Tap into pester power of tweens says expert

By IRENE CHAPPLE

New Zealand advertisers must tune into the "tween" wavelength or miss out on millions in untapped spending power, says branding expert Martin Lindstrom.

According to his book Brandchild, tweens - described as aged 9 to 14 - spent US$1.88 trillion ($3.2 trillion) worldwide last year.

The tweens are the generation brought up with access to unlimited information via the internet, who are technologically savvy and who have far more power over their parents' spending habits than advertisers realise.

Lindstrom, in Auckland to speak at the Direct Marketing Association conference and to promote his book, says New Zealand marketers are slack at promoting to tweens.

And that is despite evidence that New Zealand tweens are some of the most technologically advanced in the world.

"Japan, Australia and New Zealand are the most advanced in terms of adapting and using and changing their language," says Lindstrom.

He is referring to what he calls "tween-speak", the icon-driven language created through the global interaction of tweens.

Kiwi tweens are not just communicating with one another via the internet, they are nagging their parents, too.

Parents ask their tweens for advice on purchases such as games, telephones and videos.

Millward Brown, the market research agency which researched the book and employed 500 staff on the project for a year, also found 67 per cent of tweens are choosing what car their parents drive.

Pester power, in other words, is huge business.

"Companies in New Zealand are not very aware of pester power," says Denmark-born Lindstrom. "It's almost like they deny it exists or try to avoid it because it is seen as politically incorrect."

He says marketers overseas include tweens in their advertising, but fewer than 5 per cent in New Zealand consider targeting children when promoting an adult brand.

"There has been some past here about the ethics of communicating with kids ... a lot of marketers are concerned about it."

Lindstrom emphasises the importance of ethics when promoting products to tweens, but points out that peer pressure to buy certain brands is just as strong in countries which ban advertising to children.

Remaining coy about advertising to children is simply not smart business, but capturing their attention is not easy either.

Once the message is identified, marketers need to negotiate the clutter and access the tweens.

One way to do this, says Lindstrom, is through virtual worlds and gaming.

BRANDchild