Research Essay Cover Sheet
Subject Name Marketing and Media in Global
Context
Subject Code MECM90034
Student Name Juan Wei
Student Number 807199
Tutor Karin Zhu (Friday 3.15pm)
Word Count 2699
Table of contents
Introduction·············································································3
Young People as Consumer··························································5
Young People as Media User························································7
Key Communication Tactics-Message·············································9
Key Communication Tactics-Media···············································11
Key Concerns about the Tactics····················································13
Recommendation·····································································15
Bibliography···········································································17
Appendix···············································································19
2 Brief Research for Youth Marketing A Segment Which is Over-Commercialised by Marketing
Introduction
Since the buying power of children increased significantly, it continuously appeals the attention from marketing to reach this valuable segment with skilful communication techniques through various media platforms (Advertising Education Forum 2012, p. 12). In recent decades, the youth marketing reveals an over-commercialised situation. From traditional marketing to digital marketing, business is now concentrating on integrating the full-sides of media and message strategies to maximise the exposure time in front of young people (Marshall 2010;
Advertising Education Forum 2012). Besides, due to the persuasive purpose always accompany with advertising, also, children still in the developing their capability to cope with that branded information. Thus, the ethical issues existing in youth marketing have become a central topic which was discussed by academics and researchers widely (Boyland & Halford 2013; Rideout
2014). However, because of the difficulty of measuring marketing activities’ influence on children’s behaviour, it brings the significant challenge for both policymaker and marketer to find an equilibrium of their job.
In this essay, young people will first be introduced as consumer and media user, then, the critical communication tactics which are adopted by multinational corporations will be presented in the following paragraph. Next, ethical issues and major concerns brought by the above marketing
3 strategies will be discussed. Finally, several recommendations for policymakers and marketers are elaborated at the end of the article.
4 Young People As Consumer
Children and young people as a lucrative demographic segment with significant purchasing power have appealed attention from marketers for a long-term (Advertising Education Forum
2012, p. 15). According to Marshall and Todd (2010, p. 22-25) and Strasburger et al. (2009, p.
44-46), young people could be clarified into three different types consumer based on their description, which are the primary consumer, the influential consumer and the future consumer.
First, as primary consumer, children is to some extent the autonomous individual who can make decisions independently (Marshall et al. 2010, p. 24; Strasburger et al. 2009, p. 44). Besides, children could satisfy their own needs with its considerable disposable incomes (for example, pocket money or part-time job income) (Strasburger et al. 2009, p. 44). During 35 years (1968-
2007), American child purchasing power has steadily increased, in between, the buying power of children aged 12 grow dramatically from $2.2 billion in 1968 to $42 billion in 2007. In addition, accord with the data of children’s disposable income in some developed countries such as UK and Australia, kids aged under 16 obtained a weekly income around £10 and $10.17 respectively. Further, the total pocket economy in UK and Australia represented £8900 million in 2009 and $1.4 billion in 2013 (Marshall et al. 2010, p. 24; Gibbons 2013). Second, children as the influencer in the family could impact on parental purchase behaviour (Strasburger et al.
2009, p. 45; Marshall et al. 2010, p. 137). Recently, parents are likely to ask for children’s opinion before making the purchase decision (Shin 2018). Also, by utilising various negotiation techniques and pester power, a large proportion of parents shall submit to kids’ consumption
5 needs (Ambler 2007, p. 284). Third, as researchers claimed that exposure a brand in early childhood is crucial to cultivate a loyal relationship and emotional attachments with that brands, a $100,000 potentially worth to the retailer (Boyland & Halford 2013, p. 238). It encouraged marketers to pursue young people as the future consumer while building lifetime relations from childhood, which is also called cradle-to-grave consumer (Strasburger et al. 2009, p. 46). It has been estimated that $15 million was spent in one year to advertising and marketing children by
American business (Shimp & Andrews 2013, p. 95).
6 Young People as Media User
Young people are multitasker who are media savvy consumer actively on both traditional
(television, broadcast, print, etc.) and emerging (social media, website and mobile) media platforms (Advertising Education Forum 2012, p. 26). Due to the convenient access to the internet and personal mobile devices and television owned by kids, business nowadays could target children with commercial messages on both online and offline channels (Marshall et al.
2010, p. 220). In 2017, Children aged under 8 and older than 8 currently cost an average of 2 and 7 hours on screen per day, meanwhile, children are avid user of emerging media, they prefer to spend more time on mobile screen with 48 minutes while nearly half of kids watching television before bedtime (Howard 2017; Marshall et al. 2010, p. 25; Rideout 2014, p. 5).
