With the new academic year arriving with full steam, we in this post address an increasingly important market. Yes, we are talking about kids, the new generation brand evangelists. Market estimate reveals kids spend an estimated $4.2 billion annually on their personal purchases. The approximate market size influenced by children is $100 billion causing many millions of purchases among their parents. Interestingly kids have matured from persistent nagging to importance nagging, in what is recognized as ‘pester power. This appeals to parents’ desire to provide the best for their children. This combined with parental guilt plays the critical role in spending decisions, as time-stressed parents tend to substitute material goods for time spent with their kids. So kids, from just being influencers, have now become ‘active consultants’ and ‘information provider’ to parents on most household purchase decisions. This change can be attributed to the conventional and new-age media consumption habits of kids and their increasing comfort levels with modern technology. Resultant effect: 63% of kids are involved in a spectrum of product categories from clothes to bicycles to computers and cars. Mobile phones get 76% involvement while cars enjoy 43% of kids’ involvement. Parents believe that their children do research and express opinions about product categories.
Since all marketers more or less agree that Kids are an important fragment of their target audience if not their audience in totality, schools provide the most relevant concentration of this audience in an almost perfect synergy of possibilities. It delivers a captive youth audience and implies the endorsement of teachers and the educational system. Marketers and activation agencies have been quick to realize the power of the school environment for promoting their brand and products. What’s more the school contact program is no longer the novelty it was a decade ago. However there is a downside to having an intelligent and informed audience, the “gatekeepers segment” with parents and teachers which cannot be alienated in the communication process. This has resulted in a clear cut variable in measurability of a program in direct proportion its infotainment quotient.A recently concluded study finds that babies as young as six months of age can form mental images of corporate logos and mascots. Brand loyalties can be established as early as age two, and by the time children head off to school most can recognize hundreds of brand logos. Research also shows that close to 90% of kids within 8-12 years of age prefer to act in a group than on their own. About half of them feel enormous pressure to wear the “right” brands. It’s hardly surprising that a whopping 90% of kids’ brand decisions are heavily influenced by their peers, worldwide.
In planning a successful activation for kids, identifying kid’s icons and what interests them becomes imperative. Most of us when planning the activation fail to ensure that it has the answers to a few relevant questions. Is the activation engaging for the kids? Is the gratification going to excite them? Is the communication going to capture gatekeepers’ interests? Is it going to breeze through their lives with little impact or will it capture their interest and tickle their imagination? If the answers to these questions are yes, then we have on our hands a successful activation which can draw long term benefit for the brand.
Scooty Aagey Badho is a case study that showcases these nuances. This PMAA award winning campaign demonstrates how asimple insight combined with an integrated approach saw the
results of the activation measured by TNS India where in B category towns the reach in target group (daughters) increased by 833%, and the percentage of people that associated the brand with the communication increased by 950%. (Download Award Winning Case Study) Come July brands will flock to the schools in a clutter of forms and color pencils, so which brands will seed and which will get washed in the flood of drawing paper? What will contribute maximum to the success of activation? The key will be the concept which should answer the critical questions coupled with an in-depth understanding of the target audience psychographic. It offers the best bet to pull off a market driver integrating the infotainment basics and building a communication strategy around a relevant subject, which ensures that marketing objectives can be well met through such activations. (Activating Kids View Case Studies)
If you have a mantra for activating kids or have experienced the impact of Pester Power in your sales/activations or have come across a memorable activation for kids, here is an opportunity for all of us to go back to basics & share insights to create powerful marketing campaigns to harness full potential of this exponentially growing Kid’s Market. There’s more to it. If you have learnt a marketing insight from your own kid, take this as medium to webcast your ingenious finding…
If you have a mantra for activating kids or have experienced the impact of Pester Power in your sales/activations or have come across a memorable activation for kids, here is an opportunity for all of us to go back to basics & share insights to create powerful marketing campaigns to harness full potential of this exponentially growing Kid’s Market. There’s more to it. If you have learnt a marketing insight from your own kid, take this as medium to webcast your ingenious finding…
10 comments:
Well i think Marketers are going overboard by taking kids in almost all the campaigns where they think of wooing their parents/family members by targeting pester power (because they have a say in almost all the categories available in the market) of the few examples which i can think of in which kids have been used brilliantly was the Dhara Ad ( the sweet kid which says no one likes me in this house hence i am leaving the house and then his mother offers him his favorite dish in Dhara Ad) one thing i liked in it was the subtle and emotional message which directly linked to the decision maker (in this case his mother) which was simply brilliant.
On the other thing if kids are used in products like Cars,FMCG and other segments in which pester power may be useful or at times not say for e.g if a car manufacturer uses a kids to sell his product it may catch the attention of the TG but ultimately the Product will sell on its USP, Price, Features and not simply on Pester Power.
It should be Keep it simple stupid (KISS)
You are absolutely corrects that as July arrives, places with heavy footfall of young generations are flooded with branding of various brands. This shows the golden opportunities to grab the eyeball attention of these young consumers. But the success of any marketing campaign weather in terms of gross sales, strong customer base and strong brand position in mindset of target audiences is largely depends on the USP of brand. Moreover, how much it ( brand ) is capable of bounding TA realistically . Today every brand is vying for top market share by attracting its TA through the realistic examples of their life.
