Kids Grow Older Younger - 6-3-09

Sorry once I started writing I couldn't stop!!

“Kids Grow Older Younger”

“Kids Grow Older Younger” was broadcasted in 1992 showing how children now look at media and how the industry is aiming branded products at them. The show visited different members of the industry finding out many disturbing facts.

From watching the programme it gave incite in the way advertisers use brand loyalty from a young age. Children begin to recognise advertising around 2-4 years old, just when they will be able to talk and point things out that they want. £30 million is spent on children’s advertising a year, but why so much? Children are able to persuade adults to buy different products either because of the brand or, as research has shown, packaging plays a major role when advertising towards children. Stereotypically girls would go for a product with bright colours and boys with dark colours. Boys seem to be more sucked into brands due to the sponsorship connected with brands and sports. At the moment within the market children have been hooked to High School Musical enabling marketers to put the actors’ faces or even the writing and they will want the product. It is then down to the parent to say no that not good for you or you can not have it.

Brands build up the Child's identity being able to fit within a group of friends. Children look at brands as if they were a human, whether they are fashionable or popular. If the child does not have a certain brand they will often be bullied at school for not being ‘cool’. This can be due to parents not having the money or simply not thinking they are suitable. Advertisers are aware of the bully that takes place, aiming at these bullies to get the latest brand to promote it, as the rest of the kids in the playground look up to him/her. Children will try and play parents to buy them presents of they are good. To do this asking for something, being told ‘No’, asking again later and told if your good, behaving for the rest of the day, then asking again and the parent will more than likely say yes. This technique is used by children allowing them to achieve their goal, getting the product.

Peter Cooper, a consumer psychologist, explained about the two different types of mothers. Regressive mothers like to keep their child a child for as long as possible. Continuing the idea of their innocence and they need to be looked after. Dettol shows this as they want to look after the children.

Progressive mothers want the kid to grow up and be able to look after themselves. BT show this in their advertising as the child is allowed to be alone surfing the Internet.

Nowadays, children are having to grow up fast due to different fears that are scaring the nation, paedophiles, exams, divorce, all playing on the child’s mind. These fears come from factual news and soap operas which are often watched as a family before bed. These programmes show in-depth stories that realistically could happen to anyone.
http://www.aef.com/on_campus/classroom/speaker_pres/data/35 This article I found really interested me, showing the target age changing and what mothers thought about the fact of their children growing older younger.

Pocket Money 2008 -

As children begin to want to buy their own products parents give pocket money enabling them to have some responsibility. These children want to adapt to adult lifestyles so buying products that will imply this. Toys have been effected buy this as now 9/10 year olds are more interested in fashion and music rather than sitting with a toy. Crisps and sweets have felt a decrease due to the healthy eating lifestyles that parents and school are promoting. Money used for CDs have moved to sharing folders for mp3 players, so children are growing up faster.

The increase in technology and neighbourhoods has changed the way pocket money is spent. Due to the potential dangers of playing on the street, children are more restricted than in the 1970s, this allowing the money to be spent on items that will be used in the home. Only 7% of boys said that they don’t like video games, showing that many are stuck in front of a screen. By using the entertainment in homes, surfing the Internet will increase pester power again as the child will need a credit card to buy a product, not using the pocket money. Within the report it was found that less affluent families are more likely to indulge their children finically.

Girls always want to buy clothes were as boys will only want it for the brand or logo. 7-10 like to save money to show that they are good at something; where as 4 out of 10 over 11s spend money without thinking about it.

These figures show that children buy what they want and it will more often than not it will be aimed at someone older than them.

Piaget’s Theory - http://blackboard.bucks.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_171870_1%26url%3D

This theory shows the development of children towards advertising and the way they look at it.

International food advertising, pester power and its effects.

Pester power is a pejorative term for children making requests of their parents (Brown,2004). It can cause great strain on the family relationships, parent would have the better judgement, child wants the unhealthy food. Spungin (2004) argued by advertising to children, companies are encouraging the child to nag their parents into buying something that is not good for them, they don’t need or the parent cant afford.’

Pocket money allows for the child to have their own spending power, creating early loyalty with brands, having more power over the adults purchasing behaviour. Adults want to protect their child from the market causing the child to have constricted access to bad purchasers. McNeal explains that brands and stores offer security to children in the same way that pillow a blanket does. Market research agency Datamonitor describes how these circumstances have formed due to the prepared play divorce/ working a parent off against each other.

Like with adults, children will buy what their friends are buying, showing that advertising does not work, word of mouth is more affective.

Palan & Wilkes (1997) identified three strategies the child uses, bargaining, persuasion and emotion. Marquis (2004) found that in French- Canadian ten year olds girls are mostly likely to use persuasion and boy will use emotion. When food shopping with the children lower-social-class households agree with the statement ‘I buy what the children want.’ In Sweden parents spoke openly about the fact they don’t take their children food shopping because it causes too much stress and exhaustion.

There is an increase request for foods high in fat, sugar and salt, indicating the crease in conflict when in the shop causing the purchase of less healthily foods. An example, sweets near the checkouts are at eye level of the child making then want them and maybe causing a conflict.

This weeks advert shows girls trying to look at lot older than they are but still playing with dolls. This advert works as it uses bright colours and the children used are ones that the girls watching can relate to as their will be those girls in their class at school. Bratz have also used technology for the girls in continue interacting and grow up faster as they are unsupervised using the Internet.