Marketers
all know about “pester power” and the increasing influence kids have
over family purchase decisions in almost every category. To the tune of
$500 billion dollars, according to statistics. So what else is new?
Plenty.
Children
now account for a whopping $21.4 billion worth of their own purchasing
power. As kids get into their tweens, ages 8-12, they have their own
discretionary dollars, and they’re likely to purchase what they want
with some guidance from their parents.
Trends
point to the need for more engagement between kids’ brands and their
target demographic groups. And parents are an important part of this
equation. Failure to connect with each is a mistake. Recent push back
against children’s marketing shed light on an important issue: parents
are increasingly concerned about hard-sell efforts aimed at their kids.
So brand interaction to gain parental trust is paramount if brands are
to succeed.
In
spite of their reservations, parents are spending on their children.
Packaged Facts projects families spent $143 billion on children’s
products in 2010. Since the recent recession, adults have cut back on
spending for themselves, but they’re still spending on their children. What parents are looking for now? A reason to believe. There
has been a decided shift in families and a reorientation of values
since the recession. More meaning is being placed on the family as a
unit, so marketers will have to get connected and stay connected with
kids and parents.
A
brand must demonstrate its value, showing parents it nurtures,
educates, elicits their kids’ creativity, feeds their imaginations,
reinforces positives or helps them to grow. Parents will gladly say
“yes” to such a brand. All of this points to the marketer’s need to
engage parents, not only their children.
Kids
themselves are more sophisticated now than even a couple of years ago.
They still watch plenty of television, and TV advertising is extremely
influential on young kids and tweens. These groups make instantaneous
decisions when exposed to advertising: they either want it or they
don’t. And if the response is a positive one, kids “want it now” and
they let their parents know it. As a result, marketers spend a whopping
$15 billion on advertising aimed directly at children.
Besides
TV, more kids are coming online and at an increasingly younger age.
eMarketer projects that in 2011 20.2 million kids under the age of
eleven will be online at least once per month. That’s just shy of 40%
of this demographic. By 2014, an estimated 24.9 million, almost 48% of
kids, eleven and under will be online. Since kids are tech savvy,
they’re perfectly comfortable researching products and brands that
interest them. They’re also susceptible to online advertising. Since
these kids communicate heavily with their friends online, they then
become heavy influencers.
Besides
this, access to the Internet with mobile devices continues to rise.
While marketing to children under the age of thirteen is not allowed,
kids are being handed parents’ cell phones to play games and listen to
music. As they get older and parents give them their first cell phones,
these kids, having grown up on the Internet, will use these mobile
devices for more than communications. They’ll be online themselves and
the target of marketing.
Tweens and teens are increasingly creating their own content online,
influencing a wider circle of their peers as they do. Engaging tweens
and teens on all communication platforms, especially social media, is a
“must”. Marketers that make the effort to connect with these groups in
new, inventive ways will reap significant rewards. These demographics
and their friends can become true brand devotees.
When marketing to kids:
- Do engage them by playing to their sense of adventure and their imaginations.
- Do get the point across simply and succinctly.
- Do engage them with activities that teach, educate or encourage creativity.
- Do make certain your messages are truthful and authentic. Kids can spot a phony from a mile away; that will turn them off to the brand for good. Hint: they’ll take their friends with them away from the brand, also.
- Do emphasize safety and wholesomeness if these are central to the brand. Always accent the positive and highlight value.
- Do take responsibility. Be up front if there’s a problem and show a willingness to make things right.
- Do partner with parents. They need and want reassurances. An interactive flow of communication is vital to the success of brands now.
- Do set up a strategy that employs traditional and social media platforms since kids multi-task and need to be messaged with more than one medium.
- Don’t talk down to the kid’s demographic you want to appeal to. Speak in their language.
- Better yet: show them in inventive ways. Remember: kids see themselves as more mature than they actually are.
- Don’t only engage kids; engage their parents. Especially if the brand offers an opportunity to bring the entire family together. Hint: family game nights and activities have reappeared since the economic downturn. How can marketers capitalize on that?
Research
shows parents are being far more selective now in their purchases for
their kids. Even though cost-cutting measures are evident in households
across the country brands that are perceived to have value; brands that
inspire trust and loyalty; will continue to be purchased by parents
when their children ask for them. Tweens will also receive their
parents’ approval for these kinds of brands as they make their own
purchases.
To
be truly successful, brands will have to deliver on their promises and
communicate those promises on multiple platforms for kids and their
parents. And that means engaging the modern family on its own terms.
Gary Lee FishmanFebruary 24, 2012 7:56 AM
Fantastic, informative, and responsible article to all publics.