Pester Power
Katie Bastian
What do Toyota cars and children under the driving age have in common? A lot more than you might expect.
In the past decade, marketers have realized that kids are key players in household purchase decisions. Little ones have more influence over purchases from food to cars than ever before.
According to a national survey called, “Nag Factor,” commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream:
• “55% of kids surveyed said they are usually successful in getting their parents to give in (to their nagging for a
product they want).”
• Children affect over 60% of the family’s market purchases.
• American children aged 12 to 17 will ask their parents for advertised products an average of nine times until the
parents finally give in.
• Babies as young as six months old can form mental images of corporate logos and mascots.
• Brand loyalties can be established as early as two years old.
With that said, Toyota seems to be on the right track with their latest marketing strategy. The car maker teamed up with Whyville.net, an educational online community of kids ages 8-15, who create their own personas and interact with other visitors, for a virtual promotion of its Scion model.
Members of Whyville.net, a.k.a. “Whyvillians,” earn “clams,” the currency of Whyville.net, by playing educational games. After the launch of this new campaign, hundreds of virtual Scions were purchased using the “clams.” The new virtual Scion owners could custom design their new cars, and drive around the virtual Whyville and pick up their Scion-less friends for a ride, according to an article about this promotion published in the New York Times.
Toyota says the campaign is working. Ten days into the campaign, visitors to the site used the word “Scion” in online chats more than 78,000 times and the community meeting place, “Club Scion,” was visited 33,741 times.
According to Matthew Diamond, the chief executive of Alloy Media and Marketing, “Targeting so-called tweens or teenagers long before they can buy a product is a tactic that more and more marketers are exploring. You are branding your product at a relevant time to the young person. You’re establishing that brand presence and positive association, since important buying decisions are forthcoming. But the key to reaching younger consumers is to capture them before they have any opinions on brands.”
Toyota seems to be right on the money. According to an article from the Associated Press, Toyota’s overall sales numbers are up almost eight percent for the year.
Toyota’s marketing department is also on target. An article called “Facts About Marketing to Children,” notes that advertising directed toward children is estimated at over $15 billion annually – about 2.5 times more than it was in 1992. In addition, 80 percent of all global brands now deploy a “tween strategy.”
So Toyota’s marketing department sees a need to reach a younger audience to gain loyalty, and they fill that need through their Whyville strategy.
The other thing they are doing right? Using the Internet. The Internet is an ideal medium for marketers to target children and tweens because:
• Kids pack 8.5 hours of media exposure into 6.5 hours each day, seven days a week – which means they spend more time plugged in than they do in the classroom.
• It’s part of youth culture. This generation of young people is growing up with the Internet as a daily and routine part of their lives. They email each other instead of calling on the phone, they use the Internet for school projects and also use the Internet as a source of entertainment (i.e. games and chat rooms.)
• Sophisticated technologies make it easy to collect information from young people for marketing research, and to target individual children with personalized advertising.
• By creating engaging, interactive environments based on products and brand names, companies can build brand loyalties from and early age.
-According to, “How Marketers Target Kids.”
Toyota is making a name for itself and employing new and successful marketing strategies, while American carmakers are notorious for marketing flops. They almost always have to rely on price point advertising to sell in a time crunch. Hence, Chrysler’s new employee discount program to move their 2006 models off the lot and GM’s increase of the rebates they offer.
GM and Chrysler marketing departments could learn a lesson from Toyota. It is time for American car marketing departments to spend more time building their brand image and lifetime relationships with younger clients because not only do kids influence their parent’s purchasing decisions, but it will also help American carmakers build brand loyalty early in a customer’s life.