Romanian Top Kids Brands: Kids prefer Coca-Cola, parents want to feed them dairies

Romanian children prefer Coca-Cola, while their parents want to feed them Napolact (dairies), according to Top Kids Brands, a study made by Open-I Research at Itsy Bitsy Radio’s initiative. The study analyzed parents’ perception over brands for kids and comes in the context of the constant preoccupation Itsy Bitsy showed for the health of all family members and care for products promoted during radio’s programs.

For 8 years, we are preoccupied by families’ health and we are very careful on all we promote on radio and through our actions. We are promoting health in all its forms: physical, with movement and correct diet, mental, with content that matched families with children and of soul, by promoting care and responsibility. The research made together with Open-I Research is a way of validation and calibration, but also a responsibility of what we promote among our target

Nadia Tataru,

General Manager Itsy Bitsy 

The conflict between the food choices made by parents for their children and kids’ wishes, heavily influenced by communication and the way product is sold to them, is a significant challenge in children product marketing. The need to creatively and continuously communicate the advantages of brands dedicated to kids, but also to deliver products according to the promises made to parents are more and more important on this market. The international trend of “Healthy food” becomes already relevant for Romanian parents and they will be more and more active in searching and offering healthy alternatives to their kids

Adina Nica,

Managing Director Open-I Research.

Kinder, Danone and Nestle are most heavily perceived as brands for kids. The notoriety top as brands for kids is completed by Tedi, Milka, Dorna, Napolact, Barni, Tymbark and Hochland. This ranking respects, in big part, the hierarchy of ad investments made during last few years. Practically, all those brands are in the top of the biggest ad investors in food and drinks categories.

Napolact is considered by parents as the most healthy brand for their kids. In the top of the healthy brands, Napolact is followed by Zuzu, Dorna, Milli and Santal. Even if Kinder, Danone and Nestle are perceived by parents as brands for kids, parents do not consider them also a healthy choice for their children. Kinder doesn’t even make it in top 10 healthy brands, while Nestle and Danone rank 8 and 9 in top.

When it comes of brands preferred by children, Coca-Cola is number one, there’s no dairies or yogurt on kid’s list, but they like salami. Kinder, Milka, Barni, Hochland, Tedi, Prigat, Santal, Nesquick and Cristim are completing kid’s preferences top.

 The study was made by Open-I Research on a sample of 400 parents living in urban areas, aged 25-45 y.o. and with kids aged 0-10 y.o.

Open-I Research study, Top Kids Brands, showed that there’s a strong link between marketing budgets and perception over brands, but also the fact that “healthy” attribute becomes more and more important in parents’ choices. The more a brand perceived as unhealthy by parents is aggressive in targeting kids, the more hated it is by the parents. We could define this way a new concept: „love and hate brand”, resulted from this divergence, that is nothing more than a challenge for brand managers. Solving this conflict will be beneficial for all: brand will become a love brand both for parents and children, parents will trust leave the kid choose what he wishes from the store. And the loyality is a stronger one after that

Adina Nica,

Managing Director Open-I Research.

Even since launch, 8 years ago, Itsy Bitsy Radio was continuously preoccupied to offer a healthy environment for kids, promoting only the products that are suited for them. Starting this autumn, Itsy Bitsy radio repositioned and included in its schedule special programs for parents, offering them info on parenting, healthy diet, education, culture and entertainment.

Itsy Bitsy educational platform includes the 1st radio for parents and kids in Europe, Itsy Bisy FM (broadcasting on air and online), itsybitsy.ro portal and Itsy Bitsy Events, that allow direct and permanent contact with the public in kinder-gardens, playgrounds or parks. Itsy Bitsy is broadcasting in Bucharest and in over half of Romania’s territory, reaching to over 1.4M children and parents, according to a recent study made by  D&D Research