MECM90034
Marketing & Media
in a Global Context
Week 8 Lecture
Children as consumers
Children are:
• An important and profitable consumer group
• Autonomous and influential in their household
• Primary consumers with their own income
• Consumers of the future
2
Cradle to the grave marketing
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Cradle to the grave marketing
1958 advertisement
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Cradle to the grave marketing
5
Cradle to the grave marketing
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Cradle to the grave marketing
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Cradle to the grave marketing
8
Cradle to the grave marketing
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Children as consumers
Children are persuasive!
• Pestering
• Nagging
• Begging
• Bargaining
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Two views of children as consumers
Active Victims of marketing
interpreters pressure
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Children as consumers
Cognitive development Comes with age
Develops via interactions through socialization
Social learning
agents
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Children as media users
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Children as media users
Screen time (USA)
• Tweens (ages 8 to 12)
– Five hours and 33 minutes per day
• Teens (ages 13-18)
– Eight hours and 39 minutes
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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/well/family/child-social-media-use.html
Children as media users
Pros
• Access to
information and
education
• Entertainment
• Build social
relationships
• Emotional
satisfaction
• Skills development
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Children as media users
Risks and ethical issues
• Vulnerable / susceptible to social influences
• Promotes superficiality and materialism
• Impulsive buying behaviour
• Low self-esteem
• Parent-child conflict
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Strategies used to target children
Character merchandising
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Strategies used to target children
Product placement:
Movies / TV
Toy Story's inclusion of Etch-A-Sketch boosted sales by 4,500%
The placement of Mr. Potato Head saw an 800% increase
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Strategies used to target children
Product placement:
Gaming
Mercedes Benz in Mario Kart 8, 2014
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Strategies used to target children
Advergames
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Strategies used to target children
Native advertising
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Strategies used to target children
Influencer marketing
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Strategies used to target children
Kidfluencers
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Solutions
How to tackle these issues:
• Media literacy
• Restrictive mediation
• Other socialisation agents
• Public policy
• Marketers
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Weekly readings
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