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BRANDchild
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BRANDchild

Remarkable Insights into the Minds of Today's Global Kids and Their Relationship with Brands

Martin Lindstrom and Patricia B. Seybold
Kogan Page, 2003
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

This is an excellent book about marketing to children. Based on extensive research into the attitudes, perceptions, emotions and preferences of children around the world, it tells you in no uncertain terms how to target one of the biggest and most influential consumer populations on earth. Children between the ages of 8 and 14, dubbed "tweens" ("tweenagers") by the authors, are a curious group. They are also a lonely, insecure group with an engaging mix of naivete and sophistication. Devilishly hard to capture, they are a rich economic prize, controlling an enormous amount of money of their own, and strongly influencing their families' purchases, even of major appliances. This book shows you what matters to these kids and what false notes to avoid if you want to tap into their buying power. getAbstract acknowledges that some readers may be uncomfortable with such tactics as setting up a web site that pretends to belong to a friendly child in order to attract kids and start buzz about some brand, but the book's reporting is accurate, practical and forward looking, for good or ill.

Summary

Tweens

The brand research firm Milward Brown assigned 500 researchers, interviewers and psychologists to the task of analyzing children in eight countries. They spent a year on the project and compiled an enormous amount of information about how children in the 8 to 14 age group think about, feel about and react to brands. The children in the study group were ethnically and culturally diverse; some came from rich developed countries and some came from poorer, underdeveloped countries. It is remarkable how much they had in common.

These children, dubbed "tweens," are a global population. They watch the same television shows, listen to the same popular music and use the same digital technology to build similar personal web pages. Fads and fashions seem to spread among them instantly without regard to distance, culture or nationality.

The tweens have enormous buying power and economic savvy. Even their childish games, such as DragonBallZ, have a trading component. In the United States, 8% of the tween population owns stocks, and a fifth of tweens have their own checking accounts. The overwhelming majority has or wants a credit card. But tweens don't just spend their...

About the Authors

Branding consultant Martin Lindstrom is the author of Clicks, Bricks and Brands and co-author of Brand Building on the Internet. Patricia B. Seybold is the author of The Consumer Revolution and several other books on consumer affairs.

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