Kids As Savvy Consumers
It was with enormous pride that I looked at my boys. It was the week after Christmas, and the supermarket had begun stocking Easter eggs. My youngest looked at the eggs and said, "it is like ages until Easter, they are just trying to trick us to eat more eggs" and my eldest indignantly added, "how stupid do they think we are?"
Of all of my parenting achievements to date, I feel, this is among one of my best. I was well on the way to teaching my children to be informed, aware, cynical consumers. The type of consumer the advertising world would hate. Companies will have to reconsider their existing marketing strategies to persuade these kids to part with their hard earned pocket money.
In NSW schools, there is a huge emphasis on teaching children how to decipher and construct persuasive texts. NAPLAN tests have used persuasive text types over the past number of years, and yet, it remains an area in which many students need to improve. This is in spite of targeted teaching of expositions, for many months leading up to these standardised tests taking place. And for me, that is the problem. The teaching of expositions is focussing in on the structure and language conventions used in persuasive texts. The big picture concepts that should be taught (but alas are not because it is not measurable on a standardised test) are of having an awareness of when you are being sold to, and how to decipher fact from hype.
An article over at Inc.com titled, Sales: Art of Convincing is Dead, examines how the pushy sales person, the one trying to see you all the stuff you don't need, is falling flat, as consumers are more informed than they have been in the past. How many times have you, as a consumer, walked into a store equipped with the specifications, reviews and best prices of a product? Once you have committed to researching a product, in that detail, it is very unlikely that you will have your mind changed by a sales assistant. And that is if, in fact, you actually set foot into a retail store and don't simply purchase it online. But what made you choose THAT particular brand in the first place? Was it following a conversation with a friend, or coworker, that you set your heart on that particular purchase? What makes us listen to certain people, when it comes to suggestions of what is cool, of what is the next big thing, of what we should be spending our hard earned money on? These people are influencers, and are being used increasingly more in marketing. Do you have a mate, who is always drinking the newest boutique beer, wearing the 'next big thing' clothing, and using up to the minute technology? He shouts you a beer and lets you have a quick go of his tablet/ipad/etc. The seed is being planted. This successful, popular guy is allowing you to share in his world. The same goes for women. We all have that friend who is only too happy to let us borrow some of her newest, technologically advanced lippy or can't stop raving about the moisturiser she uses to keep the wrinkles at bay. "Pffft" I hear you say. "As if my best mate has the power to influence hundreds of thousands of people!" No, but in each social group, there is THAT guy, or THAT girl. And these people become the specific target audience.
Marketing is a lot like high school. There are the cool kids, who rule the school, and there are those on the outer. Apple used to be the dorky, chess club kid who still let his mum tuck him in at night. Through evolution, metamorphosis, or fairy dust, he became a jock and now basically runs the school. The cool kids are cool, because they have everyone convinced that they are. We are buying the brands and products we do, because they have us (or an influencer we know) convinced that they are the way of the future.
If we, as adult buy into these forms of marketing, then is it little wonder that children will place the same importance on "what the cool kids are doing/wearing/saying"? A responsibility which we have as parents is to explicitly identify instances where we are being 'sold' something. Sit down with your children and watch some television. Discuss relevant ads, and identify the techniques used by advertisers to persuade your child as a consumer. When you are at the shops, and you ask your child to get, for example, a jar of peanut butter. Let them choose and then explore why it was that they went for that particular jar. Freely discuss the placement of items in the supermarket, the packaging, point out the unit prices to assist in making price comparisons. Educate your child. With knowledge, comes power. Give them the tools that they need, to ensure they develop into aware consumers. Consumers who can make up their own minds and not just mindlessly follow the masses.
Of all of my parenting achievements to date, I feel, this is among one of my best. I was well on the way to teaching my children to be informed, aware, cynical consumers. The type of consumer the advertising world would hate. Companies will have to reconsider their existing marketing strategies to persuade these kids to part with their hard earned pocket money.
In NSW schools, there is a huge emphasis on teaching children how to decipher and construct persuasive texts. NAPLAN tests have used persuasive text types over the past number of years, and yet, it remains an area in which many students need to improve. This is in spite of targeted teaching of expositions, for many months leading up to these standardised tests taking place. And for me, that is the problem. The teaching of expositions is focussing in on the structure and language conventions used in persuasive texts. The big picture concepts that should be taught (but alas are not because it is not measurable on a standardised test) are of having an awareness of when you are being sold to, and how to decipher fact from hype.
An article over at Inc.com titled, Sales: Art of Convincing is Dead, examines how the pushy sales person, the one trying to see you all the stuff you don't need, is falling flat, as consumers are more informed than they have been in the past. How many times have you, as a consumer, walked into a store equipped with the specifications, reviews and best prices of a product? Once you have committed to researching a product, in that detail, it is very unlikely that you will have your mind changed by a sales assistant. And that is if, in fact, you actually set foot into a retail store and don't simply purchase it online. But what made you choose THAT particular brand in the first place? Was it following a conversation with a friend, or coworker, that you set your heart on that particular purchase? What makes us listen to certain people, when it comes to suggestions of what is cool, of what is the next big thing, of what we should be spending our hard earned money on? These people are influencers, and are being used increasingly more in marketing. Do you have a mate, who is always drinking the newest boutique beer, wearing the 'next big thing' clothing, and using up to the minute technology? He shouts you a beer and lets you have a quick go of his tablet/ipad/etc. The seed is being planted. This successful, popular guy is allowing you to share in his world. The same goes for women. We all have that friend who is only too happy to let us borrow some of her newest, technologically advanced lippy or can't stop raving about the moisturiser she uses to keep the wrinkles at bay. "Pffft" I hear you say. "As if my best mate has the power to influence hundreds of thousands of people!" No, but in each social group, there is THAT guy, or THAT girl. And these people become the specific target audience.
Marketing is a lot like high school. There are the cool kids, who rule the school, and there are those on the outer. Apple used to be the dorky, chess club kid who still let his mum tuck him in at night. Through evolution, metamorphosis, or fairy dust, he became a jock and now basically runs the school. The cool kids are cool, because they have everyone convinced that they are. We are buying the brands and products we do, because they have us (or an influencer we know) convinced that they are the way of the future.
If we, as adult buy into these forms of marketing, then is it little wonder that children will place the same importance on "what the cool kids are doing/wearing/saying"? A responsibility which we have as parents is to explicitly identify instances where we are being 'sold' something. Sit down with your children and watch some television. Discuss relevant ads, and identify the techniques used by advertisers to persuade your child as a consumer. When you are at the shops, and you ask your child to get, for example, a jar of peanut butter. Let them choose and then explore why it was that they went for that particular jar. Freely discuss the placement of items in the supermarket, the packaging, point out the unit prices to assist in making price comparisons. Educate your child. With knowledge, comes power. Give them the tools that they need, to ensure they develop into aware consumers. Consumers who can make up their own minds and not just mindlessly follow the masses.
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