What Kids Buy And Why Summary

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The Psychology of Marketing to Kids
“What Kids Buy and Why” By Dan S. Acuff, Ph.D

What Kids Buy and Why shows insight of how children are influenced into buying and consuming products. Brands in this book use tactics depending on different age groups. These tactics include things such as novelty, popularity, rarity and more. The main points that stay between age groups would be characterization, status and psychological needs.
Characterization
Children are influenced by brand characters, movies and television personalities. They are more likely to go for a product that has a bright box with a goofy cartoon on it than a boring box with a label. Children also tend to look for familiar faces when introduced to a new product. Babies are more susceptible to rounder, softer looking characters (such as Mickey Mouse) than older kids who go after the cool villain in the latest movie. “ Regarding roundness, research has proven that as early as 18 months of age, children identity crooked, jagged lines as “bad guys” or things that could hurt you, and round, curving lines as being “good guy” or safe” (Acuff, 1997, pg. 46) These characters also play a role in the child’s life when developing a …show more content…

Once a child begins to mature and develop decision making skills, they start looking at products with more of a personal aspect. They will start to collect toys that are said to be rare and more valuable. This also has an effect on popularity among their friends, if they have a rare toy that is hard to find they will be the ‘cool kid’. “While a 10-year-old girl, for example, may still play with dolls in her room or still love to sleep on her Winnie the Pooh sheets, she typically wouldn’t dare wear a Winnie the Pooh blouse out in public – like a billboard – unless it were considered to be ‘cool’.” (Acuff, 1997, pg. 100) Status of a child is made of toys they play with, clothes they wear and the groups they hang out

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