However, the cognitive capability of the child will develop with age, which refers to children in different age stages will understand media messages in different levels. This process is named cognitive development, raised by Piaget (John 1999, p. 184). John (1999, p. 184) and
Advertising Education Forum (2012, p. 24) both describe cognitive development in articles, in which four stages could be clarified: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. The under below figure demonstrates detailed information of those four stages, in particular, kids in the sensorimotor stage are too little to be discussed.
7 Level of Media Age Characteristic Message Understanding
Sensorimotor 0-2
l In developing symbolic consideration Preoperational l Deeply focusing on (perceptual 3-7 perceptual properties of Low stage) stimuli l Tend to concentrate on single dimension l Considering the stimuli around their environment in Concrete a more thoughtful way. Operational 8-11 l Being able to think several Medium (analytical stage) dimensions, while relating it in a comparatively abstract mode. l Entering into a more adultlike way of thinking. Formal l Being able to complicate Operational 12-Adulthood Mature analysing particular and (reflective stage) speculative conditions and objects.
Figure 1: Four Stages of Cognitive Development
8 Key Communication Tactics-Message
Along with the increasing awareness about commercialised information considered by parents and policymakers, business in recent years is more cautious in reaching young people with marketing contents. Additionally, as numerous children flowed into digital platforms, it brings marketers greater opportunities to appeal children in their everyday life. In general, business adjusted its communication tactics timely in targeting young consumers. In sum, there are two trends could be found, which occurred in marketing within the message and media strategies.
Comprehensively integrating commercial messages with message carrier or medium is one trend when marketers organise advertised contents for the young target (Hudders et al. 2017, p. 333). Throughout the mainstream brand cases, Affective Strategy with Testimonial and
Animation Story Execution Framework is commonly adopted as message strategy when brands communicate with children. Affective message strategy could arouse favourable emotions or feelings from readers while matching those feelings with the brand, product or company (Clow & Baack 2007, p. 202). Testimonial and Animation Story execution framework employ living person or cartoon character to voice the information, which aims at improving the conviction of the message (Ouwersloot & Duncan 2008, p. 179). Coco-Cola, LEGO and most mainstream brands are precisely choosing this strategy to invoke a good feeling and convince the young consumer to purchase related products. Also, there are two general tactics adopted by marketing: product placement (embedded advertising) and cross-promotions
(Rideout 2014，p. 9).
9
Product placement, also named content marketing or branded content, has become a “hot trend” in advertising (Elliott 2013). Instead of characterising a brand in distinct or separate advertising, a large number of companies are now combining their brand logos or products into the programming which targets are watching (movies, television series) or playing (online or offline games) (Rideout 2014, p. 8). Notably, young people are exposed intensively on food and beverage associated placements among television and film categorised product placement
(Speers, Harris & Schwartz 2011, p. 292). The company such as Coco-Cola accounted 15% of all product placements that emerged on television in 2008, 70 per cent of which was viewed by children. Since Coco-Cola placed coke in movie-E.T in 1982 which brought a $1,127 million benefit for the company (Reyes 2012), Coco Cola then spent then times on embracing embedded advertising instead of direct marketing in recent decade (Harris et al. 2013, p. 161).
Coco-Cola’s product placement cases will show in Appendix. Cross-promotions means advertisers utilise cartoon characters, sports stars or celebrities who are famous in young consumer group with promotion activities or printing it on the product package to finally boost the sales or build a favourable relations with targets (Rideout 2013, p. 9; Boyland & Harfold
2013, p. 238). LEGO movie is the latest case which wisely combines the cartoon characters with its brand features-the brick. LEGO as a well-known toy manufacturer cooperates with DC
Comics and Minrage Studios while licensing the cartoon characters-Bet Man and Ninjago in
LEGO series movies to tight the connection with youth marketing (Schmidt 2014).
10 Key Communication Tactic-Media
Embracing digital media to penetrate children’s everyday life with the business message is another trend in youth marketing. Following the growth of children spending time online, business then seizes this trend while promoting brand and product for children through digital platforms (Rideout 2014, p. 5). Familiar tools such as advergame, social networking sites and mobile marketing are now highly utilised in marketing communications (Rideout 2014, p. 9).
It is worth note that those platforms were to some extent integrated its functions and achieved a maximum effect of digital promotions.