During planning it's very necessary to focus on the routine habits of our TA, in order to know the facts which has large impact over them. For instance , if your product has a age group of 5 to 12 or 13, then its the phase of life of everyone when mother is like a ideal or motivator for a child to achieve his/her goal. Therefore relating mother in ad visuals for such products would definitely help them in purchasing decisions.
It is a very interesting topic to understand. Each kid is unique and he or she gets influenced by different drivers. Kids can be easily moved through emotions and through someone who brings a lots of pleasure for them ..whoever or whatever brings smile on kids face ..becomes successful. It is important that marketing shall also inspire good values in the kids ..these include environment conservation ,Time Management ,Saving ,Respect for elders ,Sharing of affection & Love etc .I have observed my son moving towards environment freindly products.He has demonstrated care & respect for elders by observing certain advertisement in TV and he could associate with certain brands. Brands play an important role in making a child ,a good man/citizen ...we shall make use of this opportunity.
totally agree with the subject..with increasing exposure of kids to TV etc; they have become brand concious.. now every kid wants NIKE shoes.. iphone.. playstation and list goes on... actually i agree with sandeep that we should not only should but its our duty to inculcate good values into the kids.. and Advertising and branding has very big role to play in this
Good initiative.
Are you making this a "self-financing promotion" for your clients?
You very easily could, you know.
Hi Sumit, thank you. Activating kids is an exciting proposition, most clients prefer to fund programs in the domain which help achieve pre set objectives for their brands.
Brands hit them but they get confuse to with so many things happening, so brands PR should be more simplistic and accurate.
You can achieve the "activation" objectives AND generate a new stream of revenue for your brand.
Disneyland is a huge example, but things can also be done on a smaller scale, as well. (Disney, of course, 'activates' the parents as well, as the brand is based on the insight that "there's a child in every adult".)
Afaqs! has asked me to run a workshop on "Self-Financing Brand Campaigns". July 17 in Delhi and July 18 in Mumbai.
Find out more at http://www.afaqs.com/events/self-financing/index.html
9 important things you should know about engagement with teenagers.
Generation Z, are the 12-27 year olds and here is a list of their ten key future media habits and how you should now start thinking about engagement with them in the future.
1. They won’t read newspapers: 12 to 27 year olds do not read newspapers; they may read a few celebrity magazines or specialist magazines. There will be a huge consolidation of print media, with just a handful news brands left.
2. Television on their own terms: They will never watch TV on someone else’s schedule. The idea of being constrained to watch a certain program at a set time will make no sense to them.
3. Mobile: they won’t own a landline phone, and probably never will. They will not own a watch either. They will hold all their music on their phone and interact with their friends through it. They will buy, bank even open and start the car through the mobile.
4. Who they trust: Teens trust their peers and are influenced by them as we all know - even unknown peers - more than they trust experts.
5. Pay for content: Today there is actually a willingness among teens to pay for content in some manner, but sharing of media is what they will try to do.
6. Community: The social community & communication with ‘friends’ is a primary activity. However, no loyalty to a particular social network., for teens, it a bit like a nightclub – you go there with your friends as long as its cool, but once too many other people start showing up (e.g. parents), you go off to find a new nightclub.
7. Advertising: Teens think they are not impacted by brands and advertising. However, studies from the Centre for the Digital Future have shown that in fact teens are actually more aware of brands and pay more attention to brands than other age groups.
8. Movable content: Teens expect to be able to move digital content from platform to platform, and won’t accept restrictions on this. They lead a multi-platform life, and believe they should be able to take their digital content with them.
9. IM & SMS: Teens use IM and or SMS for communication; they think that email is for their parents.
Mobile: A whole new ball game! Over the years there has always been some people who have said that mobile engagement would not be accepted by consumers, you only have to look at the figures Bluepod Media 1.9M downloads for Xbox (www.bluepodmedia.com) to know this is not true. However there’s definitely a whole new set of rules and the companies involved with engagement are not good at figuring out new rules. Companies typically adapt what they know from existing communication system and move it to the next media adaption. This just won’t work. The industry needs to get out of the television model. I’m not referring to specific formats like pre-roll, I mean the fundamental model of saturating the same message over and over again or trying to get teens to conform to the normal methods of engagement. You cannot do this on mobile they will switch off after the second hit and get annoyed. You have to give them something (for FREE) and in return they will give time to your message. Engage with them the way their friends and peers communicate. Make it easy for them to communicate with you the way they communicate normally.
Where will major innovations come from that will Engage them? Let’s look at the fundamentals: ENGAGEMENT + INTERACTIVITY + USER FRIENDLY = TRANSACTION/ VIRAL/ HAPPY TO RETURN CUSTOMER.
To engage Generation Z we will have to truly commit to becoming a member of their community. For example, if a organisation X wants to move onto Facebook, they will have to say ‘here’s why we’re here, here’s what we’re committed to, we care about you and want to interact with you - we’re not here just to sell to you’.
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