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Teens spend their money in traditional outlets
-- the mall, the movie theater and the arcade. But they also spend online.
That's where the new frontier of teen shopping may lie. Unlike traditional
shopping, online spending requires parental permission (or at the least,
parental guidance). Many sites require adult approval and since most online
sites only accept credit card payments, there is a certain layer of parental
control that does not exist in the brick and mortar world. But some sites
are making it easier for teens to spend -- and easier for parents to exert
some control over how much their teens spend-- by setting up parent-funded
accounts for teens. Whether or not this arrangement will curtail online
shopping, and whether or not it will affect the balance of own dollars/
family dollars spent by teens remains to be seen.
Never mind the teens -- what about the kids? According to James McNeal, an expert on kid marketing, children between the ages of 4 and 12 spent or influenced more than $550 billion (that's 20 percent) |
of retail spending in 2000. That's a lot of
money. And that's why some unlikely players have now entered into competition
for kids' attention. It's not just McDonalds and Burger King, for example.
Now, Starbuck's is also becoming kid-friendly, in order to attract moms
and dads who may find themselves out and about with the little ones, and
in the mood for something more sophisticated than a Big Mac. And if Starbuck's
is beginning to look like a day care center, that's nothing compared to
Home Depot, which offers weekly workshops expressly for children. Or Barnes
& Noble, Kroger Supermarkets, or even Chevron, all of which are remaking
themselves as kid-friendly shopping experiences.
Appealing to children pays off for many of these retailers in the short term -- it gets their parents into the store and makes it easy for them to complete a shopping mission without the embarrassment of a meltdown in the checkout line. But it's also a long-term strategy for many-- a way of building customer loyalty among the youngest shoppers in the hope that the warm and fuzzy memory of a first building project will result in a long-term commitment to the store or the brand. |
What can a ferret tell us about toothpaste?
More than you might imagine! Take an issue of Modern Ferret magazine, throw it into the grab bag of creative stimuli as we did for a team of toothpaste marketers to generate new product ideas, and you just might get a whole new slant on the familiar. As one of our clients exclaimed, just as there was once "Old-Fashioned Ferret" and now there's Modern Ferret, the team's charge was to take their "old-fashioned" brand, and create its "modern" incarnation. Magazines are a great way to surf for creative inspiration; the more distant from your category, the better. In a recent session to develop new food ideas, an issue of Vogue Magazine, in the hands of a burly, football-playing guy, proved amazingly fertile in sparking new ways to think about foods. Like ferrets, fashion imagery can be mined for intriguing connections to your product that aren't obvious at first glance. How to do it? Treat yourself to a few magazines that you
don't usually read. Look for subjects not traditionally |
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associated
with your industry. What can you "borrow" from the worlds of music, home
décor, astronomy, art, or popular culture? Then flip through the
magazines by yourself, or with your team. You can randomly pick a page
and discover an idea for your product that's lurking there. Or, immerse
yourself in this "foreign world" for a few minutes, forgetting about your
business task or challenge. Note the images and words that jump out at
you, from ads as well as articles. Then focus back on your topic, and see
how many new ideas you can come up with that are triggered by your magazine.
You're sure to "ferret out" a slew of new approaches!