Echo Boom

Ever heard of age compression? The first time I encountered this term was on a CBC documentary called “Buying Into Sexy’. After doing a bit of research I learned that this term began to circulate among toy manufacturers to explain a recent phenomenon that is leaving Barbie in the closet and Bratz in the lime light.

Put simply, age compression is "pushing adult products and teen attitude on younger and younger kids". This phenomenon has left the toy industry scrambling as the new peak age for playing with dolls and toys is just 8 years old. Kids are no longer kids, they are tweens and they are growing up fast. Marketers have already figured this out and they have spared no expense advertising directly to this demographic with over 1.2 Billion dollars spent last year on advertising to this valuable demographic.

David Siegel, author of the “The Great Tween Buying Machine” writes:

"Tweens are an extremely profitable consumer segment. The size, spending power, needs and target ability of this group presents a serious financial opportunity to today’s marketers.”

What's the result? Tweens are now in the driver seat and marketers are targeting them directly for a whole number of products... products that were traditionally marketed uniquely to mom and dad.

Below is a study I came across that I thought some of you might find interesting, put out by a Canadian marketing agency called Youthography:


Young Canadians' ascendant influence on household spending over the past generation has made many companies, across an increasing array of categories, start to change the focus of their marketing strategies - from the “gatekeeper” (mom, dad, primary care-givers) to the “gatecrasher” (the youth in the household who increasingly tend to call a lot of the shots when it comes to purchase decisions).

As expected, young people feel they exert significant influence on food purchases such as chips and salty snacks, soft drinks and other non-alcoholic beverages as well as take-out or delivery foods; they've been highly regarded experts in these fields for time immemorial.

However, take a look at the influence teens (and even some tweens) have on larger ticket items; two-thirds of our teen respondents feel they wield power on the home front when it comes to computer purchases while 6 in 10 feel they can sway home electronics purchases. Mom and/or Dad continue to have troubles programming the “whatchamacallit” and, as we become an increasingly gizmo-focused culture, are turning more and more to their younger, faster and more gizmo-friendly progeny for assistance and guidance.

Family travel is also becoming a very youth-influenced industry as parents strive to find vacations that can suit the whole family in new and different ways. Coming soon to an inbox near you; kid oriented packages and brochures from travel companies.