year. She and her partner both frequently work from home, he on a computer in the basement, she in another upstairs. All painfully done over a lumbering, dial-up connections. She wouldn't get broadband for herself or retire that aging Windows 98 PC. But for her daughters, the time was right for broadband and a spanking new Windows XP notebook.

In a way, I am stunned by how much computers have become a necessity for kids in school. After seeing that empty notebook box, I wondered how many other 14 year olds--not 18 or 19 year-old college students, but kids in middle school or high school--got new computers this year.

Pricing is compelling. The mom purchased her daughter's notebook direct from HP. I didn't get the model number, but recall most of the specs: 2.6GHz or 2.8GHz Pentium 4 processor, 15.4 WXGA display (1280 x 800 resolution), 60GB hard drive, combo DVD/CDRW drive and 802.11b/g wireless. Cost, she said, was around $1,000. I did some quick comparative online shopping this morning and found the features to be damn good for the price. Two differentiators: High-resolution display and 802.11g wireless.

Back-to-school season sure is a good time to be thinking about selling goods to parents for their kids. But what about the rest of the year? Adults have tremendous buying power for themselves and, increasingly, so do teenagers. But never forget the buying power of parents for their kids. I think high-tech vendors should be very curious how many parents bought new computers or added broadband and/or wireless networking for their younger children--early teenagers or preteens--this back-to-school season or will consider such purchases for the holidays.

So, this one family spent about $1,000 on a new notebook, maybe 100 bucks on the wireless router (and adapter for the home PC) and committed to about $40 a month for DSL service. I predict the mom will buy a second notebook within three months for her straight-A 11 year old who just entered private school. How many more families are out there like this one? JupiterResearch exists to answer questions like this one and to help vendors best target their products to the right audience (or segment, if you prefer that terminology).