toys and children

The world of children has changed a great deal over the last decade. The variety and number of products targeted directly at young people have developed incredibly, from toys and clothes to music, magazines, TV channels and entertainment such as sports and electronic interactive media. Many companies focusing on children have realized that there is a need for redefining the generally accepted definition of childhood. "Children are getting older beyond their years" not least due to the dramatic advances in technology. But there are other aspects that make this target group even more important - also for manufacturers of products traditionally targeted at adults. Young people have an increasing influence on what their families purchase. Children are the 'now' generation. They may lack the so-called sophistication of adults, act impulsively and without much rationale. However, advertising research demonstrates that any message that observes the basics of communicating with children in their own 'language' will be registered, even at the very first showing. The argument that children are open to the convincing intent of advertising ignores their ability to be selective and to dismiss those messages that are not in tune with their particular (age-based) values. This 'sophistication' towards the role of advertising augurs well for the future of the next generation. Children might appear to be more receptive to advertising but their critical abilities should never be underestimated; they are a tough audience to please. They will reject miscast actors, poor entertainment value, messages lost in too many words or images that fail to grab them by the throat in the opening seconds. It is quite evident that today's generation of children is more computer-literate and advertising-literate than ever. Equally, they are more brand-literate. They maintain a wider mental portfolio than adults and find swapping brand messages fun. This explains how some attitudes are accumulated within the peer group, which can have a great effect on purchase preferences or product ambassadors. Introducing new concepts among their peers has led to group invasions of relevant retail outlets and a welcome boost to brand image and profitability. Research, using non-verbal interviewing techniques, shows that irrespective of the medium, children as young as three years old can recognise the compelling tone of advertising. While at this early age, they can understand the role of advertising as "they're trying to get me to buy it", by the age of five or six this has developed into "they are trying to sell me something". By seven, most children are capable of understanding exactly what advertisers are trying to achieve and, by ten, children have become adept critics and prove to be a tough - even cynical - audience to influence. Even though media opportunities have now extended far beyond the family TV, research among children tends to focus on what they see on TV. To them, advertising is TV. When questioned about advertising, they invariably respond in terms of TV, though older respondents demonstrate awareness of the entire range of advertising media. For all, however, television advertising is an integral part of the entertainment that television provides. Children find it easier to recall advertising they disliked, rather than the ones they liked. They have a short attention span and are extremely quick to criticise or reject advertising that does not fulfil their viewing criteria. The four main sources of negative comment are as follows.
The wrong models One of the most risky areas is the use of child models. Children are aware of their own, as they see it, unique position in the universe and immediately reject others who appear to be talking down, or even talking up, to them. Ten to fifteen-year-olds aspire upwards and have scant interest in what young people (Note: Never call them children) their age are doing. The one instance where models can usually communicate successfully is where young adults are used to promote products of interest to teenagers.
The lack of entertainment Entertainment is an essential element in successful advertising to seven to 15-year-olds. Children need to be won over through entertainment and this entertainment can be to inform them about the reason to buy. If the entertainment levels fall children may not stop watching television - unlike adults - but their minds would not be there, so the message is lost. It is said there is no such thing as 'children's advertising'. Research shows there are few boundaries to a child's understanding of what is entertaining. That is why one sees a lot of children responding to many commercials directed towards adults, even though the product itself might not be relevant at all to their daily needs.
Many children can recall a minute and accurate description of entertaining beginning, middle and end sequences of a TV ad plus the brand name. Indeed, the creative disciplines used to generate successful advertising in the adult world should be applied more frequently when advertising to children. Too many words Children respond more positively to messages communicated visually, rather than voice message. This is especially true among younger audiences, even up to the age of 10 or 12. Visual action is closer to their own play experience where actions speak louder than words. A catchy jingle, especially if associated with a memorable visual, often proves to be the most effective communication route to stimulate actionable interest in the product. The death-knell of any advertising is to be described by children as boring. Testing TV commercials consistently highlights the different manners in which children and adults are influenced by TV advertising.
Children's attention is at the highest in the first few seconds of ad running and, unless the ad is able to hold on or increase their attention in those first few vital moments, they tend to loose interest and so the rest of the message will be ignored.
Adults, on the other hand, often delay until midway or later through a commercial before they pick up the message and they are more likely to persist with understanding the ad's intent. Children rarely persist with the effort to understand the message. It has been lost on them in the first critical moments.
Children clearly have an important role to play in the families purchase decision, but their contribution varies by product category. It is also reasonable to conclude that since brand characteristics are variable, the impact of marketing to children must also vary by brand. Because there is no one universal model for marketing to children, understanding the key differences by category - in terms of parental mindset, child involvement, brand advertising and, potentially, brand equity - will have direct strategic and tactical implications for communications and media strategies. The most important questions for the marketer to children are - what percentage of sales is driven by children and can this be improved upon?