This weekend, I went to the Lakes mall in Muskegon with my boyfriend and his three younger sisters (Leah - 13, Abby - 10, Justina - 6). During this trip, my eyes were opened to some new tricks of the advertising trade.
Being the youngest child, this was one of the first times I had gone shopping with “little sisters,” and it make a very big difference. First, we went to Old Navy. Right when we came in the door there was a table with crayons and coloring pages - at which Justina yelled “CAN I COLOR?!” She was instantly drawn to things she found familiar...and somewhere she would sit and stay in one spot. This would be very helpful for a busy mother who wants to shop. Rather than having a child at her side wanting to leave, they would be distracted, leaving more time to browse - and buy.
Another interesting thing to draw children in were the amount of fake dogs in the mall. Old Navy had a dog, which Justina just HAD to check out. Victoria’s Secret also had a plush dog right inside the door. When she saw the dog in Victoria’s Secret, she ran ahead to check out the plush dog, calling me to come check it out. How handy for the stores - draw the children in with the fun plush animals so that the parents will also come in and start browsing - hopefully leading to more sales.
Businesses are using children to bring the parents into stores, and once inside, keeping children busy so that parents can shop. So now the question is - who is taking who shopping? The parents might be looking for something, but are willing to go almost anywhere to make their children happy - especially on a long shopping day. Just one more way the stores get more people to see more products and buy more stuff. Now, a fluffy plush dog can lead to the purchase of a $40 dollar push up bra.
while i am impressed with the marketing technique, i find it a little underhanded by companies to "prey" on the youngest of our society in order to lure the ones in charge of those children into their stores.
ReplyDeleteGreat observations, Sam. If you've been to Woodland, you may have noticed the play area for kids at the center of the mall--it's bizarre. It's basically a bunch of giant fiberglass sculptures of food that kids can crawl on, like a burger and bacon...? And yet, are these kinds of "free" gathering areas part of what redeems a mall?
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