Marketing to children

I will be looking at how company’s market to children. The main way they get an effective campaign when targeting children is too use techniques that increases the amount of pester power caused by the children.

Pester power by definition is The power children have, by repeated nagging, of influencing their parents to buy advertised or fashionable items. (phrase finder 2008)

At the beginning of the lesson we watched a video that explained to us that Marketing towards children starts as early as them being 2-4. We also found out that due to the increase availability of different medias when compared to 20 years ago it has become easier to reach the 2-4 age category. This is due to the fact they are willing to watch television as a norm and they may do so regularly and they will be more willing to watch the adverts and it is that interaction with them at a young age that creates the relationship between them and the company and that is what makes them able to recognise the brand and be able to associate with it at a later stage in life for an instance McDonalds when they are two they cant really ask for one but the advertising at a young age when they do have a choice and an impact on what there parents buy they may pester them for one (pester power) or they may choose to buy one using there own pocket money, this would be because they have seen the adverts and grown up with it as a normality.

McDonald’s happy meal advert







Relating to children buying products I found a report on pocket money by Mintel (Mintel, Pocket money article. (2008))
the link ... http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=300256

The report showed us that parents prioritise the wants and needs of there children. The main focus on the report was the fact that we are in a recession and how this will impact on the amount of pocket money received by the children. We also found that savings are going up whilst the sales of crisps and chocolates has declined. According to the report we also found out that there is a big difference between older and younger children. We found that ….

The youngest children, aged 7-10, are more likely to save money and they would regard themselves as good at doing it.Just over four in ten of those aged 11+ say ‘I spend money without thinking’.

Even during the recession we also found out that more affluent children are still getting indulged financially, clothes are particularly high on the spending agenda. Kids are also wanting to grow older, younger and are wanting to spend their money on more adult orientated products.

We also looked at Piaget's Child development theory. Piaget was a developmental biologist who observed the intellectual abilities of infants, children and adolescents.
Jean Piaget distinguished that there are four stages of child development, they are as followed….
0-24 months
This stage begins with a simple actions like gasping, sucking and ends with evidence of an internal representational system.

2-7 years
From the age of 2-4 years old children begin to use symbolic rather than simple motor play. A child can think about something without the object being present by use of
4-7 years old speech is more social and the child is able to show principles that determine his overall behaviour.

7 to 11 years
The child is capable of concrete problem-solving, also they have a more logical and characterised thought process.
11 to 15 years
Thoughts are more abstract, incorporating the principles of formal logic. Thinking becomes more imaginative and less defined by logic. logical systems are attained allowing them to handle algebraic manipulation and other abstract processes.
Over all Piaget's test concluded that children are not a little adults, because they are not capable of reasoning and all the full complex though processes until they at least reach an age of 15.