Marketing to Children.

 

There is revolution that has occurred in marketing over the last few years, and it stems from the concept of cradle to grave brand loyalty.

 

 

Brands now realize that their challenge is to get their logos and names into the consciousness of children as early as possible in order to be coupled with the natural good feelings produced by the state of childhood. This is true for all companies, but especially ones that require a stream of revenue from childhood itself.

 

Kid are outgrowing toys faster, which is good for big box stores like Wal*Mart because it leads to higher turn-over, but if a brand caters strictly to young children then it is imperative that they lower their target age. It used to be unthinkable to target children under 2 for marketing messages, now it is considered a hot demographic. Thanks to the barrier busting brand Baby Einstein companies are now free to target infants and toddlers with their marketing messages under the guise of “educational” programming. These programs have as their number one goal to get their brands imprinted into a child’s mind as soon as possible, and the number one way to do that is through “characters”. A fun character is simply the way to create an ongoing consumer experience that creates a stream of revenue from every child to larger corporations that control media and the licensing of characters. Licensing is big money.

 

Thanks to the revolution of being able to go after babies, there is now a battle to get ones brand imprinted as soon as possible. If one company takes a moral stand, then you can bet another will jump in and capture that marketing opportunity. Brands can no longer afford to ignore the potential of profits and marketing opportunities that can be had by going after the infant demographic.

 

The National Pediatrics Association and the American Psychological Association have unambiguously condemned any product that encourages children to watch television before the age of 2.     So there is a real dilemma.   Doing what is in the best interest of children will risk losing out on a precious window of opportunity to get one’s character into a child’s mind and then increase the amount of spending that child will produce for the duration of their childhood.   A Childhood that we’ve already noted is shortening, since children are adopting teenage and tween consumer goods earlier in their life.   A real moral conundrum…well actually not a moral conundrum at all…simply one where making a profit is absolutely in opposition to what is good for children. But corporations are going to do it anyway. There’s just too much money to be made. Not only are these programs not educational but it’s been found that children watching these shows actually have a harder time learning, and in fact are more likely to experience a whole host of other issues, like attention deficit disorder.   So are puppet characters responsible for helping to ignore the findings of doctors and scientists, and simply accommodate a corporate agenda to the detriment of a child’s health?  

 

The Show Crossing Boundaries attempts to raise these questions and explore these issues

Marketing to Children.

 

There is revolution that has occurred in marketing over the last few years, and it stems from the concept of cradle to grave brand loyalty.

 

 

Brands now realize that their challenge is to get their logos and names into the consciousness of children as early as possible in order to be coupled with the natural good feelings produced by the state of childhood. This is true for all companies, but especially ones that require a stream of revenue from childhood itself.

 

Kid are outgrowing toys faster, which is good for big box stores like Wal*Mart because it leads to higher turn-over, but if a brand caters strictly to young children then it is imperative that they lower their target age. It used to be unthinkable to target children under 2 for marketing messages, now it is considered a hot demographic. Thanks to the barrier busting brand Baby Einstein companies are now free to target infants and toddlers with their marketing messages under the guise of “educational” programming. These programs have as their number one goal to get their brands imprinted into a child’s mind as soon as possible, and the number one way to do that is through “characters”. A fun character is simply the way to create an ongoing consumer experience that creates a stream of revenue from every child to larger corporations that control media and the licensing of characters. Licensing is big money.

 

Thanks to the revolution of being able to go after babies, there is now a battle to get ones brand imprinted as soon as possible. If one company takes a moral stand, then you can bet another will jump in and capture that marketing opportunity. Brands can no longer afford to ignore the potential of profits and marketing opportunities that can be had by going after the infant demographic.

 

The National Pediatrics Association and the American Psychological Association have unambiguously condemned any product that encourages children to watch television before the age of 2.     So there is a real dilemma.   Doing what is in the best interest of children will risk losing out on a precious window of opportunity to get one’s character into a child’s mind and then increase the amount of spending that child will produce for the duration of their childhood.   A Childhood that we’ve already noted is shortening, since children are adopting teenage and tween consumer goods earlier in their life.   A real moral conundrum…well actually not a moral conundrum at all…simply one where making a profit is absolutely in opposition to what is good for children. But corporations are going to do it anyway. There’s just too much money to be made. Not only are these programs not educational but it’s been found that children watching these shows actually have a harder time learning, and in fact are more likely to experience a whole host of other issues, like attention deficit disorder.   So are puppet characters responsible for helping to ignore the findings of doctors and scientists, and simply accommodate a corporate agenda to the detriment of a child’s health?  

 

The Show Crossing Boundaries attempts to raise these questions and explore these issues