Questions the validity of the KGOY dictum, ie that kids are getting older younger; this has been the driving force behind much dialogue about marketing to children over recent…
Abstract
Questions the validity of the KGOY dictum, ie that kids are getting older younger; this has been the driving force behind much dialogue about marketing to children over recent years. Explores the presumptions behind this trend: children are brand aware at earlier ages, they are more technologically aware and “graduate“ from dolls and action figures earlier, and puberty itself is earlier in girls; other issues like obesity, school violence, child abduction and terrorism demonstrate the involvement of children’s issues with the adult world. Reports a KGOY recalibration exercise by KidShop, however, which finds that children, while being aware of issues, are in fact quite satisfied with their status as children, rather than wanting to be older than they are.
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Reviews the history of advertising to children in the USA since the baby boomer generation of post‐World War 2 and the advent of television. Describes how toys were marketed in…
Abstract
Reviews the history of advertising to children in the USA since the baby boomer generation of post‐World War 2 and the advent of television. Describes how toys were marketed in order to sell cereals, and sweetened cereals were introduced to appeal to children. Outlines the growth of regulation in the form of the National Association of Broadcasters, and subsequently of self‐regulation by the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU). Shows how television has become the main commercial vehicle for children, based on the 30 second commercial and a variety of ways to appeal to them. Outlines concerns such as programme length commercials, i.e. TV programmes based on characters or products from commercials, and about reproducible violence in advertisements. Mentions the self‐defeating nature of advertising industry terms like “nag factor” and “pester power” and the way that CARU’S work has extended into other media like the Internet. Relates all this to the concept of responsible marketing: eating responsibly, playing responsibly, social marketing, and the responsibility of marketers and advertisers.
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This paper looks at how our normal course of business leads us through a number of disciplines to become smarter about our products, our competitors, the markets in which we…
Abstract
This paper looks at how our normal course of business leads us through a number of disciplines to become smarter about our products, our competitors, the markets in which we compete and tomorrow's potential big ideas. We evaluate sales data. We do store checks. We analyse competitive media. We conduct creative reviews. We do SWOT analyses. We benchmark our businesses against established and expanded competitive frames.
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The purpose of the paper is to explore how discourses of children's empowerment through goods have emerged and function as a key narrative among many in children's commercial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to explore how discourses of children's empowerment through goods have emerged and function as a key narrative among many in children's commercial industries, particularly in the USA and Canada.
Design/methodology/approach
The central philosophical and theoretical approach guiding this inquiry rests on the notion that the “child consumer” exists as a rhetorical figure which has an existence that is as consequential as “real,” biographical children. The child consumer arises from, and in many ways resides in, discourses produced by marketers, retailers, researchers and advertisers on the pages of marketing publications, often framing the imaginations and guiding the actions of advertisers, retailers, merchandisers and marketers. Articles from trade publications such as AdWeek, BrandWeek, Brandmarketing; KidScreen and Progressive Grocer, in addition to books written by marketers about the children's market since the 1990s, were examined.
Findings
Three key themes – choice, recognition and involvement – were found to be the most prominent in framing children's consumption as “empowering.”
Originality/value
For scholars and practitioners, the paper offers an approach to understand corporate practice as moral practice by highlighting the ideological justifications presented in defense of promoting children's consumption in the last decade. It offers a cautionary tale about the power of capital to produce and deploy social meaning.
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Nathalie Dens, Patrick De Pelsmacker and Lynne Eagle
The purpose of this paper is to investigate parents' attitudes toward advertising to children, and advertised foods in particular, as well as parental concern regarding children's…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate parents' attitudes toward advertising to children, and advertised foods in particular, as well as parental concern regarding children's nutrition habits and the degree to which these perceptions influence television monitoring by parents.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire assessing attitudes was distributed among parents of Belgian primary and secondary school children. Parental mediation of television viewing was measured by self‐reports. A structural equation model was built using data from a sample of 485 parents.
Findings
The study finds that parental nutrition attitudes and the degree to which advertising causes family conflicts and pestering are among the most important drivers of restrictive mediation of television. Attitudes towards food advertising, the degree to which children can understand the commercial intent of advertising and the perceived influence of advertisements on children do not directly affect restrictive mediation.
Research limitations/implications
The model was based on a single‐country study, and did not distinguish between parents of different socio‐economic backgrounds or between parents with children in different age categories. All the constructs used in this model were self‐reports. The model could also be extended to encompass different types of mediation.
Practical implications
Parents serve as gatekeepers for children's television viewing. Advertisers targeting children need to obtain the green light of the gatekeepers before they can reach the children. It is therefore important that advertisers have an understanding of how parents perceive advertising and which factors specifically incite them to restrict their children's viewing.
Originality/value
Attitudes of parents are considered as a multidimensional construct, consisting of “commercial intent”, “conflict” and a separate component relating to advertised foods. The differential impact of each of these components, as well as parents' nutritional concerns and perceived advertisement influence, on restrictive mediation is assessed.
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This paper attempts to contribute to an expanding body of literature that critically engages with both the theory and practice of market segmentation. Through the theoretical lens…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper attempts to contribute to an expanding body of literature that critically engages with both the theory and practice of market segmentation. Through the theoretical lens of liminality and its implicit elements, the notion of boundary creation inherent in age‐based market segmentation of the youth market is explored.
Design/methodology/approach
Using empirical data collected as part of a longitudinal study on liminal consumers, marketing's attempt at laying down parameters and constructing borders is presented as a strategic exacerbation of liminal zones already replete with tension and ambiguity.
Findings
It is concluded that theoretical consideration of this data highlights the fluidity and porous nature of such constructed boundaries, rendering attempts at creating discernable, knowable segments, potentially futile. Thus by critically viewing this segment, not just as a marketing demographic, but as a liminal zone, an alternative consideration of the theory and practice of age segmentation is presented.
Research limitations/implications
The longitudinal study spanned a period from midway through the participants' final months of primary education and early stages of secondary education. Research that focused on their completion of a year in secondary education would perhaps have yielded further insights.
Practical implications
This research offers tangible insights into the social worlds of a burgeoning market segment, albeit a liminal one, offering actionable realities based on the inextricable intertwining of their consumption practices and lived experiences.
Social implications
Rather than view children as socio‐cultural non‐descripts who are of interest to marketers purely for their ability to be located along a continuum of cognitive development, this research aims to understand and explore the specific intricasies of the tweens' mediation of their liminal world using consumption practices
Originality/value
Consumption practices emerged that highlighted the attempted resolution and mediation of such tensions while also pointing to the clear mutability and ambiguity of supposed borders between child, tween and teen segmented groups. Age‐segmentation, conceptualised by marketers as a strategic creation of borders so as to enhance product offerings little reflects the realities of how age is perceived, experienced and acted out by those categorised within the margins and parameters of targeted marketing. By viewing this segment, not just as a marketing demographic but as a liminal zone where liminars “elude or slip through the network of classifications that normally locate states and positions in cultural space”, an alternative consideration of the theory and practice of age‐segmentation is presented.