The Today’s Show weekend edition a few months ago had an interesting story about how preschoolers are targeted with marketing for junk food during the height of children’s programming. During the story they did their own mini-study to see how marketing of slogans, logos and characters had an effect on how the children chose what they would eat for breakfast. Initially I was surprised, yet in a weird way, not so much.
In regards to what the children would prefer for breakfast they were given a choice between one food product and another. One product would have a character logo on it and one would not. The most surprising of all was when they asked the children would they prefer a banana or a rock for breakfast. The rock was covered in character stickers. I really was floored to hear each child say the rock; even my own children chose the rock. Common sense says you can’t eat a rock, and the interviewee even pointed that out, but the children were engrossed by the characters on the rock and assured her that they would choose the rock as their food for breakfast.
I am sure that for marketers, that’s when you pat yourself on the back for hitting the goldmine. From this simple story I learned how strong marketing can be when you associate a brand, logo or slogan with fun, happiness and something that makes you feel good. For children’s products, this is best evidenced in food, which walks a fine line when you associate happiness with food thus children being obese. My kids demand that I buy a certain high-sugar cereal because it has an Xbox toy it in or Kid’s Cuisine because it has the latest children’s movie characters on the box. On one such occasion my 4 year old requested Pop Tarts that had a picture of “Lightening McQueen” on the box (from the movie Cars) despite that they were Cherry pop tarts, something he never eats. Yet, wouldn’t you know it, he did eat them simply because it had a character on it he loved.
This can easily be carried over into the marketing world for adults. If we’ve previously had a good experience with a product, chances are that when that company comes out with a new product we are more willing to give it a shot simply due to the emotion linked to the brand. That’s the key in marketing isn’t it? Creating an emotional response to your products. If jelly shoes came back in style I would be buying them in a heartbeat, not because I think I would look hot in them, but because the thought of them evokes a positive emotional response from memories of my childhood when I think about them.
When thinking of marketing your brand, what do you do or what steps do you take to ensure that your consumers feel that emotional connection?
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