In the 'Fast Lane'

When companies are targeting their products to kids' demographics, this much is certain: There's a lot more to marketing to kids today than trying to keep brands relevant, “hip and cool.” Today's kids want two things from us—brands that are interactive and instantly recognized.

Studies have shown that by the age of 3, children in the United States are already brand-conscious. They recognize product packages, for example, and key in on their shapes and colors long before they can read.

In fact, according to James McNeal, author of The Kids' Market: Myths and Realities, most children recognize 200 logos by the time they enter the first grade. By the age of 5, 50 percent of our kids are asking for specific brands.

Developing meaningful relationships with kids gives brand managers and marketers a tremendous opportunity to build brand loyalty for the long haul. It is crucial that brands position themselves as powerful tools that satisfy core emotional needs in kids—perceived benefits, such as appearing cool and self-determined, exercising personal freedom, and the ability to have the freedom to express their perceived individuality and control over their own choices—score high on kids' lists.

Smart brand managers and brand identity/package design consultants identify the specific drivers that build brand loyalty early in kids—remembering that their emotional needs are more important than any other brand attributes.

Whether kids are in the position to make their own purchases, or influence their parents' purchase decisions, brands that stand for the specific values enumerated above, will be more successful than the ones that seek to deliver the usual benefits and features.

Once brand loyalty is established, it's quite another challenge to maintain that loyalty—especially in a consumer demographic with such specific demands and “needs.” To keep that loyalty, brands need to be refreshed more often than not.

Design Force, Marlton, N.J.-based brand packaging consultants, recently went through such a re-branding exercise with Toys “R” Us in a project that involved a new launch of the retailer's Fast Lane brand, a flagship private label.

For TRU, the company's Fast Lane line of cars is one of its highest volume private label brands with global distribution. Toys “R” Us recognized that the line needed to be re-branded and repositioned to support a variety of market segments and targeted age groups. A style guide also needed to be produced to ensure that the brand and the packaging would have a standardized look and feel—worldwide.

“When repositioning Fast Lane, Toys “R” Us and Design Force had to take many factors into account during the pre-design process,” notes Arline Wall, former TRU global director, boys toys. Wall, who worked on the project, enumerated the factors that had to be taken into account: a global audience with pronounced cultural differences and preferences, as well as various demographic groups…boys of various ages who buy R/C vehicles, and respond to specific colors and graphics in packaging. “There is art and science in package design, but marketing savvy underscores everything,” she notes.

Pre-design research and utilization of the proprietary process employed at Design Force—which is referred to as ForceSight—revealed that the color red is synergistic with fast cars and the racing genre among boys. ForceSight uncovers a brand's “Enjoyment Assets,” which motivate consumer purchasing decisions through positive and enjoyable experiences with a product's most enduring communication vehicle—its package.

The company was further challenged to develop packaging that would appeal to very young boys through the tween segment. The package design solution employs an overall red background with diagonal gradient striations to suggest speed, movement and energy.

The Fast Lane style guide sets up a system of segmentation that allows consumers to distinguish between racing, remote control and die-cast car categories. Specific guidelines were also developed for creating English, bilingual and multi-lingual packaging, as many global brands demand.

How crucial is re-branding and repackaging for high volume global toy brands? To paraphrase Martin Lindstrom, in his ground-breaking book: BrandChild: “A brand is more than a word. It is the beginning of a lifetime dialogue.”

Kids are the future of our brands. If today's kids develop loyalty to a brand like Fast Lane, then they will connect positive childhood brand experiences into a lasting impression. Brand heritage then develops—and when they grow up, today's children are likely to purchase Fast Lane cars for their own children.

And that's the ultimate goal of any brand—longevity—and, more importantly, loyalty for life.