Echo Boom

Just how closely are tweens being studied by marketers and corporations who are vying for their love, attention and commitment to their products?

A close read of David Siegel et. al’s book entitled “The Great Tween Buying Machine,” provides some insight into the minds of marketers that are making a career marketing to tweens. While at times grossly disturbing, this book attempts to map out the tween mind and present its readers with a close up of what they should be targeting. One of the key methods that they suggest is to look directly at factors that drive tween behaviour, called centrics.

The book suggests centrics are useful because they “provide insight that can be applied to products, services, or communications that will speak directly to tween audiences.”

So what is a centric? According to the authors centrics are associated with either social or personal needs of the tween and will change depending on what is motivating the subject.

Below is chart found on page 51 of their book that will help clarify:

Need	Motivational Platform	Selected Centric
Personal	Belonging	Worth, Familiarity
	Power	Mastery, Intelligence, Rebellion
	Freedom	Individuality, Uniqueness, Independence
	Fun	Imagination, Simplicity, Sensation
Social	Belonging	Popularity, Friendship, Assimiliation
	Power	Superiority, Control, Love
	Freedom	Imitation, Exploriation
	Fun	Amusement, Creativity

This is where I digress… these guys are really like predators. They take common growing pains of youth and turn them into marketing advantages. You take something as basic as wanting to belong, something that is so visceral when we are young. Marketers are acutely aware of this desperate need and set out to make promises to kids, promises of more friends, popularity, being cool… promises that can be easily acquired with the simple purchase of product that embodies an identity or a subjectivity that can easily be taken up. That promise is of course the centric.