Marketing to children through mom

All mothers want to please their children, whether they are June Clever-The Sequel or working mothers. Moms aspire to give their children more than they had as children themselves. Today, the definition of "more" tends to take the form of material things, from family vacations to the latest computer to the newest style of Nike shoes.

In addition, the pop culture marketplace has created an arena that is associated with a child's level of esteem and peer acceptance. By being unresponsive to advertising messages, a mother risks alienating her child by rejecting the latest "in" products. The fear of creating a creating playground outcasts or teen loner because of the absence of the latest acceptable fashion logo is too great a burden for a mother to bear.

The final reason that marketing to moms through their children works emerges from a recent desire by mothers to find balance in their busy lives. Time- and energy-starved mothers today pick the battles they fight with their children in order to obtain some type of home life balance. Fighting with a straight-A teen over the brand of their jeans can waste precious time and energy. Instead of fighting this battle, a mother may concede to letting her wear the type of jeans she wants as long as her grades remain high.

Desirable market

Make no mistake about it, the child market offer advertisers an incredible opportunity. In size alone it offers a desirable market. According to the 2000 Census Bureau survey, there are 80 million Americans under the age of 18, and 39 million kids ages 5 - 14 [Census Bureau, 2000]. By 2003, the 5 - 14 bracket will grow 3.6%, according to ACNielsen's Report on Consumer & Market Trends. James McNeal, who has spent over 35 years studying kids and spending, estimates that children influence over US$300 billion in their parent's spending annually. Households with school-aged children outspend households without children by at least one-third. [McNeal, 1999] "Tweens", which are kids between the ages of eight and fourteen, are the largest demographic group among children today.

Marketers are attracted to the child market because it offers the opportunity to gain what we used to call at AutoNation "a customer for life." Companies see children as a customer today and in the future. Many child marketers call it the "cradle-to-grave" market. They win the child's admiration as a youngster when he can influence his parent's buying decisions; later he becomes a customer when he is spending his own money and when he purchases the product for his own family.

Retention programmes

The irony is that the same companies, who see children as potential customers for life, forget to incorporate retention programmes later in the lifecycle of the consumer, as evident in the newspaper industry.

Newspapers spend millions of dollars introducing children to reading newspapers through Newspaper in Education programmes. Their goal is to get youngsters in the habit of reading a paper every day. In the '90s, many dailies introduced features such as teen pages, family sections and children stories but they fail to implement programmes which retain subscribers. Smart companies will realise that unlike Peter Pan, children grow up and they must refocus their marketing efforts to reward customer loyalty and retain valuable consumers.