The paper looks at the importance of a strategic approach to understanding markets, and the constant relevance of youth culture as an indicator of the long term development and impact of trends, not just for themselves now, but for their coming adulthood.
The paper describes how research may be used to assist program developers in transferring brand appeal and loyalty from established brands to new brands, while avoiding the potential pitfalls of weakening existing brand equity or associating a new brand with undesirable qualities. The results are based entirely on qualitative techniques (focus groups, individual observations and interviews) with the target audience.
The Polo Jeans Company is a new division of Polo Ralph Lauren with a line-up of jeans and casual wear designed to attract the youth market. First launched in the United States in 1996 the Polo Jeans Company was introduced to the Canadian market at the beginning of the fall 1997 season. Our case study shows how subtle cultural differences between the United States and Canada affected the Canadian licensees choice of advertising materials used to launch the brand; it also exposes readers to the relationship between brand image and fashion choices among young people.
This paper demonstrates, in the first section, that the importance of children as purchasers in their own right is rather limited in spite of their significant potential purchasing power, and that is limited to a few product fields. The second section examines how the type and degree to which purchasing is influenced by product segment differ. Our conclusion is that only a discriminating case-by-case examination, in which adult purchase decision-makers also need to be taken into account, will make a company successful here. The results are based on two representative surveys from 1997.
This paper examines the extent to which the old cliche think global, act local is relevant when marketing to young children. We argue that this hypothesis is most definitely valid for youth markets on a global basis. A global strategy is valid because children and teenagers do share similar aspirations, interests and values to a large extent. But some cultural differences and local preferences remain, and must be taken into account when marketing to young people.
This paper discusses findings of the most extensive research on the media usage of kids aged from 8 to 15 years ever carried out in Germany. To provide as complete a picture as possible, media usage habits were studied in a 1600 case representative diary survey, including all other activities during the day as well. The complex design of the study with three visits and two interviews with each interviewee made it possible to follow memory traces of editorial content and advertising. These quantitative findings are complemented with a brief summary of qualitative research on the functions that media have for kids this age.
This paper identifies and explores ten trends or market dynamics which have been observed in the childrens market today, and discusses how knowledge of these trends can be leveraged to ensure effective and insightful childrens research in the future. Trends discussed in this paper have been evidenced in recent qualitative and quantitative research conducted by Aeffect with children and teens worldwide. It also describes research approaches which maximize childrens enjoyment of the research process and work to reveal brand imagery maintained by kids.
The process of brand learning begins when children are very young. Brand recognition is the first step in a hierarchy that may lead ultimately to purchase. What children are exposed to in the marketplace as they grow and learn may play an important role in their future brand selection behaviour. This study found that the pre-school subjects (n=300) were quite adept at recognising brands and logos of both children and adult products and associating brands with products using a picture matching game. Factors found to be related to brand recognition and matching ability were age, product exposure, and commercial television viewing.
Kidscope provides a rapid response to the need for knowledge and understanding of children and their behaviour. The project monitors trends and looks at the ways these changes will alter the lives of kids now and in the future. In addition the study measures the media consumption and media supply across Europe - both essential components in the cost equation. It looks at the changing role of television and other traditional media and compares this with the adoption of new media, such as the Internet and computer games. It is particularly concerned with measuring the relative impact of each of these media in the average child's day. Thus it helps us to identify opportunities for talking to kids in the most appropriate place, at the right time, using the right tone.
This paper describes the psychographics of the Indian youth and child. The results are based on a study carried out in a sample size of over 8000 respondents across twenty centres in India. The findings can be used to study the shifts in values among youth and children. In addition marketers can use the data when positioning their products among various segments. A suitable communication strategy can then be designed to reach the appropriate target audience in an effective manner.
The youth market is a complex market with many divisions, many apparent contradictions and many ambiguities. It is also a rapidly changing market but high-tech state of the art products coexist alongside very traditional products. A parallel can be drawn between computers and television because just as previous generations have grown up with television and television advertising, today's generation is growing up with computers which offer interaction
The paper describes the work that has been carried out with 7 year old children in Brazil, France, and Armenia. It was shown that the educational program has an influence on the responses that children give when their advertising memorization is measured. Depending on the culture, some kids are more likely to give richer responses when using verbal methods, while others present better performance when dealing with non-verbal ones.