LOS ANGELES, May 14, 2007
Marketing To "Tweens" Going Too Far?
Critics: "Secret Agent" Peer Influencers, Slumber Party Networks Objectionable
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Play CBS Video Video 'Alpha' Girls Rule Despite their age, tween girls are a prized consumer group with tremendous spending power. And as Tracy Smith reports, the key to selling the hottest new kids product may be an "alpha" girl.
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GIA "secret agent" Danielle Koenig (CBS/EARLY SHOW)
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Girls at a GIA slumber party seeing new products. (CBS/EARLY SHOW)
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Parents may not be aware of the buying power "tweens" exert, but marketers certainly are.
On The Early Show Monday, national correspondent Tracy Smith began a joint series with the CBS Evening News called "Gotta Have It: The Hard Sell to Kids."
Smith looked at how 8-year-olds are recruited to spearhead marketing buzz and hone marketing campaigns, and at the marketers' obsession with tweens.
Tween girls are especially prized, Smith points out, because they spend more money, and love to talk.
One method used by marketers involves slumber parties.
At a recent one in Los Angeles, with several tween girls attending, a box packed with goodies — accessories, games and new stuff designed to create a frenzy among them — sat in a spot strategically selected by marketing firm GIA, short for Girls Intelligence Agency (www.girlgames.com).
It's part of is a multi-million dollar business strategy that relies on 8-year-old Danielle Koenig, the party's hostess. But more importantly, she is the alpha, or peer influencer, in her group.
"We have chosen these influencers across the country," says GIA CEO Laura Groppe, "and we have 40 to 50,000 of these girls registered."
The GIA carefully cultivates girls like Danielle, Smith observes, and designates them "secret agents."
The most important thing in a secret agent, says Groppe, is "that her peers trust her opinion. … We have to approve them. You know, important strategic business decisions are being made off of this 8-year-old and her friends, so we have to make sure she's the right one."
It is, Smith notes, a twist on good old fashioned word of mouth. It's viral marketing.
If the alpha girl likes a product, she tells two friends, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and it spreads like a virus.
"If they love you, then it'll light up the digital network immediately," Groppe says. " … If they don't like your product, you're dead."
Danielle is a "secret agent" for technology products. If she thinks something is cool, chances are her friends will, too.
The whole idea, Groppe says, is "seeding the market with these girls and their close crew of friends, and getting that information (about their preferences) back to the client and, at the same time, these girls are feeling it's a privilege … to share this among their peers."
"The marketers are inserting themselves into these peer dynamics," says Juliet Schor, author of "Born to Buy."
She says marketers such as GIA, and other companies like it, are over the top. The host girl is "being taught that her friends are an exploitable resource. … She needs to get those friends over there, get that information out of them."
"It seems a little sneaky to me," says Mary Beth Vazquez, of Kinnelon, N.J., the mother of a tween.
Some moms think such methods surreptitiously create pressure on parents and kids to keep up.
"The fact that the alpha tween has it is making my child and other tweens maybe want it," Vazquez says.
"The scary part is that they're reaching younger and younger kids," notices Jen Singer, another Kinnelon mom of a tween.
"People have been selling to kids since the beginning of time," counters Groppe. "Marketers are obviously going to try to push the boundaries as much as possible.
And for good reason.
"A $300 billion market? You'd better be taking them seriously," Groppe remarks.
In fact, says Smith, the influence of tweens on family spending includes big-ticket items such as cars, vacations, and furnishings, not to mention clothes and, especially, music.
That's why, when Capitol Records launched pop-star Skye Sweetnam, the label called GIA.
"Skye was just coming out on tour," Groppe recalls, "and we wanted to explore, what's the look and feel that she should have when she's performing and when she's in the media?"
To get a buzz going, the GIA asked girls to help Sweetnam with her image.
Capitol launched Sweetnam's first two CDs with covers chosen by tweens.
Using the GIA network of secret agents, 7,000 girls at 500 slumber parties actually reshaped Sweetnam, Smith says. They helped capitol re-jigger her look, re-cut her video, and redesign her Web site.
"Traditional marketing methods are dead,:" Groppe declared. "And, if you're not learning how to get directly to your core customer, you will die."
The GIA has no lack of secret agents. Girls report their findings on a Web site and sign up for more.
