Issues Arising from Brand Awareness in Children - Term Paper Example

Issues arising from Brand Awareness in Children Within advertising and marketing communications, communicating with the children play a huge role as the advertisers persuade the children in one way or the other towards the product and/or service that is being offered by the company. The effect of the advertising on children is such that it makes the brand stand out from the competitors and hence does its best to break the clutter which is present in the muddle of so many brands and products that are being displayed regularly. A harmonious and catchy tune makes sure that the brand remains synonymous with children’s wishes and desires of the product that is being discussed and close to their heart so that associations are built with the brand every now and then whenever there is some form of linkage with the brand in one way or the other. Another effect that can be had from these music/sounds to the children is that they build a solid and heart warming relationship with them and hence the rapport is rock solid when it comes to the potential users of the brand which in this case are the children and so on and so forth. Psychologically speaking, children connect with what is there on the electronic and/or print media for them in the form of a message that says a lot about their preferred brand and lists down the details as to how it could benefit the toddler or a teenager for that matter. Children can have a totally different impression on their young minds when they see some specific advertisement on television or in the print media which attracts the attention of the opposite gender and thus brings to notice their interest as to why the brand or the product is being advertised to the opposite sex alone. Children therefore need to be told the plus points of their television viewing with regards to the different brands so that they do not extract a meaning which is not actually conveyed by the company for them in the first place. For the company to see their brand thriving big time in the market with competitors having little or negligible business, it needs to build upon a base that it can erect its structure upon so that when the wind blows, it does not hamper the smooth business of this brand at all. With that it has to understand the soft natured psyche of the young ones where the impressionable minds of these children can absorb just about any kind of biasness aimed towards the opposite sex or for a particular community for that matter, as is the case. One needs to understand that the types of reactions these children have after watching these ads are quite distressing to say the least as they make an effort to find out what is being concealed from them as well as the rationale for doing the same. This makes them go out there and achieve something that is usually ethically wrong and not allowed by their parents and guardians. Their impressionable minds just cannot understand the sensitivity attached with the subject at hand and thus do one thing or the other to explore the areas where their mind takes them to. Constant guidance is the need of the hour in this case scenario as well as responsibility on the part of the advertising professionals is also very much required in the present times. As one can see, today’s child is not only much more talented but also understands what his or her parents would never have heard about in their tender ages. Advertising is a part of the social psychology and as we are discussing the persuasive part of it, hence there is a direct linkage here. Hence the branch of human psychology that deals with the behavior of groups and the influence of social factors on the children is indeed the social psychology and as we are getting the hang of things from the advertising and persuasion perspective of it, these both are seen as being quite imperative here. Also, the stereotypical setting of showing girls indoors as opposed to boys in the field and carrying out masculine acts suggest that there is a certain amount of gender ambiguity that is present in the ads of present times. These put more emphasis on the understanding that the advertising professionals of today lack imagination, creative touch and the much needed understanding of their responsibility towards the children in particular and the whole society in general. There has been a lot of hue and cry with regards to the equality rights of the women as compared to the men in the society in current times but less said the better in the real role played by the advertising professionals where they have more often than not failed to capitalize on the fact that they have perfect platform to get their act together and serve for the betterment of all concerned and more specifically the young ones, when one talks about a concise context here. Media communications demands a lot of word of mouth approach that essentially takes into consideration the fact that the more people are happy and satisfied with the brand and its related associations, the more they will buy it again and again as well as encourage their near and dear ones to take that step of having the eventual purchase on their part so as to give satisfaction to their own selves and thus indeed benefit the brand and more than that the company itself in terms of its business. But then again it is all about having positive associations here than disappointing a gender that is usually not that well presented in the ads, the result of which is in the form of wrath from all female quarters, no matter they hail from the rich strata of the society or are a part of the poor society values. When we talk about the specific ads that show boys as having a dominant role than the girls, we immediately come across