Lecture Eighteeen: "Finding the Alpha-Pups" - Marketing to Children

Taking over from last weeks lecture we moved on to focus about the very lucrative market of the child generation. In 2007 it was estimated in the UK that 4.2bn pounds was spent annually by children, up from 3.9 in 2005. This just makes you dream of the possibilities doesn't it. So the question is, which was raised in class, how do we market effectively to children???

One clue was raised in our lecture and it is "Children ARE growing older younger! and they are the ones who are going to be most affected by the bombardment of over 3000 adverts a day because of the length of time they spend in front of the TV or the computer. Children are also recognising brands at allot earlier age, much more than children in other European countries, as we found out when we watched the video in class which saw some pre-school children being shown brand logos and they recognised Barbie, Lego and Pepsi and they will probably have recognised more.

So If they are the ones that are going to be most affected, how can we use that?? We make the children want a product so much that they will do anything to have it.... it is true marketers are relying on what is known as Pester Power; defined as

"Children's ability to make their parents buy something or do something for them by continual asking until the parents agree to do it.".

This is a good definition but it doesn't explain it all; for a start you need to understand that children hold allot of purchasing power as they have influence over their parents/grandparents, becoming a strong power in the family decision making unit, finally becoming future adult consumers themselves. They will then use any way possible to get their parents to buy products which can range from tantrums to being on best behaviour but the end result is the same. The difference however is if the child behaves then they will trick the parent into buying a product as a reward and not to just stop them screaming.

One question which is always being asked when talking about marketing to children is.... is it ethical?? after all you are making the child, pretty much force their parents to buy something. For me I think that it is unethical, but at the end of the day business is business. So we now understand that the most effective of campaigns are the ones which evoke Pester Power.


It's not just at home that kids are marketed to though, marketers will often use other children using the 'order of the playground' ... by this I mean using the cool kids. You will remember back in the days at school, you turn up one morning n Simon has the new footie boots out... now everyone wants them including you, problem is they cost £130... no way that's gunna happen. But you still beg and beg your mom n dad to get you them. Using these sorts of tactics is know as finding the Alph-Pups. The Alph-Pups is the one child within a group of children that has the power to influence the whole group.... you got the Alpha-Pup, you've got the whole group, get the group you have their parent and once you have them .. ££££££ ching ching.

So why do children get affected by advertising so much? Well it has to do with the fact that children use brands as a way to express themselves which really comes out when they become Tweens and Teens but these brand identities are created and cultivated at a very young age. The UK also has the most relaxed of all advertising laws in Europe allowing kids to more easily view advertisements aimed at adult audiences. They also watch more adult sitcoms, dramas and soaps than any other European children. It is because of this more adult viewing that today's children are growing up faster, swapping the classics children's toys for mobile phones, ipods, playstations, xbox's and wii's. So with this over exposure to brands you can see why relationships with brands are developed early.

Looking at how children develop as they grow up also provides information on how they develop these brand relationships. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1990), created a 'cognitive-developmental stage theory' which has 4 stages:

• Sensorimotor: From birth to around age 2 this is when the child is learning how to learn including how to use their bodies to move, how to talk and general thinking.



• preoperational: In the 2nd stage, typically lasting from 2 to 7 is where the child begins to use symbols to understand and to interact with the world. It is at this stage when marketers can start to put brand images and associations like fun, happy and exciting into the early child's mind.



• Concrete Operational: Lasting from 7 to 11 this stage children gain the ability to think logically to solve problems and to organize information they learn. So having already started brand identity and association marketers can then continue to reinforce this upon the child.



• Formal Operational: Contiuing from the age of 11 onwards they learn to think more abstractly and symbolically. With the brands already embedded deep in the, now adolescents mind the brands will stay they.

To finish up you just really need to think about how Pester Power resonates into other theories, such as the Family Decision Making Unit and the ethical factors that marketers have to deal with. I will also leave you with a Guardian Article titled "We are comming for your children."