KGOY

Decades ago David Ogilvy preached that “the customer is not a moron, she is your wife”. Today, looking at millions of Indian customers one is tempted to rewrite the ad legend’s ode to, ‘the customer is not a moron, she is your kid!’ I so wish I was born 20 years later. I never had a room dedicated to dolls and games of all kinds, my niece has and whenever I see that I go green with envy. My four year old niece has a bevy of barbies, hanna montanna look-alike dolls, huggables in her doll-house and yet she wants more! Her favorite place to hang-out with her parents is the mall, to be specific the Zara store and the Barbie store which now sells shampoos, conditioners, moisturizers and a whole range of cosmetics for kids! Saaaaaaad, I didn’t know the difference between a conditioner and a moisturizer till…mmm…not that early at least. Okay, so this kid like many other kids that we see these days will not return from any store empty handed. Is she stubborn? Hell, yes she is (doesn’t look like a monster though) and she will not take a NO for an answer! Kids are so smart these days; they are maturing fast and it doesn’t take them very long to get in tune with the world around them. They aren’t confused about their likes, dislikes and preferences and don’t turn to anyone but google for advice. They are well informed and can apply all the tactics under the sun to make their parents buy the latest gizmos or innumerable pairs of footwear or clothes or a whole range of consumer durables. While all this might not come as good news for parents, marketers around the world cannot help but rub their hands with glee. And, why not? It is a $100 billion market, which if tapped rightly could easily ensure their profitability for another century. Making kids act in ads isn’t a very new concept in India. They were mostly used as props to connect emotionally with the customers. All time favorites like Dhara oil’s ‘Jalebi’, Bajaj’s ‘jab main chota baccha tha’, UBI’s ‘Sone ka daant’ and the others of the sort have been replaced by ads that are desperate to sell their products to the kids, kids and kids alone. L’oreal whose primary target market was the adults’ segment, is now marketing Garnier kids to the tykes to boost its revenues. The children’s segment is a big and serious biz for brands of all hues. Kellogs, Nestle, Unilever, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mars International, Zara, Burberry Kids, Nautica Kids, Lilliput, Tommy Hilfiger, Chicco, Hamleys and a host of other brands (would you believe if I told you that this includes the paint, furniture and sanitary ware sellers too? ) are eyeing the great Indian baby consumer market. What led to this buying frenzy on the first hand? ‘India is a growing economy, things are changing …’ has probably become very clichéd; nevertheless this is the fact that has changed the way Indians think and most importantly, manage their lives. People’s outlook towards their jobs, money management, family ties has all undergone a massive change. The gen-new parents earn a lot and do not have much time to spend with their kids. The maximum that they can do for them is give them whatever they demand for and this is a trend that is catching up very fast. Kids do not have to fight with their parents to get anything these days; they know how to pester their parents and still not make themselves look like trouble-mongers. At the moment this market is definitely growing and it is the right time for the marketers to seed their brand and logo in the minds of the children who would become customers of the product’s adult lines in the future. After this, brand recall is everything that would matter. “Kellog’s Chocos “is the first thing that my niece says in the morning and that’s the only thing that she would have for breakfast. That’s brand loyalty! Imagine when these kids grow up it would just have to be a pull, no push required. Yeah I know I am being over optimistic. After all, these kids are growing older younger ( kgyo) and we never know what opportunities they would open for us when they enter 'adulthood'. Till then let’s make sure that our products are off the shelf before they turn back and start marketing their products to us.