Marketing for children

Children are a priority target for brands because they also have a major influence on family shopping. 

Children are bombarded by brand messages almost from birth: on packaging in supermarkets, in movies, on gift toys in fast food restaurants, on product placement in movies, on TV ads, on the Internet...

It is not surprising, then, that children as young as two years old, already recognize specific logos and brands, starting to ask for them as soon as they start talking.

Codes, designs, language, style of communication, supports, the feeling of belonging to a community, the creation of pets or fictional characters are tools that are used today to achieve these goals.

This is what we call kids marketing and involves placing the child at the center of the message to achieve a goal, which can be very diverse: sell a child product (a certain toy), sell a family product (a certain cookies), attract to a specific place to the family target (a restaurant or a fast food chain), influence the choice of a product and that this product accompanies you the rest of your life (you are Cola-Cao or Nesquik ...) ...

Intelligent marketing to children

Since the 1960s, advertisers have known that the children's market is highly relevant. Not only because of the purchasing power that children may have, but also because of the strong interference that children have in decision-making at home. According to several studies, children influence breakfast decisions in 97% and 95% in the lunch decision; 95% in the purchase of clothing, 98% in forms of family entertainment and 94% in family travel destinations, as well as 78% in the purchase of software. Due to these high numbers, it is clear that advertising aimed at children is one of the branches that has become more sophisticated with enthusiasm, but, of course, always with the ethical controversies that this presents. There are various recommendations on the use of neuromarketing to influence the mind of a child and invite him to buy. So, faced with this, we must know the best ways to do marketing for children, intelligently and effectively.

Marketing for children, the message for the perfect consumer

Children are virtually the perfect consumer because they do not understand prices or monetary restrictions; if they want something, they will do whatever it takes to get it and this has a direct impact on the consumer practices of parents. It is estimated that, from the age of 6 months, children recognize brands and logos and that brand loyalty begins as early as 2 years old. By the age of 6, children recognize hundreds of brands and logos and receive messages almost literally, so they don't understand that someone is trying to sell them something; thus, they find no difference between entertainment and advertising, which is fertile ground for children's marketing.

By changing the way families are made up, with the trend toward fewer children, double income and the postponement of having children, households have higher incomes to spend on children, so the market, already prolific, becomes even bigger.

We want to share with you some intelligent ways to achieve communication through marketing to children.

Repetition: If child psychology teaches us anything, it's that we learn through repetition. A child who is constantly bombarded by the same message will generate associations in his brain that will allow him to remember and, at the moment of decision making, he will opt for the product he knows and recognizes.

Pets:  pets do have the power to sell a brand, and this has a lot to do with how to address children; a friendly face is always going to be the best way to associate the brand with a positive tone. In fact, this can come in a variety of forms. Take, for example, SpongeBob, which appears prominently in a large number of products, mainly food and personal care. Not only is there a direct relationship between the character and the product, which generates almost immediate loyalty, but the product acquires a different category, like something Premium, in the eyes of the child. Let's remember that it's no coincidence that cereal boxes have pets and are always looking down, talking directly to children.

Celebrities: Like pets, celebrities give brands a halo of distinction and credibility. It's not a cold, faceless corporation trying to sell, but a person you admire and want to look like, so what you use or consume immediately becomes cool. This person can be a movie star, and for children a movie star is also a character from a Disney movie. 

Viral marketing: designed to be entertaining and word-of-mouth, viral marketing is one of the most powerful tools in marketing to children, because, as we mentioned, children do not distinguish between advertising and entertainment.

Product placement: By receiving so many stimuli through the media, which are deliberately inflammatory to the senses, children are more exposed to the product placement and to being spoken to subliminally. When they see the image again, they will unconsciously associate the product with the stimulus provoked by the medium in which they found it.

We hope that this article will help you to get more customers to your establishment.