Question

Marketing

Today, children are viewed as a viable market by many manufacturers, companies, and retailers. All aspects of children’s lives – their health, education, creativity, and values, are at risk of being compromised by marketing. Do you agree or disagree with this statement and why?

Answer 1

The present changes in the demographics where we see more of nuclear families with suffield money and maybe 1 or 2 kids are the perfect target audience for many companies focusing on children. Earlier any child specific company would be a toy company or cloth manufacturer focusing on clothes for children. But now we see food manufacturers focussing on snacks for children and health drinks for children. We see hangout places like play zone and amusement parks in malls or other places specifically for children. The latest trend are housing projects that are now being advertised to be child centric in nature providing multiple amenities and academies focusing on the academic and cultural growth of children. When families are small with sufficient means, parents are now more and more obsessing over providing the best of facilities to their children making them the ideal target audience for such marketing companies.

This recent trend is pushing today's children away from each other and pushing to a different kind of culture. Today's children don't play on ground with each other and rather spend time on video games in malls and play zones. Today's children do not eat fruits and rather each processed junk food from gast food shops. Today's children do not read books and rather watch movies or shows on TV. This culture kills the children's creativity, values and feeling of friendship and belonging leading to issues like anxiety and depression in early ages.

Thus the recent trend in children specific products or amenities should be something that the parents should analyze and ascertain for their necessity and the only provided to children. There is a need to be aware of the marketing gimmicks of companies and then make decisions