Marketing to Children: Inevitable or Beneficial?

In relation to my first post on the ethical issues of marketing, I would like to address what others have written on the subject in the blogosphere. When it comes to marketing to children there are many different perspectives that are taken on whether or not it is ethical because children can be so easily influenced by persuasive advertisements. There is not a definite answer to whether it is right to advertise toward children or not, but most, including myself, agree that advertising is okay for children as long as there are some limits to it. Companies that offer unhealthy snack foods or use excessively biased advertisements should not be allowed to market to kids because these kinds of products and marketing techniques are not in the best interest of the children. There are certain internet sites that are made by groups who are dedicated to marketing to children and helping others to advertise their products (GeppettoGroup.com & BigOrbit.com), not to say that these sites are the culprits when it comes to overly aggressive advertising, but their specific techniques could be border lining on what is and isn’t appropriate for kids. And there are other sites, such as this blog, that would like to see happy balance between advertising and responsible buying power for children in the marketplace. In this post I will offer my comments on two marketing blogs on similar topics that I came across in the blogosphere. The first is a post by M.C. Milker, a mother and marketing consultant, which she entitled “Report on Toy Fair - What Parents Need to Know”. Her entry discusses an annual toy fair and the new toys that are coming into the market that are made especially for new movies and for internet usage. She argues that these new toys are the products of careless marketing and not only lessen the amount of imaginative play that children can enjoy, but also may backlash against marketers by replacing their toys with internet play. The second blog is called “The Unbranded Kid: Thoughts on Marketing to Children” and is written by J.D. Roth who is the writer of a financial self-help blog called "Get Rich Slowly". Her post analyzes the use of branding to children and how children are ultimately manipulated at a very young age by companies into becoming consumers as they age. My comments have been posted to their blogs and are also offered below.

“Report on Toy Fair – What Parents need to know”
Comment:
To begin with, I would like to say that your blog is not only engaging but it is of particular interest to me in its focus of marketing and advertising to children. It seems from your report on the toy fair that the toy industry is changing to a more interactive kind of play that links toys to the world of media such as television, film an internet, and for the toy industry this is a fairly new concept. From a marketing perspective this seems like an ideal situation to have a toy that is linked to an upcoming feature film because kids are most likely going to want to see the movie and it makes it that much easier on the marketers of the toys because they don’t have to do very much persuasion to get their toys sold. And you being a parent yourself, I can understand why you would be concerned about the drawbacks that these kind of toys can have on the quality of your child’s childhood, being that these toys limit the amount of imaginative play that a child can experience. But, from a different perspective, I wonder if these toys could also have some benefit to them. In a world that is evolving into a highly technology based society, it may be beneficial to introduce children to the world of the internet and get them accustomed to using it at an early age. It could be said that children who do not have internet access or have not been introduced to particular technologies could later be left behind when it comes to classroom learning which has also evolved to include internet based assignments and research. Toys that have internet capabilities could very well be the new learning toys of the 21st century because they introduce children to a world of technology that can benefit them in their future. To what extent these toys are using the internet I am not sure of and I’m aware they you have a much broader perspective on toys and the kinds of toys that are offered at these toy fairs, but there can be some good that comes from these small innovations.

“The Unbranded Kid: Thoughts on Marketing to Children”
Comment:
Yes, sad to say, branding is almost inevitable in a child’s life. As you say, diapers are even heavily branded, and I also had never noticed this because I do not have a child either, but once I began to study marketing there were so many different commercials and ads that are geared toward children that I had never noticed and it was a real eye opening experience. Branding by companies is done in a way that if they can not directly catch you with it, they have other ways to get you exposed. Using an example from your post where you explain that peer pressure at school is one way that branding can be forced upon children is an excellent example of how a company can reach a child who may have never seen television their whole life. Because branding is somewhat unavoidable, I agree with your statement that the only real defense to aggressive branding and advertising is for a parent to “raise their children to think independently”. Responsible spending and knowledge of the marketplace are key to parents when it comes to raising not only a responsible child but a smart consumer. Children are geared toward consumerism at a younger and younger age as marketers constantly come up with new products to fit a need that young children have. And because they are put in the position of a consumer as a young age, product and purchase education has to be taught by parents as soon as children are able to watch a television ad. Most children, even with extensive knowledge of the market and products, are not going to be willing to actively recognize what products they need in relation to those that they want because of issues such as peer pressure as you indicated. It cant be expected that a child is capable of completely responsible spending because the majority of parents aren’t able to block out ads for things that they don’t really need, so in the end it must be accepted that children are going to be somewhat branded, but as long as a parent does their part in educating their child about good spending habits and gives them a general product knowledge, then kids should be okay.

