Annie Lui's Blog

Small children seem to learn very quickly. In just a few years, they can learn to speak one or even several new languages, play a musical instrument, and handle many subjects at school. They can even play different types of sports and pick up new hobbies, and become experts in their favorite pastimes.

On a marketing perspective, what kind of impression do companies leave in the minds of these young fast learners?

As Vivien pointed out in her blog post, Marketing to Kids, children are able to recognize and categorize 300 to 400 brand names by the age of 10. Here’s Vivien’s attached video:

The girl in this video demonstrates to us the capabilities of a 5-year-old in recognizing brand logos and associating them with images or objects she has seen, “looks like the American flag”, “It’s an ‘M’ made out of fries.”.

Young children see, understand, and remember advertising. On one hand, this is an opportunity for companies to position themselves early on to ensure their place in consumers’ minds and to have first mover advantage. On the other hand, this may pose a threat if they don’t take caution in keeping ethics in mind for their advertisements.

McDonald's Happy Meal

For instance, many fast food restaurants target young consumers as these businesses strive to meet these kids’ wants. This sort of targeted advertising toward children is rather unethical. Children are usually unaware of the health issues associated with over-consumption of these meals. It is to the benefits of these companies to ensure that they do not go beyond the limits of marketing ethics. After all, they wouldn’t want to disappoint and lose existing customers, nor would they want to scar the reputation of their brand!