The Kids Market and
The Great Tween Buying Machine
Tables of Contents

The Kids Market: Myths and Realities
Table of Contents -- 270 pages total

PART ONE: KIDS AS MARKETS
1. The Market Potential of the Kids Market
Myth: "Let's face it. Kids don't have the money that teens or adults have."
Reality: No, kids don't have the money that teens and adults have, but they have more market potential than either of these groups-or any demographic group.

2. When do Kids Become Consumers?
Myth: “Kids have little market significance until they are well into elementary school.”
Reality: Kids have consumer clout before they can walk.

3. Kids Are Better Savers than Their Parents
Myth: “Children spend all they get.”
Reality: Kids save at a much higher rate than their parents, but spend the savings just as their parents taught them – for high-ticket items.

4. What Do Kids Buy?
Myth: "Children spend all they get on sweets."
Reality: Less than one-third goes for sweets. Their fastest growing expenditure category is apparel. Children will buy, or ask for, anything they believe will satisfy their needs.

5. Children's Income: Filling the Piggy-Bank
Myth: "Children don't work for their money."
Reality: The fastest-growing source of income for children is earnings – second only to their allowances. Children earn around one-third of their income.

6. Little Naggers with Growing Responsibilities
Myth: "Children are constantly nagging their parents to buy them things."
Reality: Children do ask for many things because that is what they have been taught since infancy. Much of their requesting behavior is viewed by today's busy parents as responsible behavior – not nagging.

7. Kids' Influence on Parents' Spending
Myth: "Children influence over $187 billion annually of parents’ purchases"
Reality: Children directly influence over $187 billion of parents' purchases annually, and indirectly influence at least $300 billion more.

8.Tomorrow's Customers Today
Myth: "We don't target kids. All of our customers are adults."
Reality: The firm must have a secret source of new customers only it knows about.

PART TWO: CHILDREN'S REACTIONS TO MARKETING
9. Barriers to Understanding the Kids Market
Myth: The one thing I understand is kids. I hove three of my own."
Reality: The company experiences millions in losses, demonstrating just how unique those three kids are.

10. Children's Favorite Stores
Myth: "If a kid has money, he'll spend it before it bums a hole in his pocket"
Reality: If kids have money they'll spend much of it before it burns holes in their pockets, but they will try to spend it in a favorite store.

11. What Kids Know About Pricing
Myth: "Children don't care at all about price."
Reality: A majority of kids are price sensitive, will state a preference for a low price, and recognize that similar stores may differ in price.

12. Advertising to Children: Pervasive, Perturbing, Propelling
Myth: "Children are the objects of far too much advertising."
Reality: Children are the objects of far less advertising per dollar value than adults, accounting for only around 3 percent of TV advertising and less than I percent of all advertising.
Myth: To reach children most effectively, advertise on Saturday-morning TV."
Reality: It depends on your goals for reaching them. It may be more effective to advertise during prime time, or in print, or outdoors, or at the point of purchase or…

13. Kid-Targeted Promotions: Why They Work So Well
Myth: "Promotion lessens the chances of developing brand loyalty,"
Reality: Promotion can create a bond with children that looks very much like brand loyalty.
Myth: "Children ore not grateful when they are given things."
Reality: Children may not show their gratitude like adults, but they tell us that they like those who give them things, and they are fondest of the biggest giver.

Myth: "Children would rather have a free bicycle than a free baseball."
Reality: It depends on the time. If the children have to wait 100 UPCs for the bicycle and 5 UPCs for the baseball, most of the time they will opt for the baseball.

14. Public Relations for Kids: Talking Instead of Shouting
Myth: "Public relations is not an alternative to advertising when it comes to the kids market."
Reality: Public relations is not an alternative to advertising when it comes to kids; it's an absolutely necessary companion.

15. Kids' Clubs: A One-to-One Relationship
Myth: "Kids' clubs are a drain on resources."
Reality: Over 80 percent of kids' clubs studied report that they contribute to their company's bottom line while growing new customers.
16. Kids' Packaging: Overlooking the End User
Myth: "In the milk industry, we have targeted kids for years, but they are still reluctant to make it their favorite snack beverage."
Reality: A kid can't snack out of a gallon jug.

17. Brands: Kids' Best Friends
Myth: "Children change brands often and show little brand loyalty."
Reality: Children find security in attaching themselves to an object-a pillow, a blanket, a store, a brand-that enhances their well-being. But children's curiosity has not yet been suppressed as ours often has, so they do turn their attention to other objects including other brands.

18. Successful Kids' Products and Services: Satisfying Kids and Their Parents
Myth: "Kids love products that are just like Mom's and Dad's."
Reality: Kids love products that are just like Mom's and Dad's, but not as much as they love products that are just for kids.
Myth: “If your kid's product con only satisfy one need, let it be the need for play."
Reality: If your product can only satisfy one need, shoot it, and put it out of its misery.
Myth: "Satisfy the kids and you satisfy the parents."
Reality: Children loved their free Mystic Magic Magnifier, but parents hated the burned holes in their curtains and tablecloths.
19. Researching the Kids Market: Hard Work, Questionable Results
Myth: "We must always use good marketing research principles regardless of the market"
Reality: Market research principles and practices were developed by adults for adults. They don't always produce the right results with kids, and we are not sure when they do and when they don't.

20.The Kids Market Doesn't End at U.S. Borders
Myth: "Children in the U.S. represent enormous market potential."
Reality: True, but there is ten times as much market potential among children in the rest of the developed and developing world.


The Great Tween Buying Machine: Marketing to Today’s Tweens
Table of Contents -- 225 pages total
Part 1: Demographic Overview
1. Who are these tweens?
2. Why bother with the tween market?
3. What drives tweens?
4. Tween money and influence
5. Tweens’ interests and activities
6. Happiness is being a tween
7. Education isn’t what it used to be
8. Tweens’ favorite things: food, music, fashion, and toys

Part 2: Marketing, Advertising, and New Product Development
9. The old media and the new media
10. Advertising that works with tweens
11. How to use licensing
12. Finding tweens at the grass roots level
13. Developing new products for tweens
14. Researching and staying in touch

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The Kids Market & The Great Tween Buying Machine