As part of the Advertising and Branding module, we have to pick a chosen subject to write about. I decided to look into Consumer Kids, A book i have been recommended and I am quite excited to look at as I have a little niece who is coming up to 5 years old now and i can see her developing so quickly and she can use technology really well dispute her age and learns a lot from her cartoons on television.
I have started to read the book Consumer Kids by Ed Mayo & Agnes Nairn. Published in UK by Constable, Copyright 2009 Ed Mayo & Agnes Nairn.
How big business is grooming our children for profit.
Children are very imaginative are can make great sales people, they have a huge network of friends and you will often see a chain reaction. If one person has this new toy, their other friends have to follow this trend. Now imagine that business can use that power, friends of friends buying products that they all like. That equals a lot of business. So how do you get these children to start buying your products. Well truth is businesses already hire young children to help sell their products.
In 2007 a company called Dubit on behalf of Mattel actually did this. They have hired 7-11 year old girls up and down the country to help sell the Barbie Girl MP3 player. They gave one girl a free MP3 player but in return she has to help sell them on to her friends. She would have been hired from the Barbie Girl Chat room, the idea is to get her talking to her friends and making them join the website, buy their products and so on. Children can make great salespeople. Even though she is 7, she has to blog about her new mp3 player on her favourite websites. She even has to take photographs of them selling the product to here friends as she is on a payment by results scheme. Sounds hard to believe but it is true.
Liam who is 16 said “The most effective marketing to young people is by other young people”. Since doing this module I can really see why this makes a lot of sense. I have been talking to students a lot recently and talking to them about the products I know and they know we seem to communicate really well. It’s not like talking to your Grandad about the latest Iphone, him trying to talk to you about the basic features that you already know and so on. People on the same age level or similar interests will make much better salespeople.
Children make great subjects on the matter for advertising. All children are encouraged to want, to buy, to drink, to collect, to snack to grow up fast and get spending. Looking back when i was younger i can totally see this now. When i wanted the latest Pokemon cards i just had to have it as everyone else did. I know it is silly to say this now but it was important to have the latest and greatest to your friends. I feel pretty bad for making my parents get me all that junk.
In todays world there is a lot of pressure on children from advertisements. Think how times there are adverts around us. Buses, Tv Channels, Radio, Internet and Junk Mail. The average age for a child to get their first mobile phone is now 8 years old. That is pretty ridiculous, (my view). This is where the parents seem to come into place, they are the ones giving them pocket money, buying them products that they must have because everyone else has got one.
So what does this mean to companies, well recently children up to the age spend roughly £12 Billion of their own pocket money or part time jobs? £1.53 Billion is spent in shopping centres, clothes and shoes for example. They eat and drink about £1 Billion on snacks and drinks. £860 million on sweets, soft drinks, crisps and snacks. I expected more in that section as that is what i hear most about in the news for children is that they are not eating as heathy as they should. Back onto money, $440 million is going on music and a further more £340 million going towards Computer Software. That £12 Billion sounds nice to companies now doesn’t help? I am sure they would like to get they products into it.
This is not just the UK and the USA, this is happening Global. Think about China, the newest consumers under the age of 15. They are 312 million of them that are wanting and needing food, snacks and the latest toys. They are advertised from all angles. Billboards, posters, tv, radio, clothing, lunch boxes, websites, stores, radio etc. “This new global generation has a world view that their parents generation never dream of, has access to better healthcare, better education more and better tours and electronic gadgets and not only a wider choice of careers to aspire to, but choice, full stop.”
Well it is clear how they have money and how the will spend but how are they targeted. Once piece of research conducted by Ed Mayo & Agnes Nairn revealed 85% of children’s websites collect personal information. This includes email address, address, postcode, city, country, date of birth, gender and age. I have been on sites like this and i try to avoid filling in too much information. Sometimes they are compulsory so a child will most likely fill them all in.
Take an example, a girl is trying to find a website of her favourite toy, she is not sure what the website is so she uses Google to help her find it out. When she enters search, Google will match up tags and display similar links and sponsored links that may be what she or looking or the competition. Then when she locates her website she is finding. She might even sign up to play all the games and access more like wallpapers and so on. So she has to sign up with her email address and most likely some personal information.
There is a real danger to children who have access to the internet. Clicking on links and advertising “WIN”, “Free £5”, “FREE”. All these I see on a daily basis and I know that they are not free at all. To children they are most likely going to click as they are not as aware of the dangers yet. I mean how many times have you been on one site and all of a sudden you are on a different website all together. You close it and their are adverts behind your Browser windows. It is really simple and easy for internet companies to advertise to you. Sometimes they are adverts that don’t even come up near your search or website. I remember talking to a friend of mine and he was inserting search tags into the website he was making. He told me even though that none of these tags offer what the website is giving it still creates traffic to the website. Thus making more people look at it and maybe in making them into customers.
Pretty interesting documentary I have found the other day as well. Won’t let me post the video so here is the link: Consumer Kids
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