Global Trend

Marketing to the "Tweeners"

If you have sons and daughters between the ages of 8 and 14, you might still think of them as children. But for more and more businesses, they are neither children nor traditional teenagers; they¡¯re tweeners. And tweeners are becoming one of the hottest consumer demographic clusters ? and a big opportunity for revenue growth.

As CBS News reported at the end of last year, even though tweeners can¡¯t drive or vote, they are ¡°the most powerful consumer group since the baby boomers.¡±

These young consumers consider themselves too old and mature for childish things. The Toy Manufacturers of America Factbook admits that the target market for toys has shrunk: Previously, the toy industry¡¯s end-users were children from birth to 14, but now the upper age limit is 10.

TD Monthly, a trade magazine for the toy industry, reports that the 20 million tweeners in the U.S. abandon toys for products that appeal to their older, teenaged siblings. Tweener boys buy electronic, video, and Internet games. Girls prefer products that focus on fashion and social interaction.

This trend has been building momentum since 1998. In that year, Bruce Friend, the vice president of worldwide planning and research for the Nickelodeon cable television network, said, ¡°The 12- to 14-year-olds of yesterday are the 10 to 12s of today.¡± In other words, children are outgrowing children¡¯s programming at an earlier age than ever before.

As they move more rapidly out of childhood, they also acquire a teenager¡¯s taste for spending that much sooner. According to 360 Youth, the marketing research arm of Alloy, Inc., America¡¯s tweeners independently spend $51 billion. They get this money from a variety of sources, like gifts and allowances. Similarly, they hold considerable sway over the additional $170 billion spent directly on them each year.

More importantly, they also influence major family purchase decisions ? everything from cars to computers to grocery brands to vacation destinations. While separate figures for tweeners are hard to come by,Time magazine recently reported that children under 13 influence $600 billion in their parents¡¯ spending.

They¡¯re also the next wave of teenagers ? a wave that will be larger than the current one. By 2010, the U.S. population of teenagers will climb to 34 million, an increase from 30 million in 1997, according to The New York Times.

The big problem for marketers is that there are precious few opportunities to reach tweeners. The Millennial generation tweeners don¡¯t spend as many hours watching TV as Boomers and Xers did at that age. To begin with, they spend up to 50 percent of their waking hours in school. Outside of school, their lives are increasingly scheduled with homework and after-school activities. Many are also deeply involved with video games and the Internet. They typically spend the remaining hours hanging out with friends.

This means that successful marketers are likely to influence tweeners most through some of the newer and more exotic media. Options include: product placements in movies and video games; Web advertising on tweener-focused sites; event sponsorships; and even textbook covers.

Over 75 percent of middle schools require students to cover their textbooks in order to maximize the books¡¯ useful lives. Marketers are beginning to realize that distributing free book covers carrying their ads is one of the most economical ways to maintain a persistent message in front of tweeners.

360 Youth claims to be the leader in youth-focused sampling. This is a way to let tweeners try out a new product in one of three settings: at school, at movie theaters, or at shopping malls.

Event and team sponsorships are also a great way to keep a company¡¯s name favorably positioned in the minds of tweeners and their parents. However, firms have to recognize that this often requires a heavy, long-term commitment that may not be right for every company.

In terms of bang for the buck, television advertising for tweeners needs to be aimed at programming designed especially for them. Fortunately, there are now plenty of media outlets designed to appeal to them.

On television, a cable station called G4 is targeting 10- to 14-year-old boys, as well as older males, who would rather play video games than watch TV. It features video game programming, such as virtual sports, racing games, and digital beauty pageants. Owned by Comcast, the station is now available in nearly 50 million U.S. homes and will be aggressively marketed next summer.

On the radio dial, Radio Disney reaches 3.2 million male and female tweeners a week in 55 U.S. markets. It appeals to its target audience by creating an interactive environment, both on the air and on Radio Disney¡¯s Web site. Tweeners can suggest songs, participate in contests, and win chances to meet celebrities.

On the Internet, sites like those run by Alloy provide chat rooms, entertainment, and shopping for tweeners. Its sites include alloy.com for girls, and the sports-related site ccs.com for boys. It has amassed a database of 25 million names and 8.5 million registered users. Through merchandise sales, advertising, and sponsorships, it netted $372 million in revenues in 2004.

Marketers are experimenting with various new approaches to reach tweeners with advertising messages. For example, a billboard advertising the Tiger Woods PGA Tour Playstation 2 game is embedded in a racing video game on the Xbox platform called Burnout 3. It¡¯s no coincidence that both games were created by the same company: Electronic Arts.

The most elaborate marketing campaign is the Neopets craze. According to the Web site, it has registered 70 million users worldwide. Thirty-nine percent of them are under the age of 13.

Users can sign up to adopt a virtual pet, which must be fed regularly or it will become sick. To buy food, they must spend ¡°neopoints,¡± which can be earned through playing games on the site ? or by filling out marketing surveys or watching TV commercials on their computer screens. Many children visit the site daily and spend hours taking care of their pets ? and being constantly exposed to marketing messages.

