These are not your father's buyers (or your mom's, either)
'Selling' a new generation of consumers will take more than 'sizzle'
Maria Weiskott, Editor-in-Chief -- Playthings, 6/1/2003
Where's the beef? That tagline for a familiar fast-food restaurant might be decades old, but the concept is still fresh—especially with the upcoming generation of consumers. If manufacturers want tomorrow's customers to plunk down their hard-earned cash, they're going to need to feed them a hefty dose of reality, rather than snap and crackle, in their advertising efforts. And that advertised product better live up to its promises!
We spent some quality time with budding buyers during the past month and discovered that the kids to whom our industry will speak when they become buying parents are quite discriminating.
During national "Take Our Children to Work Day," we had a group of kids—a rather discerning group—engage in toy testing. Some of the results appear in this month's "Off the Shelf" on page 10.
On another occasion, we were invited to participate in a "Mind on the Media" workshop. The purpose of this organization is to raise public awareness about the negative effects of images in the media. In addition to a group of 25 young women ages 8 to 14, participants included advertising executives and editors from the consumer press. (Diane Creston, whose agency represents LGB and Carrera, was on hand as well, giving the toy industry additional presence at the event.)
Now talk about an astute group of future buyers! Following is a sampling of their "Best Practices" suggestions for advertisers.
- Don't just think how an ad is going to affect the target audience, but everybody who is going to see the ad.
- Use a variety of body sizes and shapes in ads.
- Offer more diversity in ads; feature more people of color.
- Don't assume that the people who are going to see the ads are "mindless droids."
Astute, indeed!
