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Document 1 of 1 Power to the children: Young people's influence over family purchases is growing rapidly, andadvertisers have to take note Kids' buying power and influence over purchase decisions areincreasing Author: Diekmeyer, Peter Publication info: The Gazette [Montreal, Que] 06 Mar 2001: D2.ProQuest document link Abstract (Abstract): [Anne Sutherland] and [Beth Thompson] are youth-marketing experts who have seen first-hand the increasing influence that children have in today's economy. Sutherland hooked up with Thompson, a journalist, when the two worked on a lifestyle magazine called ZellersFamily. Kidfluence was born from that collaboration. "the billions (of dollars in purchases) that kids influence goes well beyond pester power," say the authors. Full text: Parents will recognize this scenario. After a long day at work, they are too tired to cook. A discussionof restaurant options ensues. "How about McDonald's?" their son pipes up. According to Anne Sutherland and Beth Thompson, most parents would prefer to go to Burger King or PizzaHut. But after persistent nagging from their children, parents eventually give in. And they grudgingly head off to thegolden arches. "This dynamic has made McDonald's one of the most successful businesses in the world, and young kids' No. 1choice for a meal." Sutherland and Thompson are youth-marketing experts who have seen first-hand the increasing influence thatchildren have in today's economy. They share some of their experiences and insights in a new book titled Kidfluence: Why Kids Today MeanBusiness. Sutherland, a strategic planner, got her exposure to kids' power while working on a project for the Blue Boxrecycling program in 1990. Attempts to motivate adults to drag the blue box to the curb each week saw little success. But when the marketing was targeted at kids, the results were more encouraging. "Kids learned the three Rs of recycling in school, brought that information home and pressured their parents,"said Sutherland. "This insight changed how we communicated to parents and to kids." Sutherland hooked up with Thompson, a journalist, when the two worked on a lifestyle magazine called ZellersFamily. Kidfluence was born from that collaboration. Although what the authors call Generation Y - those born between 1980 and 2000, are a smaller group thantheir boomer parents, the authors believe their grip on society is stronger than the boomers' ever was. Since birth rates have gone down, parents' disposable income is divided among fewer children, therebyincreasing each kid's individual buying power. And since the number of dual- income families doubled between 1970 to 1995 from 1.9 to 4 million people, parents have more discretionaryincome to accommodate those needs. That makes parents increasingly vulnerable to kids' longtime weapon ofchoice: nagging. But "the billions (of dollars in purchases) that kids influence goes well beyond pester power," say the authors. Kids today are active participants in family-purchase decisions. "Today (they) get a vote in family discussions regarding both major and minor purchases because of a trend inchild rearing to a more consultative or shared-power philosophy."

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According to a variety of estimates, kids' influence on family- purchase decisions jumped from $5 billion in the1960s to $50 billion by 1984, then soared to $188 billion today. Divorced parents are among the most vulnerable to their kids' influence. They often feel guilty about the lack of time they spend with their children, and attempt to compensate bythrowing money and material goods at them. The profile of the average kid is changing. For one, there is the KAGOY factor (Kids are Getting Older Younger). And it's not just that girls are wearing lipstick, and gorging themselves on pop culture at 9 or 10. Many parents - motivated by research showing that kids brains react well to early stimulation - are reading andplaying music to unborn babies. Kids now start playing hockey, figure-skating and attending music classes at just 4 or 5. And it's not always just to have fun. Many are driven there by motivated parents who are already calculating theagents' fees they will reap from the Mario Lemieuxs and Brittany Spears they are creating. This phenomenon is especially evident in kids' hockey, where parents are no longer laughing with the children,but are yelling at them to "play the system." The result is kids who are becoming world- wise at a much youngerage. The only problem is that those world-wise kids are a much tougher group to market to than their parents were.For one, they are media experts. The typical American kid spends a whopping 38.5 hours a week on television, computers, video games, movies,music and print. By the time they are 7, they will have seen an average of 20,000 commercials a year. So although they might be a very lucrative demographic for marketers to reach, getting their attention is nopiece of cake. - E-mail can be sent to Peter Diekmeyer at: peter@peterdiekmeyer.com Publication title: The Gazette Pages: D2 Number of pages: 0 Publication year: 2001 Publication date: Mar 6, 2001 Year: 2001 column: Marketing Section: Business Publisher: Infomart, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. Place of publication: Montreal, Que. Country of publication: Canada Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Canada ISSN: 03841294 Source type: Newspapers Language of publication: English Document type: Business, Column

ProQuest document ID: 433699838 Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/433699838?accountid=50247 Copyright: Copyright Southam Publications Inc. Mar 6, 2001 Last updated: 2012-03-04 Database: ProQuest Central

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