To be specific, advergame is a form of combination between game and brand which enjoys a high prevalence by both the young people and the company (Advertising Education Forum
2012, p. 31). It offers the child a fun and immersive playing experience; likewise, for marketing, it is a cost-effective tool in term of attracting target market with frequent exposure time, in- depth memory and additionally the brand loyalty toward the brand (Hernandez & Chapa 2010, p. 10). Due to the popularity and young players’ willingness to share advergame with their mates, social networking sites, for instance, the Facebook, My Space and Twitter shall function as a crucial platform for advergame (Hofmeister-Tóth and Nagy 2011, p. 15).
Normally, the advergame will supply the link on the game’s page, which allows children sharing it into Facebook page with peers. According to the research done by Green et al. in
2011 (cited by Advertising Education Forum 2010, p. 33), there are nearly 40 per cent children aged 9 to 16 using Facebook actively. A further prediction could be more players will flow into
11 advergame space after browsing the information on social media shared by peers. Food marketing is the top three industry that merged advergames into its marketing tactics
(Advertising Education Forum 2010, p. 31). Companies involving McDonald’s, Froot Loops and Red Bull are all implementing advergame on the internet. McDonald’s also design a site
‘Ronald.com’ which is particularly for reaching preschoolers (Marketing food to children 2013).
Besides, a large number of food brand’s advergames will post the social media link on the webpage (Appendix 2).
12 Key Concern About the Tactics
Summarize the key tactics that implemented by the business, product placement or embedded brand message is a mainstream approach which incorporates with various tactics on both online and offline spaces. The critical debate is that the embedded marketing contents will blur children’s cognitive knowledge. Also, it will improve the difficulty of distinguishing the distinction between advertising and entertainment (Marshall 2010, p. 221). From children’s perspective, their attention mainly focus on the entertained content when they watch the TV program or play online games, which raises the engagement and reduces the scrutiny of commercial contents (Uribe & García 2017, p. 932). Some scholars also doubt the ‘fairness’ of promoting embedded messages to the young consumer who are unable to oppose implied persuasion (Marshall 2010, p. 214; Uribe & García 2017, p. 932). Even for the adult audience, processing an embedded brand message is harder than the traditional one. Children’s cognitive capability, however, is in developing through the whole childhood, the situation is thus more complicated for them to understand the persuasive function of the brand message (Uribe &
García 2017, p. 932).
Moreover, because of food company relies on the variety of different communication strategies to appeal young people (Coco-Cola and McDonald’s). Likewise, children could not adequately recognise the persuasive purposes of the brand message (Hudders 2017, p. 333). Thus, parents are considering that over-commercialised youth marketing may result in the obsession with obesity for their child (Marshall & Todd 2010, p. 211). Except the long exposure time of food
13 brand in children’s life, the key debate around food marketing is that most foods advertising are HFSS (high in fat, sugar and salt), which is branded to kids and teens utilizing favorable cartoon characters and themes of joy (Boyland & Halford 2013, p. 240). Also, these adverts have been demonstrated to lead to noticeable growths in daily intake, specifically in obese and overweight kids. It will further cause children’s unnormal diet habit if they intake too many snacks rather than regular meals (Boyland & Halford 2013, p. 236). Lacking capability to distinguish the persuasive messages cause children a vulnerable position among the whole consumer segment. Therefore, youth marketing should be paid more attention by the society.
14 Recommendation
Based on research and discussion the above tactics and the debates exist in youth marketing, business in recent years comprehensively integrates various communication strategies with both traditional and new media platforms. However, the policy-making of protecting children from unethical advertising lacks normal standards in different countries. Also, the research and analysis on emerging media is not as sufficient for the public sector to understand the situation and develop related metrics to measure young people exposure to that sort of advertising
(Rideout 2014, p. 15). Parents and schools as young people’s guardian who are spontaneously possessing the sense to guide children. But, along with the quickly changed digital world, they may not have the up-to-date knowledge to educate the child. Thus, it requires policymaker and marketer taking relative actions to protect young consumers.
Suggestions for policy maker are: First, the efficiency of the restriction on HFSS food marketing should be strengthened. Although some countries such as the UK have launched statutory legislation for restricting HFSS food advertising around programming specially produced for children under 16, the researchers find that unhealthy food advertising is still exposed to a longer time than the healthy one viewed by children (Boylan & Halford 2013, p.
237). Second, policymakers should promote the research (based on countries) on children at what age could effectively recognise the branded message, and then, they need accelerate the process of formulating certain age scale for the advertising industry. Take advergame as an example, if the policy requires that marketing could not promote branded message for children
15 under 12, they can offer particular contents for kids by asking the users’ age when they enter the game sites. In addition, there is increasing evidence showing that parental engagement will assist to protect young people online (Advertising Education Forum 2012, p.23), hence, the third recommendation for policy maker is that they should enhance the cooperation with researchers and academics by offering continual sources of information to pursue the up-to- date researches on emerging marketing. Then they can share those findings with children’s guardians who desire that knowledges to assist the child. Finally, the public sector could also employ skilful marketing techniques as a tool to promote positive contents for young people on both the traditional and new media platforms (Advertising Education Forum 2012, p. 12).
