The 'Tweens' and Advertising

Once upon a time parents had it (relatively) easy. They knew that kids would be fine playing with dolls or action figures until they hit 14, their hormones dropped, and the demands for expensive consumer goods such as mobile phones and laptops would start. Today things are a little different. Advertisers have identified a new target market, youngsters at an age between childhood and adolescence. The advertising industry calls them ‘Tweens’ – and with a worldwide spending power of 340 billion pounds, marketers are more keen to woo them than ever before.

Meet the Tweens

These days more working women and better forms of contraception mean that parents in the West have fewer children. But, because our standards of living are rising, parents now have more money to lavish on their little ones. These days children aged 8 to 12 have more spending power than previous generations. They also have more influence within the family unit too – and often have a say in family purchases. This influence makes them very attractive to advertisers.

Kids Getting Older Younger

In the eyes of their parents children today may seem more sophisticated than previous generations. Trend analysts have discovered that children aged 8-12 are ignoring dolls, teddy bears and other traditional toys in favour of grown-up consumer goods like console games, MP3 players and mobile phones. Because of this sophistication marketers are using more grown-up techniques to communicate with them.

For instance, toy manufacturer Mattel launched a branded Barbie mobile phone in 2005, which was aimed at girls between the ages of 8 and 14. Though ‘tween versions’ of grown-up products like music players and mobiles have proved popular – marketers have noted that children want to have ‘the real thing’ at an increasingly younger age.

Stealing Childhood?

Advertisers aiming at Tweens use the same techniques that they employ to reach teenagers. Adverts are designed to frame products as ‘must-have’ items that kids have to buy to be popular with their peers. This has led to critics arguing that, by forcing children to be more sophisticated at a younger age, they’re stealing childhood innocence and turning them into young consumers. They also maintain that this style of advertising can cause anxiety among children – who start to judge their worth by the consumer goods that their family own.

A Tough Audience

For marketers, tweens can be a difficult market to reach. This is because they react to adverts more like teenagers than children and will critically evaluate any claims that are made. Marketers predict that in the future the key to reaching this audience will be through the Internet. Tweens want to make new discoveries together and will discuss them on chat rooms, by text message and on social networking sites. By making use of these channels, advertisers will be able to speak to them directly – often without parental supervision.

If the way that children are growing up earlier makes depressing reading for parents, there is some good news. Sweets and fizzy drinks are still favourites with the tween audience, proof that though they hanker after mobile phones, some of their tastes remain distinctly childish.