BRANDchild: Insights into the Minds of Today's Global Kids: Understanding Their Relationship with Brands

By Martin Lindstrom, Patricia B. Seybold

An international marketing research firm spent one year studying the habits of children 8 to 14 years old (dubbed tweens) in 11 countries to determine their relationships with brand-name products and services.

This book draws on that study to explore the buying habits of a highly impatient, technology-savvy generation used to exposure to local and international brands, some 8,000 brands a day. In a world of instant communication, brands offer familiarity and security, according to the marketers, who sort tweens into four categories: fringes, influencers, conformers, and passives.

Among the findings: nearly half the world's urban tweens have access to the Internet, 20 percent own mobile phones, 10 percent have personal Web sites, and nearly half frequently download music. Marketers are making the adjustment, including planting false Web sites meant to look like amateur sites developed by tweens. Each chapter ends with a summary and action points for marketers. Although the book is aimed at marketers, parents and educators--and tweens themselves--will find much fascinating information here. Vanessa Bush

[INTERVIEW WITH PATRICIA SEYBOLD]
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