Beyond Pester Power

We have so far focused on how marketers target young kids with Pester Power effects and we have also seen how this has a deep impact on the sales of the products advertised in such manner. Now it is very important to identify if, Pester Power is the only method of targeting children. If you ask me, I'd say, it is obviously not!! Yes, Pester Power may be sufficient for creating the purchase process but not for sustainable basis like creating a brand consumer base. So, let us look at all the other options available with the Marketers for targeting in Brief

1) Street Marketing: This is a type of buzz marketing wherein, the marketers try their stint at advertising their products on streets and try to reach the young audience. It can have a response, especially from the young audience, since they are most vulnerable to watching, rather observing with clear acumen what is happening in their surroundings and can respond quickly based on the needs and the necessities.

2) Building Brand "Name" Loyalty: This is very peculiar way of addressing the young customers. Care should be taken here to note that, it is not Building Brand Loyalty. It is building brand "Name" Loyalty. Thus the children must be influenced to have a clear understanding of the brand name and have higher recall and recognition about the product advertised. Though, it has some relevance to Pester Power, but since children can make a purchase on their own, having the brand loyalty, it is very important to have it. This is particularly more important for the product launches which the marketers want to create a lot of attention amongst the young audience. For eg: Airing the Bingo Ad, during the cricket world cup, a large number of times definitely has created a brand recall and Brand "Name" Loyalty among young audience, if not actually the "Brand Loyalty".

3) Complimentary Samples in Schools: It is very important to bring in complimentary samples in Schools, as during the course of their education children read a lot of stuff and come to know a varied levels of facts and information. So imparted the qualities and attributes of the target product in school itself will definitely make a leveraging chance for the marketers. For Eg: Milo usually gives a free sample of drink(With Cold Milk) to school children in most of the Schools in south India , at a rapid phase even in between the times when the classes are going on. This is a good alternative marketing strategy for reaching the children.

4) Internet Marketing: With a rapid proliferation of Internet and other high technology and mass media, marketers have started reaching these means of communication also. The advertisements like yahoo featured Ads saying that new mail ID can be created in your own name with name@ymail.com or name@rocketmail.com grabs the attention and aspiration of the young minds to create their own mail IDs.

5) Marketing through Adult Explicits (Pornography): Another important area of business is marketing through the adult explicits, since many a research suggests that sexual materials grab a lot of attention fro the kids and the teens equally. Thus launching or advertising any products with sexual contexts can make a huge business for the company. This may not be any ethical way of conducting business, but definitely makes the marketers churn huge revenues.

So, in the present generation, a careful selection of targeting strategies and way of approaching the kids is quintessential to reach the children in the most ethical ways.