Feature: Survey Charts Rise Of ‘Tweenagers’ With Increased Spending Power
Modern trends in family life have caused children to become more sophisticated in extracting pocket money from their parents, according to a new report by Datamonitor. The report also identifies a new sub-set within this age group – between the 3-9 year old category of ‘Children’ and the 14-17 year old category of ‘Teenagers’ is the 10-13 year old category of ‘Tweenagers’ who offer a new challenge to marketers.
The research has found that parents are choosing to have children later in life, when they are likely to be more advanced in their career. It is also increasingly likely that children will be brought up in a dual-income household. One result of this is more disposable income in the household due to higher wages, which translates into more pocket money for the children.
However, the more senior positions held at work by these older parents mean less time is available to spend with the children. The consequent guilt is often assuaged by giving the children extra pocket money to compensate.
The UK’s 53% divorce rate is also filling children’s piggy banks. Having effectively added the quality-time guilt factor to pester power, children who also spend time with each of their parents separately can play one parent off against the other to even greater financial gain.
So how easy is it for manufacturers to take candy from these babies? Datamonitor analyst Piers Berezai commented, “Manufacturers are becoming more blatant in their efforts to target children, as traditional taboos on advertising directly to children are being eroded. With both social and advertising changes occurring, power is increasingly falling into the hands of the manufacturer and their marketers.”
However, marketing to children is no longer a case of choosing the right cartoon animal. Datamonitor has identified three key age segments, each with different consumer behaviour characteristics: Children, aged 3-9 years, use pester power to influence purchasing decisions, but they don’t recognise the benefits of one familiar brand over another, and therefore don’t display high brand loyalty.
Teenagers, aged 14-17, also display low brand loyalty, partly because of their rapidly changing tastes and fashions, but also because they are very media aware and critical of advertising. “They are often well aware of when they are being targeted and can react adversely to advertisements they see as patronising,” said the Datamonitor findings.
The new category, ‘Tweenagers’, aged 10-13, replicate many of the trends of teenagers. According to the report “the use of marketing methods suited to children such as simple toys being included in products is much less effective than it used to be as this age group has become more sophisticated.” Peer group pressure starts to come into play at this age, which can form an important weapon for marketers. A degree of financial autonomy and stronger brand awareness makes this group an attractive prospect for manufacturers.
So where best to place advertising for this new category of potential consumers? Newsline asked a group of Tweenagers at a North Kent comprehensive school about the media they consumed. The group was made up of 12 girls and 11 boys aged between 12 and 13.
We found that the group were fairly active consumers across a range of media. The majority (60%) of the group said that they watched TV for between 14 and 20 hours per week. Of the 30% who said that they watched more than 20 hours per week, slightly more were boys, and 57% had either cable, digital or satellite TV at home.
When the group talked about what they enjoyed watching on TV, it became clear that specified children’s programming did not figure highly in their estimations. Eastenders was the most popular choice overall, with 43% of the group naming it among their favourite programmes. Along with Friends it came out as the most popular programme for the girls, followed by teen soap Hollyoaks, then Neighbours, Changing Rooms, Dawson’s Creek and The Vicar of Dibley.
Cartoons which are also popular with adults came out as top choices for boys. The Simpsons was by far the most popular programme among the boys in the group, followed by South Park, then programmes including Fawlty Towers and Goodness Gracious Me. Only one girl named The Simpsons among her favourite programmes, while no boys said Friends.
It is clear that many of the programmes named by the group are not the obvious choices for advertisers targeting tweenagers. However, when asked what the worst programmes on TV for people their age were, some of the group singled out children’s programmes: “The worst programmes are childish programmes that are too young for us, but they think we enjoy.” said one girl, aged 12.
The main criteria for a good programme was humour, but “not too adult, something we can understand” said one respondent. Girls also valued a good story. Excitement, realism and interest also came up as important factors in a good programme.
When it came to print media, 47% of the group said that they read a newspaper “every now and again”. A further 30%, made up of slightly more boys than girls said that they read a paper every day. The most popular papers were the Sun and the Mail. Most of the group said that they bought magazines between one and three times per month, with around a third buying or reading them every week. Girls were found to buy or read them slightly more frequently than boys.
For boys, the main reasons to like a magazine were information, excitement and interest. They also thought magazines should contain reviews and be up to date. They didn’t like “girls stuff” or articles which were too long. Magazines about computer games were popular choices.
Girls preferred their magazines heavy on celebrity gossip, with make-up and fashion, problem pages and posters. They didn’t like it when magazines were boring or had “ugly boys” in them, and named Sugar, Mizz and Bliss among their favourites.
When talking about magazines, there were signs of teenage cynicism about the media emerging. One boy said that he didn’t like magazines with too much advertising, while a girl said she didn’t like the “junk mail” included in magazines. Another girl was less than convinced by magazine’s self promotion techniques, saying that she disliked “magazines that think they’re the best when nobody reads them anyway.”
Paid-up members of the ‘e-generation’, over 70% of the group accessed the internet on a regular basis. Of those who regularly surfed, more than 30% had made an online purchase and over 90% said they thought they would in future. Of the whole group 86% thought it likely that they would make an online purchase in future.
Our group of tweenagers showed just the sort of mixed behaviour that the Datamonitor report suggested they would. While they were sophisticated enough to be buying online, reading daily newspapers and watching Eastenders, they were still concerned that X-Files would give them nightmares and liked free gifts and posters to be included in magazines. It is precisely this mix that marketers will need to tap into in order to target the rising market of big-pocket-money-spenders.
Datamonitor: 020 7675 7261