The Retail World From A Kid's Perspective

The result is that, in developing products and services that will appeal to kids, their perspective is that 'it's all about ME!' Our analysis shows that children are not inherently selfish, but rather that they know the products and services available to them are legion. Only those products that effectively reach out to children, the ones that are exclusively for them, will be adopted. The days of 'hand-me-down' product development (adult products minimally modified and then labelled 'for kids') having any lasting appeal for children are over.

With this in mind, we examined the way in which today's youth react to marketers' efforts to capture their attention on the front line of retail: the grocery store. Although an adult can test-shop a grocery store, trying to see things through the eyes of a child, there is no substitute for the real thing. The successful marketer must tap into youth culture directly, by drawing on the experience of those in the know.

The birth of kid engineers

It is a basic premise in youth and family marketing that communication with children has to be pitched in precisely the right manner in order for it to have any impact. The challenge is to 'get inside their heads'. In order to meet this challenge, Strottman employs a group of children aged 6 to 12 years to work as part of our staff.

The Strottman Kid Engineers, as this group is referred to, act as on-staff youth insight leaders who work directly with our strategic and creative teams. The children's unique perspective enables us to create youth- and family-targeted promotions, products and events. As an accurate source of information on the pressing issues in children's lives, and by providing a real-world viewpoint, the Kid Engineers are an invaluable asset.

The kids-eye view in-store

Children today grocery shop with their parents more than ever before. Consequently, their influence on what goes into the trolley is greater than ever. We asked ourselves whether we could see the grocery store from a kid's perspective in order to see what catches their attention and understand what kinds of in-store communication influence their purchase intent. With this level of understanding, we believe that we can help youth-targeted brands better position themselves for success in the grocery store environment.

Accompanied by a Strottman employee, each 'wired' kid was directed to shop the entire grocery store and fill their trolley with 20 things they wanted most from the store. Following this shopping trip, each child was brought back to the Strottman office to view the footage. During this viewing of the video tape of their shopping experience, we were able to discuss with each child what they saw and what they were thinking about, and thus understand what was actually catching their attention and influencing their actions.

This methodology achieved a number of results. Essentially, the self-guided walk-through allowed the kids freely to see, notice and examine those things they found most interesting and attention-grabbing. By studying the video tape with them, we were able to see the store through their eyes, and draw some key conclusions about promotions, in-store signage, packaging and areas of the store that hold the greatest stopping power for kids. The rest of this article outlines the results.

Promotions matter

Most marketers rely on consumer promotions to help drive sales growth. Few marketers support their promotional efforts with television, most relying on packaging to communicate the offer. Children do notice promotions communicated via packaging in-store and are influenced by them. Throughout the shopping expeditions, kids keyed in on brands that were communicating a chance to win or get something. The visceral response to seeing 'Win!' or 'Free!' grabs the children's attention – the fantasy appeal of getting the prize is a powerful motivator that drives their curiosity.

One major finding highlighted by reviewing the footage with the kids was that the promotional communications on-pack that truly broke through were those which were more visual and less verbal. The words 'free' or 'win' are powerful triggers for kids, but they become even stronger when accompanied by a significant visual of the prize. The child consumer wants to see what can be won or what is being given away. An interesting example of this point is made by comparing two different Hi-C packages (Figure 2). Both packages feature a promotion on-pack but the children told us that the more visual example (Game Boy Advance prize) really breaks through to them. The saying that 'a picture is worth a thousand words' is even more true for today's youth. Visuals and graphics have become information shorthand in a stimulus-intensive world. Children are increasingly able to filter through the information bombardment and select messages of interest to them.

The basis, it would seem, of capturing the attention of kids in-store is to push the promotion more prominently, and to make obvious the material inducement to the children by displaying it in a more visual way. This is contrary to conventional package design wisdom that protects branding and product beauty-shots. The effective promotion achieves results by sacrificing brand space for promotional impact. Once children have noticed the promotion, they will inevitably notice the brand.

Innovation matters

Children both expect and appreciate innovation in the grocery store. Over the last few years they have been exposed to many forms of product and packaging innovations targeted at them, and it is those changes of the non-traditional variety that appeal the most. The Kid Engineers were fascinated by the many colours of ketchup. They were drawn to product innovations such as blue and cinnamon-flavoured French fries (Figure 3). The Mystery Cheetos that colour the tongue either blue or green also provoked their curiosity.

Packaging innovations truly connect with kids. The Go! Snacks from Frito-Lay really appealed to the shoppers as their favourite snacks are now portable and crush-proof, and in individual portions. Children also liked the plastic containers and would use them to store things in once empty, such as other snacks, pencils, marbles, and other trinkets or toys (Figure 4). Glow-in-the-dark Go-Gurt yoghurt tubes tied in with the magic of Star Wars and made kids believe they had discovered something really special to share with their friends (Figure 5).

