ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240038
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: J.L. HAZELTON ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE $20.3 BILLION in combined income of the 35 million 4-to-12-year-olds in the United States last year came from allowances, pay for work, and gifts from relatives.
So much for the Age of Innocence.
America's children are a rapacious bunch. Sweeping across the cultural landscape, they gobble up the newest, the coolest, the highest tech. And they're armed with more than $20.3 billion annually, a figure that's growing at a rate of 15 percent to 20 percent a year.
Two decades ago, the only things people were trying to sell kids were sweets and toys. Now the small set is putting in its 2 cents' worth on decisions about groceries, computers, vacations, even the family car.
Thanks to a baby boomer belief in self-expression, ``there's an emphasis on children having a say,'' market researcher Selina S. Guber said on Tuesday. ``It's also a very materialistic kind of kid we're talking about.''
Kids today truly believe everybody's talking about them and looking at them, so having the latest `in' thing is tremendously important, said Irma Zandle of the Zandle Group, a marketing consultant who works with companies trying to reach the youth market.
A tot's ability to pull the whole family to a fast-food outlet for the sake of getting a toy from the latest Disney movie has not been lost on McDonald's. The hamburger chain has been trying to talk the purveyor of Mickey Mouse into dropping Burger King and bringing its promotions under the golden arches.
Marketing experts say pre-teens and teens are getting in on more purchasing decisions because working parents have encouraged them to take a greater role in family decisions in general.
The marketing gurus have learned almost as quickly as the children, and they're responding. Even products a child could never afford, like computers, are marketed with their clout in mind.
``Kids start having an influence as early as 4, but really seriously by 6 in terms of the purchase of products for themselves,'' said Ellen Sackoff of the Discovery Group, a New York marketing firm.
Girls in all socio-economic strata, for example, start influencing the purchase of grooming products by age 7 or so, some as early as 4, while boys begin getting interested at about age 10, Sackoff said.
Manufacturers are taking advantage of this by gearing more and more products to them, from shampoos and cosmetics to kid-sized candy-colored tape players and even electronic diaries.
Kids buy the grown-ups' stuff too; 20 percent of cell phones are sold to teen-agers, Zandle said. ``There is an immediacy to social life that is crucial to teens.''
And when it comes to computers, kids get in on the act because ``parents don't feel that they are the experts anymore,'' said Shelley Pazer, Sackoff's partner in the Discovery Group.
But where do these kids get the money?
The $20.3 billion in combined income of just the approximately 35 million 4-to-12-year-olds in the United States last year came from allowances, pay for working in and outside the home, and gifts from relatives, according to James McNeal, a marketing professor at Texas A&M University.
They spent $17.1 billion of it, McNeal said, including $5.8 billion on food and beverages; $4.6 billion on toys; $2.5 billion on clothes; $1.5 billion on movies and spectator sports; $1 billion at video arcades; and the remaining $1.5 billion on odds and ends such as furnishings for their rooms and gifts for their parents.
Furthermore, they directly influenced about $170 billion in family spending last year, not to mention expenses like higher electric bills from turning the air conditioner on after school.
Both the amount children have to spend and the amount of family spending they influence have grown faster than their parents' income and spending - about 15 percent to 20 percent annually over the past decade or so, McNeal said.
To reach these pint-sized spenders, Guber advises clients to employ the battery of marketing techniques already aimed at adults, from focus groups (a 6-year-old can't write down what he likes, but he can whisper in your ear) to contests to direct mail campaigns and images of happy groups.
``McDonald's is the master of friends-and-family interaction,'' Guber said. ``Children look for the security of the family.''
TV and, for girls, magazines, are key ways to reach this burgeoning market, from the tots to the teens, but the tone's got to be right or the kids just can't relate.
It's about image, fun, the coolness quotient. It's not about being different.
What catches a kid's eye? It varies with age, of course, but using the coolest colors is key, along keeping the text simple and clear for the youngsters and offering some educational hook for the parents, Guber said.
Younger kids especially want to feel part of things: ``They love membership cards,'' Guber said.
The older ones look for poignancy, entertainment value, humor, great music, and characters they can identify with, said Elissa Moses of The BrainWaves Group, a consulting and trends adviser.
They have two principles: Entertain me, and give me meaningful.
``If they just don't smell honesty they won't be impressed,'' she said. ``They make their own decisions. They're the toughest customers in the world.''
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