Meanwhile, because of cartoon character could easily appeal children’s attention, they can also create characters to convey ideas such as what is advertising, how to distinguish branded message and balanced diet, exercise and learning.
Further recommendation for the marketer is that except the passive adjustments promoted by external pressure and civil society, marketing should enhance the industry’s self-regulation as well. In spite of some criticisms maintain suspicion of self-regulation alone, it is still the most likely way to supervise the industry (Advertising Education Forum 2012, p. 52). To be specific, senior marketers could raise youth marketing ethics as a crucial reference in professional ethics examination when recruiting employees. Although it may not bring a significant improvement at the moment, it shall encourage employees to keep the professional ethics in mind in the long run, because it is a crucial reference to decide whether they can join in the marketing communication industry.
16 Bibliography
Advertising Formats: A Future Research Agenda’, Journal of Advertising, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 333-349.
Ambler, T 2007, ‘Response to ‘International Food Advertising, Pester Power and Its Effects’, International Journal of Advertising , vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 283– 286.
Boyland, E & Halford, JCG 2013, ‘Television advertising and branding. Effects on eating behaviour and food preferences in children’, Appetite, vol. 62, pp. 236-241.
Clow, KE & Baack D 2007, Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications, Pearson Education, New Jersey.
Elliott, S 2013, Using ‘sponsored content’ to keep viewers watching, viewed 30th May 2018,
Gibbones, S 2013, Commonwealth Bank Media Release, viewed 1st June 2018,
Harris, JL, Weinberg, M, Javadizadeh, J & Sarda, V 2013, Monitoring food company marketing to children to spotlight best and worst practices, Springer, New York.
Hernandez, MD & Chapa, S 2010, ‘Adolescents, advergames and snack foods: Effects of positive aspect and experience on memory and choice’, Journal of Marketing Communications, vol. 16, no. 1-2, pp. 10.
Howard, J 2017, Kids under 9 spend more than 2 hours a day on screen, report shows, viewed 30th May 2018,
Hofmeister-Tóth A & Nagy, P 2011, ‘The content analysis of advergames in Hungary.’, Qualitative Market Research, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 15.
Hudders, L, De Pauw, P, Cauberghe, V, Panic, K, Zarouali, B & Rozendaal, E 2017, ‘Shedding New Light on How Advertising Literacy Can Affect Children's Processing of Embedded Advertising Formats: A Future Research Agenda’, Journal of Advertising, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 333-349.
17 John, DR 1999, ‘Consumer socialization of children: A retrospective look at twenty-five years of research’, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 26, pp. 183-213.
Marketing food to children| Anna Lappe 2013, video recording, TEDxManhattan, the United States.
Marshall, DW & Todd, SJ 2010, Understanding Children as Consumers, SAGE, London. Advertising Education Forum 2012, Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review, viewed 30th May 2018, < http://www.aeforum.org/gallery/8612144.pdf>
Ouwersloot, H & Duncan, T 2008, Integrated Marketing Communications, McGraw-Hill.
Reyes E 2012, The History of Coco-Cola in the Movies, viewed 30th May 2018,
Rideout V 2014, Advertising to Children and Teens: Current Practices, viewed 31st May 2018,
Schmidt, G 2013, Lego Builds an Empire, Brick by Brick, viewed 1st June 2018,
Strasburger, VC, Wilson, BJ & Jordan, AB 2014, Children, Adolescents, and the Media, Sage, London.
Shin W 2018, video recording, University of Melbourne, Melbourne.
Shimp TA & Andrews JC 2013, Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, Cengage Learning, Mason.
Speers, S, Harris, J & Schwartz, M 2011, ‘Child and adolescent exposure to food and beverage brand appearances during prime-time television programming’. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 291-296.
Uribe, R & García, AF 2017, ‘Comparing children's explicit and implicit understanding of advertising and placement on TV’, International Journal of Advertising, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 928-944.
18 Appendix
Appendix 1 Coco-Cola Product Placement
Coco-Cola in American Idol
19 Coco-Cola in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
20 Coco-Cola in Animation Movie
21 Appendix 2 Advergame with social network link
Coco-Cola
Burger King
22 Kizi-online game
Fanta
23 Red Bull
24