Tweens

My definition of 'Tween': They are a group of young children from the ages of 6 to about 12. They are not quite kids however, no where near adults or teenargers. They tend to follow the crowd and they are easily influenced.

Web Definition: A tween is a child between the ages of 9 and 12. A tween is no longer a little child, but not quite a teenager. While a tween is not yet in the midst of adolescence, he or she will face a variety of obstacles in the next few years including transitioning from elementary school to middle school, approaching puberty, increasing responsibilities, increasing amounts of homework, and exposure to dangerous behaviors by their peers including drugs, sex, and more.

http://tweenparenting.about.com/od/tweenculture/g/TweenDefinition.htm



Nowadays, parenting has changed significantly when it comes to their children's leisure and education. More people now can afford private education, children are more demanding meaning parents result to spending more money on toys, clothes, gadgets and food. There is this sort of feeling where parents want to give their children what they could not have or never had. Therefore there is this new trend where parents even compete with other parents on who gives the best for their children.

Another reason why this occurs is the feeling of guilt. A Television Program called 'Jo Frost: Extreme Parenting Guidance' on E4 shows the struggles within parenting where children begin to control their parents and need a behaviour change. The particular Episode I had watched was about a mother spending thousands of pounds for her 9 year old daughter by buying designer clothing and now having to resort to selling her house. A survey was done in the show, where most parents spoilt their children due to guilt for not being home as much as they liked or not spending enough family time together.





What Tweens are interested in:
-The best brands out there (e.g. best brand of trainers)
-Perfume and make up
-Princesses and heroes (knights, batman etc)
-Food
-Best stationary
-Best technology (nintendos DS, Wii, XBOX, Plasma TV)
-Being stylish (best clothes, best bedrooms)
etc.

Businesses and marketers have caught on to this trend and now have a market dedicated to the Tween generation. Toys alone, add up to a £2.2 bn industry. (Mintel) This means making their products appealing to that age range. Bright colours, bold text, funny advertisements,easy to understand advertisements or even an advert that would suggest that the child would be cool after buying the product are all factors which would encourage a tween to want the product. At this age, they tend to want to look cool and stand out. The most critical factor into making a product the 'it' product is the tween version of 'word-of-mouth' advertising which is called 'alphapups' which is where specific children in the palyground are the greatest influence on others.

Some of the biggest companies in which play in the Tweens market include Disney, BarryM makeup, Addidas, Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers and more. This link below shows just how much of an influence Hannah Montana is to the tween nation today. The Article claims to have crowned her the 'New Queen of Tween', following the footsteps of the Olsen Twins. It shows how she has landed on the Billboard's list of the 20 top earning artists of 2007 and with the Number 11 spot adding up to $64 million solely from her CD sales and tour receipts. Disney now has launched 140 items of Hannah Montana Merchandise which inlcude clothes, watches bedding, luggage, shoes, make up, spa kits and toys.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23051344/



Different MARCOMS methods used in order to reach the Tween market include print ads in children's magazines such as Shout, Sugar, Girl Power, Mania, Little Angel, etc. Radio television also occurs on local radio stations as well as big nation-wide ones. This usually occurs when a movie is coming out or when concert tickets are on sale or able to be won. Although tweens don't usually sit there and listen to the radio, they do however, go in and out of rooms where perhaps their older sibling or parent are listening to it. Here, they are able to hear the advert or even the parent may take note and compete for their child. Billboards and posters are big especially when a movie is coming out, children on their way to the city for a day of shopping can see this from the car or even around the local town.

Pester Power is now largely used my tweens in order for their parents to get them what they want. Below is a definition from the Cambridge dictionary online:

pester power noun

the ability that children have to make their parents buy something, by asking for it many times until they get it

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=1087785

Tweens now know that if their parents say no to buying something; they have to behave nicely so their parents will acknowledge it and then buy them the product. Parents tend to give in to PESTER power as they feel it will shut their kids up or beleive the reasons why the child wants it for example 'Every other child on the playground having it'.



The video above, is an advert for Barbie beach dolls. The way in which this ad would relate to a tween is firstly, the girl driving the car is on quite a teenager yet, but not a child. The vibe of the advert makes the barbies look cool, and as if they have having a blast. TV shows such as Laguna Beach and the Hills relate to this. Tweens would have watched these shows and seen that hanging out on a beach wearing bikinis and drinking is cool so barbie as followed through with the advert.



Usually, the tweens favourite music groups include famouse disney singers or singers who started off in a Disney program. Some include the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens and more. One very popular singer currently started off on Youtube, which too, children go on these days. His name is Justin Bieber, he was found by the famous RnB artist, Usher and is now on the top of the billboards and charts around the world. Below was Justin's first single which straight away brought him to the top of the charts. Tweens all over the world are now in love with the new star. In this video, Justin uses the iphone, which may result to tweens asking their parents for that very phone.



I feel that advertising to tweens is relatively safe, if regulated carefully. They tend to be easily influenced which means advertising products such as McDonalds or other unhealthy products are and should remain heavily regulated. McDonalds is not allowed to me advertised on children's television channels any more. Using a young teenager or a child to advertise is different, on the other hand. It is harmless up to the stage where the child is put under enormous pressure to behave in an acceptable way because so many young fans look up to them. At the end of the day, they are human as well, and too, grow up and make mistakes. Two examples of this include the famouse Zoey101 star on Nickelodeon; Jamie Lynn Spears (sister of Britney Spears). She was a role model for a lot of tweens around the world but fell pregnant and now has lost her acting job.

Another, is Miley Cyrus' leaked images on the internet which portray her in a sexual way. http://www.celebrity-gossip.net/celebrities/hollywood/miley-cyrus-faces-more-leaked-pics-204770 This link includes an article and a short video on the leaked images.


Above: Miley Cyrus' Vanity Fair picture.