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However, there has been other media regressively emerging as a potential medium to reach children, Elizabeth Moore (2004) affirms that in-school marketing and packaging design are also potential tools for marketing children. TV ADVERTISING Television remains as the most effective media to reach children. In the United States there is evidence that children watch television commercial for approximately five hours per week having access to as many as 25,000 commercials in a year. Moore, 2004) Recent studies revealed that teens watch TV as the single most important source of product information Lindquist and Seafood, 2003) Television commercials help children to create brand awareness in several product categories and also to create potentially opinion on them. EMERGING MEDIA Nowadays new media represents prospective ways to reach children and enhance brand communication.
Studies of media use suggest that other tools as the internet and print advertising used to reach children are supplementing Television rather than dispatching it (Montgomery, 2001) Moreover, advertising for individual brands now frequently appear in more than one media, capitalizing on the specific advantages of the different immunization channels. (Moore, 2004) THE INTERNET The internet lately has been considered as the emerging media to reach children and it represents a clear opportunity for advertisers.
According to the US Department Education (2003) approximately 88% of children between 5 and 14 years old use computers, and 53% have access to the internet. Estimates suggest that 98% of children’s sites now permit advertising, and that more than two thirds of internet sites designed for children rely on advertising as their primary revenue stream (Newborn, 2001). Children are ready consumers of these marketing communications (Moore, 2004). Approximately 64% of children between 5 and 14 years old; who access the internet, do so to play games (U.
S. Department of Education, 2003) A derivate of this communication strategy are the “advertises” that are now common on websites designed and visited by children. Those tools encourage children to play the games while reinforcing their brand awareness and their visits to the websites full of brand messages. Moreover, the information obtained from the website are not conceived as an advertising but as an own direct experience with the product (Klein, 2003).
So, it is more worth for companies to engage children’s attention for several minutes with this cheaper and interactive medium rather than TV commercials (Moore, 2004) MEDIA CONVERGENCE As the media scenario for children has diversified, the division between entertainment and advertising has become progressively unclear. “Marketing communications targeted at children are thus more integrated than in the past: advertising, entertainment and the brand experience reinforce the flow onto one another” (Moore, 2004) The use of entertainment and image creation in the development of television commercials has been increasing.
The implementation of brand characters in all types of advertisements is often used by marketers that want to appeal to children (Moore, 2004) The appearance of children’s magazines sponsored by advertisers generally include puzzles, games and comics. Besides, this is also truth for commercially sponsored websites. Moreover, promotional tie-ins or a placement in movies is also a sign of the convergence of the two: entertainment and advertising.
LIMITATIONS Advertising to children is not an easy work for companies; it involves several issues since this market posses unique characteristics. According to Winston Fletcher, “advertising to children is simply quite unlike advertising to any other group of the population. ” The fact that no other market changes as rapidly as children and besides present a high level of fragmentation represents a challenging issue for advertisers. When you advertise children you are not specifically targeting a purchaser; moreover, the purchaser will rarely use the advertised product.