Over the last ten weeks I have been keeping up this blog for my audience research class at Ithaca College. The topic I chose to blog about was marketing to kids. In doing so, I have not only learned about the topic itself, but about a whole other world of the Internet that before I was completely illiterate to.
Over the years, companies have learned how profitable the demographic of young kids can be. Although these kids do not have that much money, the money they do have is all a disposable income. They also have a huge impact on what their parents buy them. As a result, companies have started to monopolies on this demographic making it one of the largest targeting audiences today.
After reading many articles about this topic and researching different companies strategies and campaigns, I have learned a lot about the trends within this field. There are two ways that companies reach kids. They either market directly to young kids, or market to their parents in order to reach their kids.
A kid’s world today is very different then in the past. Kids today have access to more technology then any other generation. They have TV channels that are just for them, they have access to hundreds of video games, and they use the computer to not just play games, but also go on the Internet to different sites and social networks. Marketers are not stupid, and have picked up on these changes. A lot of companies have started to target kids on a multi platform. They place an ad on television and the Internet site for that show to try and reach kids who are multitasking. Interactive sites are being creative with games and activates so kids can have a hands on experience with the brand itself. These companies take a great amount of effort and time to figure out the current trends, that are constantly changing, for either these young kids, tweens, or even teens in order to successfully market to them.
Marketers are also targeting parents to buy different products for their kids. With an increase in obesity in our country, companies know that health is a huge factor when buying food for their kids. Therefore, a lot of kids snacks and foods try to play up the health benefits that “your kids will love.” They also know that safety is an important factor. A lot of companies that are marketing different services to kids, like hair salons or health club memberships, play up the secure environment that their kids will be in while at their facility.
Because these companies are targeting such a young demographic, a lot of restrictions and rules are talked about regarding this topic. I found a lot of articles describing how different campaigns or ads are unethical to market to kids. Parents and different advocacy groups are the ones who usually start to complain. If a company is found to be using unethical marketing towards kids they will usually have to change or dismiss their ad or even a whole campaign. Laws have also been put in place to stop these types of marketing before they even occur. To stay on top, many companies have started to pledge that they will follow guidelines. An example is a company that pledges not to market any of their unhealthy food to kids under a certain age.
For our final project in audience research, we have to research about different target audiences that we are going to try and reach through advertisements and public relations events. When researching these audiences we had to look at their income, interests, the different media they use, and geographic location. All this information plays a huge factor in how we market our products. For example, if our audience lives mostly in the northeast, we want to make sure that we advertise a lot in this region. Spending money to advertise national would be a waste of money. Once we compile all this information on our audience we can then successfully market our products to them.
The topic of marketing to kids is very similar to our big project. These marketers must do extensive research on these younger demographics to understand who they are. They need to know how much money they are given to spend, what the new trend is for their age group, and what media they are mostly using. Without researching them in depth, marketers could never successfully reach them. This demographic is constantly in a transitional stage of their lives. Consequently their interests and hobbies are rapidly changing. Without constantly researching these changes a company would not be successful.
As an Integrated Marketing Communications major at Ithaca College, this blogging assignment will be of great use in my profession. Before this assignment, I barley knew what a blog was. I knew that people talked about different issues and topics on the web, but I never realized how big of a community it is or how it was done. The first day of class our teacher asked us “how many of you believe you really know the Internet.” And, with a class filled with college students who feel pretty computer savvy, everyone raised their hands. She then went on to list some Internet sites and sources to see who uses them in particular. Yet, once she got passed our common social networks, Google, and our email sites, not many students were raising their hands. We soon all realized that we did not know the Internet as well as we thought. Through this assignment I feel I have learned a lot more about the Internet world.
Of course, the first thing I learned how to do was post blogs. I never knew that blogs could be so interactive. You can post pictures and even link them to other sites. I soon learned how to search others blogs to see what people were saying. This is an intangible skill for my career. Whether I go into advertising, public relations, or marketing, as an employee I will need to understand what our customers are thinking. By searching blogs for a companies name or product, you can easily get direct feedback from your customers.
Part of our assignment was for every post to find a reliable source that published and article on our topic to blog about. When I sat down to write my first blog, I found myself very confused and frustrated. I quickly realized that just simply typing a topic into Google does not always give you the best sources. These articles were coming from everywhere. They were also from years ago. I started to instead, use the Google News search engine to search recent news articles. This site can also help me in my career of choice. Not only will we need to know what different customers are saying, we will also want to have the latest news on what the media has to say about our brand or product.
The other way I learned to receive articles was through a database called Lexus Nexis on our library’s site. Through this search engine you are able to sort articles by subject, dates, and the type of medium it was published in. Once again, this could be useful in my career. By knowing how to search databases I can easily search through different trade journals. These journals will help me realize the different trends in my industry. I can learn what competitors are doing, or even saying about us.
As a result of having to twice a week search for an interesting article on my topic, I learned a lot about the different ways to retrieve information on the Internet. Now in any job that I choose I will know how to research what customers, the media, and other business are saying. This is a critical skill for an employer to know. With it, they can quickly and easily find information making them a top competitor in their industry.
Over all, by posting blogs on the topic of marketing to kids I have learned a lot of valuable information. This information will help both in my current class and future jobs. Because of technology and innovations, the Internet is rapidly changing on a day-to-day base. This project has given me motivation to learn more about different parts of the Internet that I currently do not know about.
