Page 71 - Workbook2E

HOW MARKETERS AND RETAILERS TARGET THE YOUNG
Children are Easy Prey for Hungry Merchants
With the wealth in America today, consumers spend money on goods and services that would boggle the minds of their grandparents. Shopping has become a national pastime. The National Institute for Consumer Education states the fastest growing area of spending involves 49.2 million children—age four to twelve—which approaches $100 billion in annual sales. In addition, 31 million teenagers pump more than $249 billion into the economy each year. That’s not child’s play.
Children are easily influenced, and compromise a growing market that’s easy prey for every sales strategy marketers can dream up. To help your children resist the winds of peer pressure and advertising that blows on them daily, you must begin when they’re young. Become aware of the strategies merchants and retailers use. The following four strategies are popular ways businesses target youth.
Four Marketing Strategies:
1 Mass Media: Television, Movies, Radio, and the Internet
American mass media is perhaps the most powerful propaganda machine in the history of the world. With revenue over $42 billion annually, mass media has perfected their skills for persuading, motivating, and pressuring youngsters into spending their money on the latest and greatest toys, gadgets, and video games. And when they run out of their own money, children use the same techniques to pressure mom and dad to buy the stuff. Some great examples are the commercials running throughout Saturday morning cartoons.
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