Marketing to children can be profitable, but you need to tread carefully when swimming in those waters. There's no doubt that children do have some spending power, whether that's directly through an allowance or birthday money, and they do influence family spending. However, most young children aren't able to differentiate between an advertising message and one that's fact. If you are directly marketing to kids, there may be criticism surrounding your campaign.

In particular, many people are critical of snack food companies that target marketing campaign to kids. With the current obesity epidemic, it's easy to see why.

If you want to successfully target marketing to kids:

1. Think like a kid. Successful niche advertising to children should begin with understand what kids want. Kids want to have fun. Your product should reflect that.

2. Make your advertising repetitive. Kids need to see an advertisement several times before they will start begging their parents for the product. When marketing to kids, you should make sure that kids see your message often.

3. Also target the parents. While children do influence family spending habits, parents make the ultimate decision. You are not just advertising to kids. You are advertising to parents.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Attend a conference to learn about a marketing campaign to children

Conferences allow you to network with other professionals and learn the latest techniques in reaching children. Even if you have to travel to attend a conference, it is often worth the amount of money you'll spend.

I recommend: The International Quality & Productivity Centre hosts a yearly conference called Kid Power, which discusses trends and successful attempts at targeted advertising to kids. The Youth Marketing Mashup, by YPulse focuses on the tween and teen markets.

Look for reports about marketing to kids

Market reports can be particularly helpful when creating an advertising campaign. In most cases, they'll let you know current trends and demographics within your target market. Market research companies handle the research so you can focus on your own product.

I recommend: Direct offers a free special report on marketing to children. You can also purchase a number of research reports through MarketResearch.com.

Let the experts take care of targeted marketing to children

You want the money that you spend on an advertising campaign to give you a return on your investment. It may be wise to talk to a marketing consultant or advertising firm in order to create a campaign that is for children.

I recommend: Fuse specializes in the youth market and can help with consulting on how to market your product or youth event. YMS also works in youth marketing and they can consult on your project or hold trainings in marketing to kids. "Advergames" mix advertising to kids with games; Skyworks is a pioneer game developer in the field. Child's Play Communications specializes in targeted marketing to children for toys and food.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Most people view direct marketing to kids as negative. If you want to reach your target market, try to create a product that both kids and parents will like. Toys that are both fun and educational are almost always popular.

While they don’t actually have any of their own, kids still spend money. Lots of it, in fact. So much so that companies spend more than $15 billion advertising to them every year.

Smart small businesses recognize the importance of their youngest customers; they look at children and see consumers who not only have a large impact on their families’ purchase decisions, but who will one day have families of their own on which to spend money. Smart marketers, meanwhile, realize that children never change. Despite constant advances in technology and mass media, they know that kids will always respond to the same basic motivations:

1. The desire to be entertained and have fun
2. The desire to be popular with their friends
3. The desire to be both different from and the same as others

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Be kid-friendly

In order to successfully market to kids, you must first create a product that they’ll love. Kids tend to respond most favorably to products with which they can engage and which fuel their imagination; they like to feel grown up, to interact with their toys, and to bend the rules with interesting colors, flavors, etc.

I recommend: Focus groups are a great way to find out how real kids will respond to your product and your marketing. Springboard Marketing and Just Kid Inc. are two market research companies that specialize in finding out what kids actually think.

Pay attention to packaging

Despite the old adage, kids still judge books by their covers. If you want to sell something to them, make sure it comes in a pretty package. Kids respond well to bright colors, unique textures and interesting shapes.

I recommend: Consider hiring a graphic designer to help you create fun packaging that will grab children’s attention. You can connect with freelance designers, and get bids from them, at iFreelance.com, or you can hire a professional agency, such as Creation Network or WonderGroup.

Go where the kids are

It doesn’t make sense to market to kids in adult spaces. Instead, market within toy stores, movie theaters, theme parks and sweet shops—anywhere that kids might be most likely to encounter your message.

I recommend: Perhaps the easiest place to find kids is in schools. Partner with an in-school marketing firm such as Scholastic InSchool Marketing to find out how to responsibly and effectively put your message in front of students.

Mind your media

Study different media—Internet, television and print advertising—and spend your marketing dollars wisely in order to reach the widest audience of children (and parents) possible.

I recommend: Television persists as one of the most effective vehicles for advertising, particularly to children. Call your local cable provider—Comcast, for instance, or Time Warner Cable—to inquire about buying ads on networks such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, or during children’s programming on network TV.

Build loyalty

Children are big on brands. As such, marketing to them will prove much easier and more effective when you aim to build brand recognition and loyalty among your youngest customers.

I recommend: Kids respond well to logos and mascots, which give your brand a visual identity and personality. Companies like Sosfactory specialize in creating characters and design concepts with which to illustrate your brand, while software solutions such as The Logo Creator help you do it yourself.

Market to Mom and Dad, too

Kids don’t have the cash; their parents do. So while you must sell the kids on the products, you must also sell their folks on the purchase. Do just that by being cost-sensitive and by communicating a good value in your sales pitches.

I recommend: Parents tend to get behind products that are not only fun for their kids, but teach them things, too. Take a cue from children’s experts at PBS Kids and Sesame Workshop and talk up the educational benefits of your product.

Be responsible

When marketing to kids, be especially sensitive to your message and manner of presentation. Using controversial words or images to sell your stuff to children will end up hurting sales more than helping them.

I recommend: If you’re marketing to children, consider committing to the Childern's Advertising Review Unit Self-Regulatory Program for Children’s Advertising (PDF file), a voluntary set of guidelines for ethically marketing to kids.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If it’s not fun, kids won’t be interested in it. That goes not only for your product, but also for your marketing.
• •  Make your marketing more relevant to kids by using age-appropriate language and by never talking down to them.
• •  Think of marketing as an investment. By catering to children, you will help your company’s image and drive repeat traffic among parents looking for businesses they can trust.
• •  Target children slightly older than those you’re truly after, as kids tend to look up to their older peers.
• •  Because kids are social creatures, your advertisements should always show them interacting in groups.
• •  Make sure kids can see your advertisements; that means placing in-store ads, posters, etc., at their eye level.
• •  Diversity is necessary in order to teach children tolerance, but it’s also an effective tool for marketing to them. Because children identify most with messages in which they see themselves, it’s important to represent children of different gender, race, size and background.