 The
Must-buy generation
“Got late
again today,” moaned Neha, to Aparajita during the lunch recess in
school, “My watch-alarm is always running late!”. “My grandmom is
my alarm clock...she is up at the crack of dawn.”, said Aparajita.
“So is mine. But I bought more than 50 packs of sugar cookies only
to get this watch as a free gift. So I better make good use of it,”
said Neha, as she traipsed off to fetch a can of cola from the
canteen counter. She returned as Aparajita was taking a sip of her
homemade lemonade. “Why do you drink that? This cola company is
giving away special discount coupons for meals at McGerald’s fast
food outlets—to all school students!” said she.
 “These
colas make me queasy,” said Aparajita, “And I don’t want to drink a
lot of sweet soda and grow fat!” “If you are worried about your
weight, then try those amazing diet pills I saw on the Net, last
night. Ruksana Hussain uses them…and she really looked good in her
last film, didn’t she?,” said Neha. “Yes,” cried Aparajita, now as
excited as her friend, “Her hair is so thick and lustrous. Why can’t
mine be like hers?”. “Try the new Curls and Locks shampoo brand. It
has a chemical that makes hair grow faster. I have bought a bottle
already!.” Aparajita was speechless with wonder. “How do you know
all this?” she asked.“Just keep your eyes and ears open,” said the
smug Neha, “Look out for the advertisements, read beauty care
magazines, and search the Net! But you don’t even watch TV…tch!!”.
Aparajita saw Neha shake her head in disgust. Doubts had finally
begun to creep in. Was she really missing out on all the fun and
excitement?….
Mission Purchase
The 15-year old Aparajita never really stood a chance. To resist the
volley of missiles (of temptation!) that are being hurled at her,
constantly—via television and mobile phones; life size billboards,
newspapers and magazines, and, of course, the ubiquitous Internet.
She is by no means being singled out as a victim. In
fact, she is only one of the billions of targets, across the country
and around the world. Ling in Beijing, China; Lucy in Sydney,
Australia; Marylin in Connecticut, the US, have at least one thing
in common with Lajwanti in Ropar, Haryana; Prema in Coimbatore,
Tamil Nadu; and Hetal in Surat, Gujarat. Besides all of them being
of the same age group, that is. They are, today, prime marketing
targets of the corporate world. Companies everywhere, are spending
enormous sums of money to entice them to buy their products. From
fast food (burgers, pizzas, fries), soft drinks, biscuits, and ice
creams to fairness creams, shampoos, and motor bikes—commercials for
almost all categories of consumer goods are created with a specific
age group in mind, say market experts. The target ranges from
three-year-old tots to seventeen, eighteen-year-old young adults.
Effort and
expense no bar
This strategy to ‘get ‘em while they are young’ (so labelled by two
North American media experts, Kathleen Kerwin and David Leonhardt)
is extremely well researched and thorough. Advertising agencies
employ an army of professionals to gather information about
children’s preferences, and then hire psychologists to analyse the
data. The scale of this operation is gigantic. For instance,
Nickelodeon, a popular television channel in the US, reportedly
‘surveys’ more than 4,000 children every week in its office, at
schools, over the phone and on the Internet.
Now lets
take a look at the expenses that advertisements of this scale incur.
According to consumer activist, Juliet Schor, who has authored the
book, Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer
Culture, expenditures for advertising and marketing aimed
specifically at children have risen to a whopping over US$15 billion
a year in the US. And this amount is likely to grow. Why? Because
children are considered to be the most ‘malleable’(pliable) of all
categories of consumers. They are also emerging as the most
influential, and the most lucrative. Schor estimates that in North
America, children influence around US $670 billion worth of parental
spending, which is in addition to about US $30 billion a year they
spend in direct purchases! Yes, the buying power of the kids’
brigade is not to be scoffed at.
If you think that this is a typical Western trend,
then let me tell you what is happening in China. “In modern China,
children are becoming the most favoured demographic for advertisers
and television producers,” says Tang Min, columnist with China
Daily. Yao Jingyuan, an economist working with the Chinese Bureau
of Statistics, believes that this is because Chinese children are
exerting greater influence on their parents’ choices of commodities.
“If you have seen how many moms bring their kids to the
supermarkets, you would have a better understanding of the child-centred
commercials,” Yao explained, “The way to a kid’s heart is the way
to the pockets of their parents.” |
