Alright tween parents, brace yourselves! The Intelligence Group’s newest Cassandra Report on tweens and marketing is one that will shock you. They found that children ages 7-12 are “extremely influential” when it comes to big and small household purchases and they’re armed with information to back up their opinions.
If you have a tween living in your house, I’m pretty sure you already know this. The information was gathered for marketers (probably those that don’t have children) but let’s look it over from a parent’s perspective.
74% of tweens would rather work for themselves than work for someone else. Are they talking about currently or in the future? My tween already thinks she should make her own rules about how and when she does chores. Which leads to the next finding, 56% of tweens want instant gratification. This statistic bothers me the most. Are we rewarding our children after each and every task they accomplish? Are we creating a generation that expects rewards right away? Stop and think about the way that you are providing incentives for your children. Do you give them a project that takes a long time to accomplish and multiple steps or simple tasks?
I LOVE this statistic: 41% of tween girls would rather make something themselves than buy it. Perhaps it should be a little higher but for now I’m happy that our girls are giving innovation a chance.
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Tween parents say their child’s opinion counts when it comes to what movie to see (55%), what food to buy (29%), personal care products (26%), family vacations (27%), and technology (23%). Oh I know this too well. My tween has already decided she prefers one toothpaste brand over another and requests that we only purchase her preferred brand…sigh! Our tweens aren’t making uninformed decisions. 31% of them are visiting online stores and 28% are shopping online. There’s no statistic on the number of tweens who use the internet before influencing a parents purchase but I would venture to say its a high number.
Another number I like: 27% of tweens would like to see more people like themselves in ads. There is no explanation for what “people like themselves” means but I’d like to think they’re referring to a more ethnically diverse tween with realistic body shape. Yes, I’d like to see that too.
Our tweens rule our worlds. They tell us what to watch, eat, travel to and more. Is it bad that we are raising an opinionated, technologically savvy generation? I don’t think it is as long as we put parameters in place and discipline accordingly.
What do you think? Are we letting our tweens influence our lives too much?
Abrazos,
