Re: Who lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea?!
Today I was browsing through blogs by fellow classmates, and one came across and caught my strong attention: a blog by Mandy Chow on McDonald’s Happy Meal (Spongebob) commercial that was launched in Japan. I think this commercial did a really good job communicating through the emotions these children get from receiving the happy meal toy. The excitement and face expression they had was priceless.
Kids represent a very important segment to many marketers because they acquire great amount of purchasing power. They are a strong influential force to their parents’ buying decisions and are essential if the company wants to develop long term relationship because they’re the adult consumers of the future. If you had good experiences going to McDonalds as a kid, you will most likely take your kids there as well. Especially with the change in the economics today, trends like smaller family size, dual incomes, and having kids at a later age gives most families more disposable income to spend. As technology emerge day by day, kids are accessible to TVs and internet at a young age, and marketers take advantage of this. Because as long as they capture and establish their position in a kid’s mind, they will nag their parents into purchasing items they may not otherwise buy.
This is a very powerful force and McDonald’s does a very good job with it. They add value for these young segments by providing toys with happy meals, play place area, and birthday party events. The toys they provide also takes account geographic and demographic differences, for example, Spongbob is a big thing in Japan whereas in Northern America they have Barbie for girls and Star Wars theme for boys. The different demographic group are targeted differently in their commercials:
