The ten commandments of youth marketing in 2006
Excerpted from a brand new book entitled 'Marketing to The New Super Consumer: Mom & Kid' (by Greg Livingston, Tim Coffey, and Dave Siegel), there are a definite 'ten commandments' of Youth Marketing that should never be broken, and casual observation of the United States' best youth marketing organisations will show that the successes stay firmly within these rules.
In the book, the authors introduce the concept of the "4I4L" (four-eyed and four-legged) consumer, and present insights gleaned from extensive research on young consumers. Here then are the author's top ten observations from the book - the "ten commandments of effective ads for kids":
- Remember their ages Be mindful of the cognitive development of your ad's target age group. As the book discusses in other chapters, kids of different ages think and process information differently. Younger kids operate on a much simpler level than their older counterparts. Your target age group must understand the ad before it can act on it.
- Grab their attention Grab your audience's attention early and hold it. Many kids, especially younger ones, cannot refocus their attention once they've moved it to something else. So if something confuses or bores them in your ad, they "leave" it and cannot mentally come back.
- Link your brand to the story Kids, especially younger ones, tend to remember things in story form, including ads. Having a brand that is strongly linked to the story told in your ad increases the chances that kids would remember it when cruising the aisles.
- Make the brand memorable. Further build on the theme of brand recall, using mnemonic devices such as jingles and characters (e.g., Kid Cuisine's KC the Penguin and Kellogg's Tony the Tiger) will help kids remember your brand.
- Be literal As most people with children already know, kids are very literal. What they see and hear is what they get. Therefore, don't make your messages or claims too vague or abstract. Kids will either misinterpret or not even comprehend the point you're trying to get across. For example, if your product comes in certain flavours, tell the child exactly what those flavours are.
- Watch out for distractions Kids pay attention to the strangest things - sometimes the wrong things. Younger kids suffer from "centration", and will centre their thoughts and attention on just one part of your ad or product that stands out to them. It might be the little kitten in the ad; it might be the cute baby; but worst of all, it might not be the product or the message.
- Use humour, music and anticipation Humour, music, and anticipation increase kid involvement. Kids are all about fun, and nothing says fun more than jokes, tunes, and the element of surprise. Any combination of these can serve as a hook for your ad. But make sure the child understands the joke. If not, he or she will think that you are just stupid.
- Don't pick on living things! Here is one out of left field. So far we've been talking about "dos," but we felt it necessary to include one "don't." Make sure your ad does not show kids picking on other kids or animals. Kids' picking on adults is okay, and cartoon animals picking on each other might be okay, but our research with many commercials found that in general it's better to show the nicer side of kids.
- Think about gender bias Boys will be boys; girls will be either - but it's best to show both. Girls respond to either boys or girls in ads, but boys will usually not respond favourably to ads with girls as the only talent. There are a few exceptions to this - for instance if the girl is an athlete. Even with this, however, girls respond better to actually seeing girls in an ad.
- Test before committing Before committing the big bucks on media, make certain that your audience likes the ad. Likeability is still the strongest, most important part of any commercial to a child.
The book is available from all major bookstores, and from Amazon.com - click here.