Back in the 60s, James Mc Neal, a marketing and advertising guru, started talking about child-oriented marketing and the clear influence children had on their parents’ purchase decision. Everyone thought he was crazy. A campaign specifically directed at children had never been made, children had never even been considered as a possible target. However, his hypothesis started strengthening and, since then, many brands, whether they are for children or not, keep them in mind as a target audience.

Clear examples are those brands that try to dazzle children with a toy or a surprise and afterwards try to convince the parents with the quality of the product. Which parent has not been seen in the supermarket buying tissues, a bottle of water, o a box a cereal just because it has their child’s favourite character or because it includes a toy? Just to see the excitement on our kid’s face, we end up buying this and not that.

This shows that children have great purchasing power and even more so in a new family model in which decisions are democratized and children are given the chance to express their opinions. Several studies even claim that children decide more than half of their parents’ consumption.

What factors should we take into account?

When we work for the children’s market, there are certain key factors to consider:

1. Children are passionate about technology. They were born with it and do not understand the analogical world. In today’s world, which child does not surprise adults by knowing how to handle a Smartphone better than them? And what about those children who see a magazine and try to interact with the photo as if it was a Tablet?

2. Kids handle frustration badly and seek a quick reward. This is given by the toy inside the cereal box.

3. Children always want to play and search for fun and entertainment. They love the brands that empathize with them and see the world from their same perspective.

4. Although, their tastes are also very ephemeral. They evolve quickly and what one day was their greatest illusion is forgotten three months later.

At Drac Pixel we work in this sector

The Drac Pixel Group team has helped spread and manage the ON and OFF communications of several children’s brands, such as, La gata Lupe and La oveja Shaun. Both TV series target children between the ages of 2 – 6 and 5 – 12 respectively. These target audiences are very different since, even if they are all children, the decision-making capacity of a 2-year-old child is not the same as that of a 12-year-old. Therefore, we understand that in child-oriented marketing we must always address two main targets: parents and children. However, we cannot forget about the caregivers, and all those likely to give presents to children.

Nowadays, given that children are 100% technological beings, having a presence in the digital world is fundamental to generate brand recognition and increase the product’s visibility.

The essential channels in the children’s world are: YouTube, to be able to see all the audiovisual content on demand, without having to wait.  As a result of the large percentage of children watching YouTube videos, an APP specially designed for children, with their content and special restrictions, was created (YouTube Kids).

Instagram, the social network in which you will find all the influencers, such as the Mummy Bloggers, who can help you build trust between your brand and your target. And Facebook, where most of the parents are.

The main challenge for the licensing world (producers, licensees, toy makers…) is having the ability to adapt quickly to frantic changes.

“The challenge is to adopt the children’s vision and empathize with them, research continuously and be agile decision-makers”

The goal still is to dazzle the little ones and then obtain their parents’ approval.  As Mc Neal said, “There are only two ways to get customers, by stealing them from the competition or by capturing them as children.”