It’s not merely ice-cream makers and toy manufacturers who are targeting children. Every company worth its salt has its eyes riveted on children. The reason is not hard to find. The child is slowly becoming the deciding factor in any family. Not only is he an avid TV watcher but he is also maturing faster. The result? When a family decides to buy goodies, children play an increasingly important role.
As psychologist Allen D. Kenner reports in a paper written by the American Psychology Association (APA), “Advertising is a massive, multi-million dollar project that has an immense impact on child development.” Kenner says that even a few years ago when children were asked what they would want to do when they grew up, they would say “nurse” “astronaut” or some other occupation with intrinsic appeal. Today, when you ask the same question you are likely to get a very different answer — “make money.”
Kenner says this paradigm shift is the result of advertising. The effort of advertisers seems to be working. According to marketing expert James U. McNeal, Ph.D., author of “The Kids Market: Myths and Realities” (Paramount Market Publishing, 1999), children under 12 already spend a whopping $28 billion a year. Teenagers spend $100 billion. Children also influence another $249 billion spent by their parents. This includes everything from toothpaste to luxury cars, toys to even exotic foreign holidays. For instance, a Milward Brown Study on Tweens (children aged below the teenage years) says that tweens are the most brand conscious generation yet. Brands have become an identity symbol, offering an opportunity to be trendy, cool, rich, outrageous, rebellious or just plain stylish. The study reveals that it is far more important for children to wear the right label than it is to wear the right clothes.
The average television viewing of children has also increased over the years as compared to adults. While adults have a passive viewing of 2 hours a day, children watch TV for more than 4 hours a day. Hence, TV is increasingly becoming a more powerful medium for targeting children. It has also been noticed that children pay more attention to detail and absorb information more than adults. Small wonder then that in the last few years, an incre-asing number of marketeers are vying for the attention of teenagers and children — car companies, airlines and hotels in particular.
“The result obviously has been a dramatic increase in the number of advertising messages targeted at children and teenagers,” says Saumya Chattopadhyay, Head, Strategic Planning, Rediffusion Y&R. Remember Chotte’s car that never ran out of petrol? It drove over a chappati, under the dog’s tail, and even over
the sleeping guard’s head. Maruti Suzuki was brilliantly able to convey the message that no car gives a
better mileage than the Maruti 800 — all via the kid’s toy car!
“Today’s children are very impressionable and they share an emotional connect with their parents that was not seen earlier,” says psychologist Dr K Mitra. Hence, companies are increasingly depending on their power to influence. So even when a product is oriented towards adults, marketeers go all out to grab the eyeballs of children.
Images that are happy and colourful make an impact on children, says Dr Mitra. Children start visualising that they are living in that frame. So when paint major Nerolac came up with the new promotional campaign of Jab Ghar Ki Raunak Badhani Ho, it showed young children dancing around and painting their own walls in bright colours.
However, the impact, may not always be a healthy one, says Chattopadhyay. A child who is so brand conscious at such a young age will only grow up to become a highly status conscious and brand championing person. This phenomenon has seen a prolific growth due to an increase in the number of working parents. Parents are often guilty of not spending enough time with their kids. Children know this and tend to take advantage of it. However, a fundamental factor in a child’s life is peer pressure. He or she tends to follow the herd rather his or her own instincts. This makes him/her less likely to be loyal to a single brand until his friends like the brand. This makes the kid category appear fickle. Kids, appear to grow through brands very quickly and lose interest in their toys, magazines and form of entertainment with every passing year. This is the reason why advertisers leave no stone unturned to lure them and keep them enchanted with newer and newer communication everyday.
Now, it remains to be seen whether or not we are spewing out a nation of brash, spoilt, tantrum-throwing, future citizens!
The author is a well- known industry watcher