Youth Branding

In class the last few sessions we talked about branding and "the culture of cool" and how marketing companies turn to youth for answers. There are brands everywhere we turn, and they are always trying to market to us the customers. They want to please us and relate to us. What research has shown more recently is that the best audience to brand to is children. The youth market is viewed as a difficult group to connect with and sell to, because of the fragmented media landscape that has evolved over the years. Young people's keen ability to identify and reject marketing messages that lack credibility is so important to companies who are trying to get their product on the market. Nonetheless, many brands market to youth by offering relevant products and services while communicating a brand message in an appropriate voice and tone. Successful brands marketing to youth have a foundation in or association with key interests and drivers among youth: music, sports, fashion, video gaming and technology, among others. This is what we talked about in class, what Frank considers "The Culture of Cool".

People mind what children think and feel, they have opinions too and they are most likely to attach to something that they feel they have a connection to, whether it be a toy, or a movie or game or even clothing. Their voice matters. With all of the diverse forms of technology out today, it is easy to target children, because they want to be impressed by new innovative ideas, even if they don't know what that means. A lot of children expect to be impressed with brands and products they see on the internet or television, and that poses an easy way for marketers to expand and relate to children, through their favorite websites and television shows, even movie and video games. It is so interesting to me how companies target children, they have so many techniques and strategies that they use and if they are relevant to children then they are winners in consumers eyes.