As a non-profit administrator with degrees in social work and public administration, I know NOTHING about marketing or branding. But I am rapidly learning, since my job description for running a small non-profit includes the roles of Chief Financial Officer, HR Director, VP of Fundraising, Clinical Director, and yes - Marketing Director. I've spent the past two weekends at a crash course in marketing at the University of Georgia's Continuing Education program. The class really made me see brand recognition in a whole new light, especially when we played a game that required us to draw two random cards featuring well known brands and present a brief plan on what would happen if the two brands crossed. The most entertaining presentation crossed John Deere and Weight Watchers - I kid you not.
But understanding more about how marketing folks target me made me think about how they are targeting my kids as well. Even though they can't read yet, my kids can very easily recognize logos for products such as their favorite cereals, Dora the Explorer yogurts (no - they don't even WATCH the show, but they love the yogurt!), Baby Einstein products (yes - they do watch the shows, but hey - now they recognize the books and flashcards too!), the Chick-Fil-A cows, and even Home Depot and Publix. They aren't old enough yet to respond to the Saturday morning cartoon commercials, but they can make a pretty convincing case in the store for Dora over the Publix generic yogurt cups. A 2005 University of Michigan article states that small children have a $50 BILLION annual influence over their parent's spending. No wonder companies spend so much time trying to figure out how to get inside the mystical minds of tots! That explains why anyone at Pepperidge Farm ever thought that rainbow colored goldfish were a good idea.
One of the reigning brand kings is Google, where my husband had the good fortune of interning this summer for his MBA program. Google hands out swag to employees like other companies hand out business cards, so in just three months he amassed a pretty impressive collection of t-shirts, water bottles, notepads, keychains, and every other product known to man. But still, imagine my surprise when this morning my TWO YEAR OLD pointed at dad's tshirt and said, "Is that Gooble, Daddy?".
Now THAT'S brand recognition.
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Great topic. In grad school, one of my areas of interest was Social Marketing (same concept, slightly different goal), so this is certainly an issue that hits home for me. If you haven't already, you should definitely check out the Merchants of Cool--it was a Frontline documentary about how the multibillion dollar marketing industry has its hands in trend setting among teens and pre-teens. Pretty scary stuff, actually. If your little one is already pointing out "Gooble", it's a must-see for you. Netflix?
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