Rules for marketing to children
Market development, market research, product distribution, sales strategy, public relations, and customer support are all part of marketing. Marketing is required at all stages of a company’s selling journey. It can use various platforms, social media channels, and internal teams to identify its audience, communicate with it, amplify its voice, and build brand loyalty over time.
The primary goal of marketing is to generate interest in a company’s products or services. This is accomplished through market analysis, research, and considering the interests of a company’s ideal customers and attracting them through educational and helpful messaging to the company’s target group.
As more businesses offer children as a niche market, the messages advertisements send must consider the ages of the children they target. According to Milward Brown, a market research firm, children absorb more advertising than adults. Children, even those aged 8 to 10, recall more details and can remember what they see in advertisements for extended periods.
Let’s look at how we market the kids in our industry these days.
Children’s appeal
To sell to children, you should first learn what they want. Kids between 8 and 10 seek entertainment and are drawn to enjoyable things. Using popular characters from that age group to promote your products is one way to market to children. Children, like adults, want to be accepted by their peers. Therefore, children will be drawn in by advertisements that show them interacting with other children.
Find their interest
Market in places where children congregate. Distribute promotional posters in toy stores, bike shops, bookstores, community recreation centers, and other places where children gather. Another way to reach out to children is to run video spot advertisements in local movie theatres. Product packaging also aids in the sale of products to children. A child’s attention is drawn to bright colors and unusual designs. Increase brand awareness among children by including slogans, catchy tunes, and popular songs with lyrics written for children in an advertisement. In addition, children enjoy advertisements that use cartoon characters to convey a message.
Keep Your Name in the Public Eye
Make a business logo that children can recognize. By the time they reach school age, most children respond well to visual images and can often recognize hundreds of brand logos. Donating the latest items to a school fundraising event is a terrific way to promote your company. If you own a sporting goods store, consider donating children’s sports equipment for a school carnival raffle. Co-sponsor a track and field day at your school. Print your logo on colorful sports bottles to give to children participating in the event. You can usually get these and other promotional items for less than $1 each when you buy in bulk. Promotional products help spread the word about your company and enhance its image.
TV advertising
Small businesses may use local or cable television advertising to reach their target market. According to Kaiser Family Foundation data, children aged 8 to 12 watch television most and are exposed to the most advertising minutes. According to Entrepreneur.com, advertising on local television stations costs roughly half the price of advertising nationally. Local affiliates’ airtime rates vary, but you can usually purchase a multi-week package at a reasonable price. The first quarter is the best time of year to negotiate a discount with a sales representative.
Mature Content
Advertisers must understand what constitutes mature content and what is appropriate for younger age groups. For example, mobile advertisements cannot expose children to nudity, sexual language, violence, or other sensitive topics. Instead, advertisers must work hard to create child-friendly advertisements for clothing, theme parks, healthy food, age-appropriate toys, and video games.
Age-specific restrictions
Broadcasters are only allowed to show 10.5 minutes of advertising per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per day on weekdays for children aged 12 and under. Hosts must balance the amount of educational content and regulate the number of advertisements shown to children aged 16 and under. Children’s advertisements on mobile streaming services should be age appropriate.
Television advertising has positive and negative effects on young kids, both marketers and the kids who watch the ads. Many advertisements aimed at children have been chastised for reinforcing gender stereotypes. Some countries have broadcast codes that state that television advertisements should not make exaggerated claims that will mislead or deceive children, abuse their trust, or demonstrate a lack of understanding of persuasive intent in an ad.
The creation of online avatars is the ASA’s most recent initiative to improve child protection. Avatars were created to simulate a child’s online profile and presence to capture better the type of advertising that a child may be exposed to online. As a result of this scheme, action has been taken against gambling, and HFSS ads are served to these avatars on children’s websites and YouTube.
