Aug
6
Selling Be-Tween the Lines
Filed Under General Marketing | Leave a Comment
If you want to really create a brand that stays in the minds of families for generations to come, it’s time to start marketing to tweens.
A tween, as they are effectionately called, is a pre-teen, a child between middle childhood and adolescence, generally in the age range of 8 to 12 years old.
There are a few things to know about when you’re marketing to girls in this agegroup.
They are very much like teenagers themselves, striving hard to be like them, tweens are apt to immitate the looks and fashion of older girls. Tween Brands (NYSE TWB) which owns the Limited Too and Justice chains that sell apparel to girls 7-14, markets the same styles to tweens as they do to the older girls, with just more and brighter color choices. They capture the marketing young and provide them with their clothing fashions as they age when they move through their sister companies, like the Limited.
They aren’t alone. Take a look at Bonnie Bell, a makeup and skin care company. Founded in 1927, the company was directed towards the youth market long before it was fashionable, which could explain why they have such a large marketshare today.
Bell puts out Lip Smackers Lip Glosses, and the average tween girl owns 10 of them. Then they move through the brands, with more adult colors and an increased selection of products. Their aim? To be the makeup provider of young women through their teen years and into adulthood. In fact, the company starts even earlier than tweens with their Lip Smackers Lip Balm, and markets these to girls 4-6 (pre-tweens). It’s smart marketing.
But sometimes the tactics used to "hook ‘em while their young" aren’t exactly ethical. You might remember a few years back it was Limited Too that was centered in a scandal around vanity sizing. The stores were proven to artificially reduce the numbers on their clothing sizes, which would make girls feel overweight when shopping at other stores.
At such a vulnerable time in their lives, when tweens and even pre-tweens are starting to feel pressure to be thin and developing eating disorders, this method of giving the customer what they want seems manipulative and even harmful.
So, what’s the lesson here? Young women aren’t much different than adult women. They want a company that understands them, variety, choice, and the perfect shade of lipgloss.
"On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy"
David Ogilvy
Are your headlines that good?
