Current marketing issues and contemporary challenges

Marketing for Children

It is futile to state that the modern day business community is anything but dynamic, fierce and highly competitive. In order to cope with the emergent requirements of both market and industry, economic agents develop and implement a wide series of strategic courses of action. A department which is currently being offered intense attention is the marketing one, through which organizations strive to increase their customer base.

A recent issue within the marketing community refers to the practice of marketing to children. Just like with any other target market, the scope of marketing to children is that of enlarging the number of organizational clients, practice which has proved rather successful. McDonalds has been a triumphant implementer of this strategy and the most relevant example is offered by the attractiveness of the fast food giant's birthday parties. Nevertheless, there is also a problem associated with the practice of marketing to children -- that of the morality of the practice, especially when the activities are expected to negatively influence the child's future development. The legislation in the sense of protecting children from being targeted by corporations has yet to be fully developed and applied. Nevertheless, it is now rather clear that the practice is frowned upon and McDonald's again offers the example, through their decision to no longer include children within their advertisements.

While the issue has been placed under an ethically grey area, fact remains that marketing to children can present real benefits in terms of sales. The first step is that of creating an advertisement likely to attract the attention of the young audience; in many cases, psychologists specialized in children development will assist the marketing team in creating the most attractive campaign. Then, it is pivotal to promote the advertisements through the media channels which appeal to the young consumers; examples could refer to the inclusion of the ads within morning programs for children or in comic books. This process is expected to set the motion for the future events -- (a) the children will receive the message from the manufacturer and, as susceptible to influence as they are, they will desire to purchase the product; (b) the children will send the message further to the parents, and most likely, will influence a favorable purchase decision; (c) the advertised item is bought; (d) the child uses it for a limited period of time, if at all; (e) the company registers increased levels of sales and organizational profits.

The implicit effect of marketing to children is that of enhancing the customer base by adding a new, young and easily impressionable audience. In terms of the children however, the impacts are of a less positive nature. The first revolves around enhanced perceptions of the material world. Children become more and more aware of the existence of things and manifest desires to possess the items they see on advertisements. Secondly, children perceive themselves as being socially inferior if they do not possess the items advertised, especially in comparison to the peers who do own the respective items (Clay, 2000).