Danielle is profiled for technology, Smith says, but there are other secret agents profiled as fashionistas, and others for movies. It's getting very scientific.
There will be more of the "Gotta Have It" series on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric Monday. She will show how marketers are targeting children younger than ever and turning them into brand-name consumers.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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The secrets of tennis legend 
Besides, search the net for the article "The Superrich Are Doing You a Favor". They surely don't need to indoctrine 8 year olds in this day and age when money to even survive on, forget the peer pressure niceties, is hard enough to come by.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/SuperModels/TheSuperRichAreDoingYouAFavor.aspx
AHHH!!! THAT'S NOT a PARTY! That's the adult version of this "Secret Agent" cr*p they're pulling on kids.
As an adult I've the common sense, self awareness & education to say "No" & not allow myself to be used & manipulated so someone elses pocket can be padded. I can make informed decisions about what, when, where & how I spend my hard earned money. 12 yr olds aren't earning through hard work, education & "pluck" the "hundreds of billions of dollars" that their PARENTS are spending on their behalf. They have no concept of credit debt, bankruptsy, savings. Yet they're being turned into mini consumer machines all with the blessing of their parents. In this case, "Parent" translates to Future Consumer Producing Machine.
I know that I'm only seen as a potential spender by marketing machines & that's sad enough. But how will this effect the self esteem & confidence of these young girls (& boys) when it hits them that their "friends" are not really, but only users of the drug they're being pushed?
Even childhood friendships are a media opportunity now. This country has taken materialism to a level un-dreamt of by Mamon. Sickening.
And where do I find the useless pile of dung who coined the non-word "tween"? I would like to beat them with a copy of the Oxford University Dictionary until they stop twitching.
Even childhood friendships are a media opportunity now. This country has taken materialism to a level un-dreamt of by Mamon. Sickening.
And where do I find the useless pile of dung who coined the non-word "tween"? I would like to beat them with a copy of the Oxford University Dictionary until they stop twitching.
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=438
Better yet, scroll through ALL the categories of the Shaping Youth nonprofit blog covering ethical issues of media & marketing's impact on kids: From junk food and body image to advergaming, consumerism, and celebrity behavioral cues...join in the conversation and sound-off!
www.ShapingYouth.org
We began as a handful of industry insiders trying to get fellow media producers to be responsible/ accountable re: messaging to kids, and now have emerged as a leader in the COUNTER-MARKETING arena, using our skill sets to shift the message in a positive direction impacting kids with a HEALTHIER worldview! (and yes, we're undercover at some of the 'peer influencer' hubs you mentioned in your report!)
I feel strongly the price we pay to mine kids' childhood will ultimately cost us all, so try to stay a 'step ahead' of the marketing machine and give parents a 'heads up' via our nonprofit consortium's 'eyes and ears' in the industry by reporting the 'good, the bad and the ugly!'
We just 'red-flagged' this piece (& Tracy's new one on the thin model dynamic/tmrw!)in this post here: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=438
Thanks for bringing these important topics into the wider media dialogue!
It's sad to see a company push such young children into liking something and needing to have it just because the alpha friend says so. Yes, this would happen under normal conditions, but here friends are being tricked into it. The alpha friend is selling them something, but not really being honest about it with his/her friends. That's a good thing to teach children. How to exploit your friends.
- by ecuadoriana May 14, 2007 3:53 PM EDT
- "'People have been selling to kids since the beginning of time,' counters Groppe."
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See all 14 CommentsYes, but traditionally parents had been there to make sure where the buck actually stopped. Where the h*ll are the parents that these marketing execs are allowed to come into the children's homes during slumber parties with these boxes of "goodies"?
It's disgusting enough that marketing firms target kids with "buy buy BUY!", but that parents are encouraging their kids to be "profiled" as marketing tools is absolutely sick & almost smells of potential s*xu-l exploitation down the road. Eventually these "tweens" will be teens & their tastes will become a bit more risque anyway so where will this lead- lingerie slumber parties maybe? Cocaine tasting parties? Condom & s-x toy parties? These kids are being trained to be pushes. The "Secret Agent" label is BS & I can see right through it.
Kids are supposed to be kids. They need to learn to be responsible & to make good choices. To give them so much "authority" at such a young age can only lead to problems further on. The line between adult & child is so blurred as it is with parents being more irresponsible than generations past & now this!