Table
of Contents
Heard
on the Playground
What's
New This Month
CyberStats
Kids
Tweens
Teens
Trend
Watch
Heard
on the Playground
The Making of a Shopper
We recently had an
opportunity to talk to some tween girls about a favorite activity--shopping!
We wanted to understand a bit more about the phenomena--when it
"kicks in," and why girls are so addicted to it.
The girls we talked
to remembered when they were age 5 or 6 and made the discovery
that "shopping is fun!" Usually that revelation had
something to do with shopping for themselves, rather than for
someone else. Around this time shopping became a way to express
personal style versus just accepting what mom had picked out.
This display of empowerment is a central motivation in childhood.
It is also the beginning of the independent/freedom stage that
manifests itself even more in the teen years.
But even though these
girls perceived shopping as a form of self-expression, they still
sought out the approval of their mothers on where to shop. At
first they went along with their mothers to stores where mom shopped,
but the girls began to look for the department or section dedicated
to their own age group. The girls wanted to shop where they
felt comfortable.
Of course this stage
is just the beginning. As girls become more independent around
age 13-14, they will seek out more stores and styles to express
themselves. Mom's approval will become less important and she
will less likely accompany her daughter shopping. Going to the
mall will become more of a social activity to share with friends
and peer acceptance will be much more important than mom's approval.
It's certainly fascinating
to see the evolution of young, shopping-savvy consumers!
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What's
New This Month
Toy
Trends: What's In, What's Out
| In |
Out |
| Dogs
PokŽmon cartridges
Scooters
Baby toys that play classical
music
Toys that tell kids what
to do
Dolls with feelings/emotions/Internet-connected
Very pink kitchens
Toys with lots of noise
Non-licensed, gender-free
action figures
Voice- and light-activated
electronic toys
|
Frogs/Fish
PokŽmon cards
Skateboards
Quiet baby toys
Toys that let kids pretend
Inanimate dolls
Gender-free kitchens
Toys with volume control
Mutating action figures
Remote-controlled toys
|
Source: American
Demographics
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CyberStats
What's So Cool About
the Web?
Tweens regularly go
on-line for shopping, entertainment, communication and schoolwork,
says a study by the Zandl Group. Thirty percent of 8- to 12-year-olds
have home on-line subscriptions. The average tween with on-line
access spends approximately two hours or more a week on-line.
What makes a site cool
for kids? Kids say that cool sites have fun things to do, like
contests, games, chats, voting lists or the ability to e-mail
celebrities. Special effects are also important--like flashing
graphics, animation, music, sounds and moving pictures.
Word-of-mouth and advertising
play a big part in promoting cool sites--78% of kids say they learn
about cool sites from friends; 54% say they learn about them from
advertising. Searches (44%), e-mail announcements (28%), magazines
(28%), links (26%) and packaging (12%) are also named as factors
in learning about cool sites.
Source: Digitrends
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Kids
Kids Still Love Crayons
Binney & Smith's
Color Census 2000 reports that shades of blue are the favorite
crayon colors of children. Different shades of blue made up 11
of the 20 top favorite colors. Shades of green, red and purple
also appear on the list.
Children's top 10 favorite
Crayola crayon colors are:
-
blue
-
purple
heart
-
cerulean
-
blizzard
blue
-
hot
magenta
-
aquamarine
-
caribbean
green
-
electric
lime
-
red
-
cotton
candy
More Crayon Facts
- The average child in the US
will wear down 730 crayons by his or her 10th birthday.
That's 11.4 boxes of 64 crayons per child!
- Kids, ages 2-8, spend an average
of 28 minutes per day coloring.
- Combined, children in the US
spend 6.3 billion hours coloring annually.
- Eighty-nine percent of households
with children, ages 2-12, purchase crayons. In households
with children 8-12, the number drops to 77%.
- Regular crayon sales peak at
back-to-school time. Specialty packs and collectible crayon
sales peak at holiday time.
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Tweens
Tweens and Food Influence
Food marketers must
become aware of the importance that today's tween plays in the
use and purchase of food products. Today's tween not only strongly
influences the use and purchase of foods aimed solely at kids,
they also influence the consumption of food items intended for
their families as well!
Our recently completed
on-line survey of over 600 tweens found that nearly 1 in 5 prepared
a meal for their family during the week. One in five also
reported shopping for their family during the week as well. Ten
percent of tweens surveyed actually compiled the grocery lists
for their families!
Add to this the fact
that more than half of today's tweens make their own breakfasts,
more than 1 in 4 make their own lunches and more than 1 in 10
actually make their own dinners at least a few days each week,
and one can easily see the importance of marketing to tweens when
it comes to food items.
WonderGroup is compiling
new information on today's tweens as part of a book on tween marketing.
The book is being authored by WonderGroup CEO Tim Coffey, President
Dave Siegel and Executive Vice President Greg Livingston, and
is due out early next year. Additionally, Dave Siegel will be
chairing the upcoming Kid Power Food and Beverage Marketing Conference
and Greg Livingston will be chairing the upcoming Marketing to
Tween Conference. Both conferences are in January 2001.
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Teens
Teens Say They're "All About
Fun"
Many teens describe
themselves as "all about fun," according to a study
by Teen Research Unlimited. The study asked respondents to choose
three statements that characterize their peer group from a list
of 15 statements. The findings showed that although teens acknowledge
chaos and confusion in their lives, they still were heavily interested
in having fun. Here's how the teens responded:
50% We're about
fun
41% High tech
is such a huge part of our lives
25% We're living
in dangerous times
21% Our world
moves faster than in previous times
21% We have too
much to do and not enough time
to do it
17% We are overly
stressed out
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Trend
Watch
Cosmetics Moving More Toward
the Teen Market
Walk in to a drugstore
or a mass merchandiser's cosmetics section and you may feel a
bit lost: is this the kid's section? No, just another opportunity
for the youth market.
Drugstores and mass
merchandisers are moving their cosmetic sections into the youth
market by offering youth-oriented lines and sections. And it's
no wonder: according to Goody¨ products, tweens and teens are
expected to spend $43 billion on beauty aids this year.
Target, Rite Aid, Wal-Mart
and CVS each have special cosmetic areas just for teens. There,
sections offer products made especially for teens: fun, food-flavored
lip balms attached to key rings, rings with lip gloss inside,
pendants, whistles and glitter. Additional items offered sometimes
include other things that attract today's teens and tweens: accessories
like handbags, plus items like picture frames, stuffed animals
and diaries. Even the convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, has jumped
into the youth cosmetics fray, offering a new line of lip gloss,
eyeshadows and lipsticks called Heart & Soul.
Youth marketing in cosmetics
and toiletries leads many companies' quests for market growth.
According to Teen Research Unlimited, girls between the ages 13-19
spent an amazing $9 billion on cosmetics, fragrances and other
beauty products last year. An astounding 71% of all teens, age
12-19, bought health & beauty items in the last three months.
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For
more information about WonderGroup please visit our website at
www.wondergroupinc.com
See
you in December!