Problem Child: The Ethical Issues of Children as a Market

Children are seen as one of the most profitable yet fragile markets available in the global marketplace. Profitable because the group not only has a high population, but it is highly influential and easily shaped because children in general are exceptionally susceptible to advertisements and marketing messages. Therein lies the fragility of the market. Children are not an exceptionally loyal market because they are so easily swayed, but because they are so profitable as a market sometimes marketers use aggressive advertisement schemes to keep children's attention on their product. The kinds of marketing schemes used can become an ethical issue when it comes to children because they aren't seen as having enough knowledge to properly decipher and distinguish between persuasion and bias when it comes to aggressive advertising. Children as a market has been a constant debate in business and these issues should be recognized by advertisers when deciding on marketing strategies while keeping in mind the compromising position of the child as a consumer.

Children, kids from the ages 8 and below, have not always been seen as a market for advertisers to target. About 30 years ago children were still seen as being an extension of their parent's spending; children were given money every once in a while, not to spend as they pleased and make conscious decisions about their spending habits, but to save or spend on simple purchases such as candy or small toys. Most purchases were made by parents and few decisions were made by children because parents were given the majority of the decision making power about products.

Today, children are a highly valued market by advertisers for several reasons. The most important reason being that they are actually 3 markets in one; a market unto themselves, a future market, and they play a large part in their parent's market. Kids are their own market in that there are advertisements and marketing plans made to in order to influence their desires. This 15 billion dollar/year market is quite valuable to companies and about 100 million dollars is spent per year on marketing campaigns especially geared toward children. Children as a market have developed their own general needs and marketers have caught on to this market and have developed special marketing formulas especially for kids. Not only are they a market to be utilized now, but they can be shaped into a future market for companies by familiarizing children with their products at a young age so that they will be more inclined to buy a certain brand when they get older and are old enough to be in the company's targeted marketing segment. The average American child sees about 100 commercials daily and these commercials are not only those that are directed toward them, but also those that are made for adults catch their eye from time to time, and this overlap of target markets is not a mistake on the advertiser's part.

The markets of children and adults may overlap at times, but the way that advertisers go about their advertising campaigns has to differ in some ways and take into consideration the fact that adults and children understand commercials and advertisements in differently. The American Psychological Association, APA, has said that children under the age of 8 years old are not able to tell when ads are "truthful, accurate, and unbiased". Kids are not always able to understand the concept of persuasion and because of this they need to be treated carefully and with respect to their position as a child. Comparative advertising and aggressive techniques should be called into question when used to direct the children's market because not only are children easily persuaded, but the company should practice some kind of ethical boundary and limit the aggression when it comes to kids. Some will argue that kids should not be seen as a market at all because of their inability to decipher the true meaning of an advertisement, and others may argue that in the business world it is only fair to be able to market to whomever in order to maximize sales. Being that children are such a valuable market, they should have their own advertisements because as a market they have their own needs for goods and companies should be able to fulfill those needs with their products. But because this market is so valuable, it should also be respected and should not be taken advantage of with unethical and overly aggressive advertisements.

Advertising directly to children has its advantages for kids as their own market. When kids are given their own money, they gain buying power and have great influence over what is produced for them and they can impact the success or failure of a company. They can learn basic skills that will help them as they age on how to be a responsible consumer; "parent-blessed mini-consumers" are those children who have parents who encourage them to go out and spend their money responsibly. These children will learn how to properly read advertisements and learn how, when and where to spend their allowance and what to buy in order to satisfy their needs.

On the other hand, because children are easily influenced by advertisements they can become attached to brands and products that may not be beneficial to them, such as fast food products. Some parents see advertising as big business's way to mold their children into materialistic consumers at a young age. This in turn creates a parent-child conflict because children demand what they want and parents deny them because they know better than to buy into persuasive advertising.

Marketing to children is still highly debated today and the guidelines aren't clear to all companies, so this dispute will most likely continue for years to come. Basic ethics and moral values should always be exercised by companies in any endeavor, but especially when it comes to children because they are not old enough to be fully aware of what influences their decisions.