Employ Purchase Triggers for Children

In selling to children, be sure to obey the law, respect business ethics, and keep the children’s caretakers fully informed. Once you’ve pledged yourself to do that, realize that children are a fruitful market for retailers. Boost your profits by choosing the right approaches to trigger children’s purchase demand.

      Researchers at Cardiff University, Lyon Business School, Knox College, and University of Missouri-Columbia collected data on what they called “childhood materialism.” The research findings spotted purchase triggers you can use when selling to children:

• Consumer orientation. Little consumers ages 3 to 6 like to classify products, such as by size, color, or function. Just as with adults, set off purchase demand by making it easy for the young child to figure out how the product is different from what they already have. For children from about ages 7 to 11, a trigger is value for money. With product comparisons in advertising and store signage, make the features or benefits list visibly longer for more expensive items than for the less costly ones. And for children ages 12 to 16, give them even more evidence they can use to convince their parents and themselves, such as information about return/exchange policies if they regret the purchase later.
• Brand awareness. Brand name serves as another trigger. A large percentage of children’s purchase desires include brand name. Research studies have estimates of that percentage ranging from 50% to 90%. And those research studies find that the degree of brand awareness grows as the child gets older. Very important for you—the retailer—to recognize is that brand awareness among children includes not just product brand, but also store name as a brand. Children come to favor shopping at certain stores. Make your store name a trigger for purchases by children.
• Dissatisfaction. As with their adult caretakers, young consumers tend to be promotion-focused or prevention-focused. The promotion-focused children want more and more. The trigger for them is an opportunity to add to their collection. The prevention-focused children want to avoid risks, such as losing social prestige. A trigger is showing them the current popularity of the item among groups the child wants to belong to.

Click below for more: 

Educate Children as Consumers 

Ethically Develop Kids into Collectors 

Distribute Worksheets for Child Consumers 

Cultivate Kids as Future Customers 

Use Signage to Categorize Items 

Sell Either Protection or Promotion