Neopets builds brand awareness for products aimed at children by embedding them in ¡°advergames.¡± And it works: Once children start playing advergames tied to a product, the number of users who try the product goes up significantly, according to Time magazine.

The company started only four years ago, but it is already profitable, and it earns more than $15 million annually in revenues.

Or consider Postopia, a Web site launched by Kraft Foods that allows kids to play computer games that promote Kraft¡¯s cereals and other products. Children who go to the site are constantly reminded to ¡°Try Gazoo¡¯s Marshmallow Mania Pebbles.¡±

Looking ahead, it is certain that marketing to tweeners will continue to be a major opportunity for marketers, but we foresee some changes in the future. Here are four specific forecasts related to this trend:

First, spending by tweeners will grow by about 30 percent by 2008. That will amount to more than $66 billion a year.

Second, ¡°viral marketing¡± will emerge as one of the most effective ways to reach tweeners with marketing messages. Research already shows that tweeners like one-on-one marketing, and they want to interact with new products. This calls for a new kind of marketing approach. Consider the slumber parties sponsored by the Girls Intelligence Agency, or GIA, a marketing firm that charges clients like Disney and Fox Network up to a million dollars for its insights into tweeners¡¯ spending behavior. GIA sets up thousands of sleepover parties each year in the bedrooms of its ¡°alpha girls,¡± or influencers, who are as young as 8 years old. Each alpha girl invites several friends to her home, where she opens a box of new products, such as colorful hair clips. When an alpha girl finds an item she likes, she influences the other girls, who in turn spread the word to all their friends. According to Laura Groppe, the CEO of GIA, ¡°Each girl can personally evangelize 10 to 20 girls, so that slumber party of girls can reach hundreds and hundreds of friends through one girl.¡± But, as CBS reported, GIA doesn¡¯t use just one girl. It has identified 40,000 alpha girls across the country. Some of these tweeners helped Capitol Records market a new teenage pop star by asking 7,000 girls at 500 slumber parties to pick the photo for her CD cover and select her first single. The firm has doubled its business every year for the past three years. This approach appears to be the most successful model for marketing to tweeners.

Third, we can expect to see a backlash against advertisers that target tweeners. While marketing to tweeners is a big opportunity for businesses, it is also attracting criticism. To date, consumer advocates have focused most of their complaints on marketing efforts aimed at children aged 10 and under, but as marketers focus more tightly on tweeners, we expect to see that criticism extended. Consumer advocate groups are already blaming marketers for the increase in childhood obesity, and McDonald¡¯s has been sued for allegedly promoting obesity through advertising fat-filled foods to children. Companies like Kraft Foods have responded by changing promotional campaigns aimed at children under 12 to focus on healthier foods, according to The Wall Street Journal. As a result, it will no longer advertise products like Oreos and Chips Ahoy! cookies on TV shows geared to children aged 6 to 11. However, it continues to use cartoon characters on its packaging, and it is still using its Postopia site to build awareness of its cereals to children playing its Internet games. Fortunately, tweeners are more capable of making informed judgments than younger children, and smart marketers will engage them intelligently.

Fourth, expect to see products designed to meet tweeners¡¯ demands for products that are popular with teens, yet customized to satisfy parents¡¯ concerns. A case in point is the mobile phone developed by Firefly Mobile, Inc.5 It is designed for the smaller hands of children aged 8 to 12, and comes with seven screen colors, 12 ring tones, and a clip for hooking the phone to a backpack. Parents can program the phone to dial up to 22 numbers, including speed-dial keys that let the tweeners reach their parents quickly, and a 911 button for emergencies. They can also set it to receive calls only from an approved list of incoming numbers. Currently, only 1 percent of children under the age of 9 own cell phones, according to Yankee Group. But that percentage will jump when Firefly makes the phone available through Target stores in July 2005. The phone will be priced at just under $100. Also this summer, Mattel will introduce a Barbie cell phone for girls aged 8 to 14, at a price of $50. Both phones will come with 30 minutes of pre-paid airtime, and parents can avoid out-of-control charges by using pay-as-you-go plans.

References List :
1. TD Monthly, November 2004, ¡°Tween Market 101,¡± by R.W. Abernathy. ¨Ï Copyright 2004 by TD Monthly¢â, a division of ToyDirectory.com¢ç, Inc. All rights reserved.2. The New York Times, March 2, 2005, ¡°Retailers Try Just About Anything to Attract Teenagers ? Web Sites Offering Music Downloads and Other Features to Avoid Rejection,¡± by Bob Tedeschi. ¨Ï Copyright 2005 by The New York Times Company All rights reserved.3. Time, June 28, 2004, ¡°Pitching It to Kids,¡± by Daren Fonda and Eric Roston. ¨Ï Copyright 2004 by Time Warner, Inc. All rights reserved.4. The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2005, ¡°Kraft Limits on Kids Ads May Cheese Off Rivals,¡± by Sarah Ellison. ¨Ï Copyright 2005 by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.5. Business Wire, March 9, 2005, ¡°Firefly Mobile Announces the Firefly Phone.¡± ¨Ï Copyright 2005 by Business Wire. All rights reserved.