Brandchild: Remarkable Insights into the Minds of Today's Global Kids and Their Relationship with Brands - Softcover

"Unless there are issues, parents usually stop reading parenting books long before their children hit the middle-single digits. The desire wanes with confidence - or they're just too worn out. But "Brandchild" (Kogan Page Ltd., London, 316 pages, $39.95) isn't for parents. Martin Lindstrom's book, which he wrote with Patricia B. Seybold, is for companies targeting tweens. As I read it, I realized it held my interest because I'm a parent of a tween. The 8-to-14 generation, which the author says is the richest in history, gets to choose from "an endless variety of disposable goods and leisure products designed specifically for them."

""Unless there are issues, parents usually stop reading parenting books long before their children hit the middle-single digits. The desire wanes with confidence - or they're just too worn out. But ""Brandchild"" (Kogan Page Ltd., London, 316 pages, $39.95) isn't for parents. Martin Lindstrom's book, which he wrote with Patricia B. Seybold, is for companies targeting tweens. As I read it, I realized it held my interest because I'm a parent of a tween. The 8-to-14 generation, which the author says is the richest in history, gets to choose from ""an endless variety of disposable goods and leisure products designed specifically for them.""

Welcome to the world of tweens – children aged between 8-14 who have a totally new take on brands. They can tell Gucci from Prada a mile away. They shun any brand that they perceive lacks authenticity. They will not tolerate anything that talks down to them, and embrace irony and humor with glee. They’re adept with every sort of electronic gizmo, are passionate about the environment, and they love to shop!

Martin Lindstrom joined forces with international marketing research company Millward Brown, and they spent a year interviewing, analyzing and researching how this new generation spends their money and their relationship with brands. BRANDchild is the result of this global study that spanned 14 countries and took 600 people a year to carry out. BRANDchild documents this most brand-savvy generation that’s ever existed.

Almost every aspect of today’s tween-ager is different from what we have seen among past generations. They’ve grown up faster, are more connected, more direct and more informed. They have more personal power, more money, influence and attention than any other generation before them. No other generation has ever had as much disposable income as this one. So it’s no coincidence that this emerging generation has become powerful enough to have a specific allotment in every marketing director’s budget.

Across the world, kids between the ages of 8 and 12 are in control of two trillion dollars a year. In fact close to an 80 per cent of all brands purchased by their parents is heavily influenced by their offspring. An astounding 67 per cent even influence the decision parents make when purchasing the family car.

Tweens are unique. They’re the first generation born with a computer screen as their window on the world, and a mouse to navigate. They communicate weekly, if not daily, with friends in many countries. As in their access to the Internet, they expect brands to be available 24/7. They present marketing departments with their greatest challenges yet. The way to appeal to a generation that likes to discover things themselves and don’t want to be preached to. Messages have to be subtle, sophisticated and yet also appeal to the child within them.

Some companies have risen admirably to the challenge. Take Jones Soda Company for example. Peter van Stolk founded the Jones Soda Co in 1996. He felt that tweens might accept a new soda brand if they felt they had discovered it themselves. For this reason Jones Soda Co initially established what they called an alternative distribution strategy. The drinks were always placed in their own cooler bearing their signature flames. The coolers were placed in unique venues: skate, surf and snowboarding shops, tattoo and piercing parlours, individual fashion stores, national retail clothing chains and music shops. These are all places where tweens tend to hang out, making the association between brand and place a positive one.
Another company that tapped into this exclusive club of tween-agers is the surfing brand Billabong. Initially Billabong was promoted exclusively in Australia, and despite the fact that almost no advertising money was spent internationally, it became well known among surfer communities all over the world.
Not only did Billabong tap directly into a surf-fashion aesthetic, it also managed to appeal to a very clear, very well-defined peer group that gathers on beaches and loves to ride waves. The Billabong brand helped the surf community create a very strong identity never seen before.
It is clear that the larger the ownership the tween audience feels for the brand, the stronger their loyalty. And as BRANDchild will reveal, gaining the loyalty of this new generation can be quite mercurial.