It's Child's Play
How many piggy banks do you have to break to make a $300 billion kids' market?
Kids are hot. We've said it before, and we'll say it
again. How hot? Oh, how does $290 billion in influence spending
(what parents buy at kids' urging) and about $36 billion in
primary spending (what kids buy with their own money) sound? The
U.S. Census projects there will be more than 38 million children
under age 9 in the United States in 2005. Add in tweens (age 9-12),
and you've got nearly 55 million youngsters exploring the
coolest trends.
Video games are still way hot. Look for Microsoft's Xbox and
the Nintendo GameCube to enjoy superpopularity, along with the
still hot Sony PlayStation, predicts Gene Del Vecchio, founder of
CoolWorks, a child marketing consultancy in Valencia, California,
and author of Creating Ever-Cool: A Marketer's Guide to a
Kid's Heart (Pelican).
High-end playthings are also gaining in popularity. Luxurious
playhouses and BMW skateboards are on the map, even if on the
fringe. (Visit www.poshtots.com or www.barbarabutler.com for some children's style
splurging.) Even if kids don't buy the expensive stuff en
masse, companies are still getting a head start on branding
themselves. When those kids can afford things like a BMW car,
they'll already be keen on the brand, speculates Julie Halpin,
CEO and founder of The Geppetto Group, a kid and teen advertising
agency and marketing consultancy in New York City.
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And kids are always willing to pay for things that tap into
their core emotional drivers. In the case of tweens, that's
desire to be a kid, but have some of the fun and glamour of being a
teenager. The best products for tweens will continue to be those
that work on multisensory levels, Halpin says. Some factors:
"The packaging has real display value; it's interesting to
look at, and it gives them a sense of play and fun." Check out
Bath & Body Works' Art Stuff line as a good example of
this. Also look for glittery '80s items to continue to be hot
in 2002-from makeup to music, the "Me" decade is hot.
Arm yourself with this final stat: Eighty percent of kids agree
with the statement "I'm in no hurry to grow up."
What's really hot? Being young.
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