the ones that exhibit some brands that are targeted more towards the children. Say for example, there is an ad of a candy bar that is liked more by children than adults. Now it is pretty natural to understand that boys and girls without any difference whatsoever of their genders, would like it and go for it day in day out. Yet somehow or the other, this ad will show the boy having the last laugh and the girl moaning that the boy took his bar away and ate it himself. This gives rise to a sort of gender difference between the two and thus the platform is set for the perfect war between the two. Add to that, there are adaptations for these ads where the same ad would be somewhat distorted and presented in a manner that the next sequence would demonstrate the boy losing out to the girl in this case. Rather than correcting their stance on the boy-girl war that they have brought to the fore, they should encourage a mutual sense of respect and care for each other, rather than the one going after the other to achieve one benefit or in some cases, more than that as well. A bad demonstration or for that matter association of a particular product according to the expectations of the consumers, who in this case are the children might just ask of them to refrain from buying this brand ever again. This is a vital factor in the marketing and advertising world and emphasis should thus be placed on turning these children who have somewhat negative perceptions due to associations with the brands into positive customers as well as force their say in the purchases made by other family members. This is a hectic exercise on the part of the advertising professionals but must be given significance on the part of the company producing the product because one child who goes against a company’s product means that he or she asks 8 out of 10 children in his or her gang not to make that vital purchase of the product and this figure thus gets exponentially higher. Thus one has to figure out that portrayal of gender roles in children’s advertising does not make him or her feel alienated and at the mercy of the society rather the child needs to relate with the product and more so the feelings that are given a fresh lease of life. One needs to be pretty smart when it comes to targeting children as they have the most impressionable minds and usually do not forget whatever is imprinted on their minds since their days of childhood. The ethical perspectives related with advertising on children is that these advertisers could literally make way in their minds and hearts for all the wrong reasons and this could become a strong point which could go for our defense when we speak of the related discussion here. The organizations bringing out all sorts of products for the children seek to multiply their benefits and revenues at the cost of health issues for the target users. It is imperative that the products are first approved by the parents and/or guardians of the children before they actually use it. It is also significant to understand that since the children do not have the relevant know how, they could end up being at the losing end as far as this kind of trade and awareness campaign is concerned. Hence it is significant for the government and the respective bodies to comprehend what their position should be on this agenda and thus align their specific policies in line with the very same. Brand awareness is an interesting concept but it should not be made a compulsive one on the part of the children if they do not have the relevant details related with using the product which raises the questions of the brand developers as to why they miss out on the said point. Their duty is to apprise the children as well as their parents of the potential dangers that could come about in the wake of using a certain product but since they are so much into the selling task of their product, they seem to miss out on this point altogether. If only the policies and restrictions are in place with the aforementioned ethical disconnections, we will witness the organizations understanding their social responsibilities and what they owe to the general public and as this discussion pertains to children themselves, we can understand the same in the light of the kids as well. There is the ethical perspective which asks of the duty of the organizations to sell to the children themselves or not. This means that the products must first be approved by the parents and/or guardians before they are used by the children. Then we have the discussion of using certain jingles and advertising messages which do not go in line with the hopes and aspirations of the young ones. It could be due to the differing themes which are not suitable for the younger audiences and so on and so forth. The issues that thus arise from this discussion of brand awareness on children is one of a delicate one since we have to understand that it is for the betterment of the whole society if the children are kept at a safe distance from the dangers which they could have in the usage of certain products. There is a dire need to understand the responsibility that the corporations have upon themselves and if the same play their role in an effective and efficient manner, then only we can understand the true basis of creating the right kind of awareness within the children without missing out on the points that we need to focus upon. This is not a difficult proposition and one must understand the whole context in the right frame of mind more than anything else. BIBLIOGRAPHY BLADES, Mark. (2005). Advertising to Children on TV: Content, Impact, and Regulation. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates GUNTER, Barrie. (1997). Children and Television. Routledge Word Count: 2,010 Read More