Innovation is the key to success in every brand category targeted at children.

Kid's favourite spots

The concept of in-store 'hot spots' has been well recognised by retailers for some time. However, children also have their own favourite parts of the store where they like to linger and where their shopping mannerisms shift into slow motion. Children will actually study these favourite spots, looking for new products, new flavours and exciting new promotional offers.

The four spots our 'wired' kids shopped in slow motion were:

1. Cereal aisle (Figure 6)
   A perennially popular area of the store with children. The kids scanned each brand to see what was new and exciting. 'Cool' promotions and new brands and flavours stood out the most.
2. Snacks aisle
   With so many new product and packaging innovations happening in this aisle, kids look for what is new and what is different about their favourite brands.
3. Dairy case
   Once the domain of traditional products such as milk, eggs and butter, the dairy aisle has become a kid's product battleground. Our Kid Engineers went to find innovations such drinkable yoghurts, the ever popular Go-Gurt, Dannon Sprinkl'ins, and Nesquik (now in wide-mouth, single-serve, easy-to-hold and ready-to-drink packages).
4. 'Lunchables' case
   The children referred to this refrigerated deli section as the 'lunchables kid's lunch playground' – more specifically, special food for children, neatly packaged and always fun. Innovations our Kid Engineers loved (and bought) were Make-Your-Own-Magic Cracker Stackers (cheese, ham, crackers and a lick–stamp–eat candy design stamper) and Make-Your-Own-Magic Nachos (packet mixed with cheese to make magic colours). Each delivered a food magic feature, indulged kids' desire to play with their food, and empowered them to make their own meal. With the entry of more competitive brands, this is one area of food retail with great potential.

Kids have favourite spots in the grocery store and they shop differently when they reach them. Any brand sold from one of these spots must do all that it can to stand out and be noticed by its young customers.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs

In-store signage is picked up by children and consequently influences their shopping. By viewing the footage from the KidCams, we could assess how and why children are drawn to in-store signage. Most significant was the stopping power of floor graphics, which is logical, given a child's field of vision. Floor graphics are thus more child-specific than other merchandising tools. The 'wired' kids demonstrated to us the stopping power of a kid-friendly message delivered on the floor (Figure 7).

Another merchandising breakthrough for reaching kids was the use of dimension. For example, three-dimensional cards with Sesame Street characters enticed children to look at the Keebler cookie/cracker products. Unfortunately, few retailers allow these types of merchandising tools in their stores. Other types of on-shelf merchandising such as the horizontal gravity-fed system from Frito-Lay Go! Snacks were also noticed and appealed to each of the Kid Engineers.

These examples show that the stopping power of in-store merchandising is vital in reaching children. For brands targeted at kids, the message should be made simple, obvious, child-specific and visually fun. In this way a brand message can be seen and noticed by both children, and their (paying) parents.

That's entertainment

The draw of licensed properties is stronger than ever. Kids notice brands that carry the characters from their favourite films and television programmes. The 'wired' Kid Engineers were drawn to brands that used the licensed characters as a prominent visual on their packaging. The examples in Figure 8 and Figure 9 show the importance of the licensed property on the packaging.

Children live in a very visual world and they respond more to visual forms of communication. A significant proportion of a child's life revolves around entertainment and leisure, therefore products that tie into hot properties for short-term promotions, and classic characters for branded products, will get their attention.

Summary

We have seen that in researching the attitudes of children, trying to think like a child is not enough. Actually recruiting children to give their views is the only way to gain the required level of accurate insight into today's youth market. Children are no longer the consumers of tomorrow: they form a financially viable customer base today.

Promotion, innovative product and package design, and in-store 'hot-spots': these are all common merchandising techniques that really work on kids. Messages should be bold, simple and eye-catching. Children by their very nature think in terms of fantasy and aspire to empowerment: the successful brand should key in to this. The use of licensed properties, especially on packaging, further serves to enhance a product's appeal to children.

Innovation also works in other fields of merchandising, namely the use of signage. Common sense tells us that low-level and, more specifically, floor graphics are the most appealing to children. It is up to the brand to use them in a way that will guide children through the store to their products.

Our Kid Engineer eye-view of grocery stores reinforced the fact that successful kids' products must talk to the children they are intended for, delivering real kid-benefits with real kid-products. Young consumers know that they have a lot of choice, and if products do not appeal to them in-store, they will not take them home. Every aspect of the merchandise must be made child-specific. The product form and benefits, the innovative packaging, the kid-appealing graphics, the compelling promotional message and communication – must all work together.

In a nutshell – hire an expert, hire a kid.