Have I mentioned that I have a 10-year-old daughter? She’s a really cool kid – really 10-going-on-30. In some ways, she’s remarkably mature. In other ways…lemme just say that when she’s excited about something, she’s got a squeal that can melt earwax. And she knows how to use it. 

This evening, I saw a commercial for yet again another website targeting her demographic.

When I was a kid, 10-year-olds didn’t HAVE a demographic. The demographic was “kids.” Nobody marketed specifically to “tweens” – children beTWEEN the ages of 9 and 12. Psychologists would have us believe that this is an “awkward age” in the no-mans-land betwixt being a child and a teenager. Back in the day, marketers simply marketed to kids, and left the appropriateness of the pitch up to the individual kids or parents.

So why the change? I guess it’s progress, but let’s remember that while all progress requires change, not all change counts as progress. (A word to the wise for voters in this year’s Presidential campaign, come to think about it.) Marketers go after specific demographic groups because they think they can get a bigger bang for their client’s advertising and marketing bucks. However, when you focus in on more specific demographics, you can also lose something in the process, namely the big picture. 

Kiddie social networking sites are a relatively recent phenomena. Sites like Club Penguin and it’s increasing number of clones try to keep kids online, with activities like playing games, interacting with other kids online, and, of course, shopping.

Pause with me for a nanosecond as we consider the incipient class-action lawsuits in their future, when the ambulance chasers realize that (based on their success suing fast food restaurants for making people fat) they can sue the online sites for keeping kids from spending their time exercising. Mind you, I’m not advocating that. But I see it as an inevitable extrapolation of the total abandonment of the doctrine of personal responsibility. If I were the social networking companies, I’d be contact Lloyds of London about some insurance against the PC crowd. But I digress…

The insidious part of their evil plan for kid domination is that they (like dope pushers) give away free samples. To get to the good parts, however, you have to pony up some serious coin of the realm. 

Most of these sites allow your small protein unit to do things like earn credits for numerous activities. However, to actually affect their online environment, they must pay – say, $5.95 per month for the privilege. I can’t speak for the millions of other parents of tweens out there, but I can’t believe any of them enjoy having their kids get addicted to something and then encourage them to hit their parents up for a $5.95/month habit. 

Sadly, Club Penguin (recently purchased by Disney, who never met a way to monitize their brand they didn’t take full advantage of) has a lot of competition. Even worse, none that I’ve seen have one ounce of originality in concept or execution past the Club Penguin model. 

I suggest that there is a huge amount of irony in Club Penguin’s choice of a namesake. 

Penguins (as I’ve noted previously on this blog) tend to play follow the leader a lot, when it comes to eating. Penguins tend to exhibit a healthy fear of predators, whist casting long, loving looks at holes in the ice flows. It’s only when enough penguins gather around the hole that one gets pushed in. Then the fun begins. If the penguin lives to find fish, ALL the penguins jump in and over-fish the hole. If the lead penguin is a victim of a drive-by (or swim-by) mauling by a sea lion, the rest of the cowards go look for a safer place to eat. 

So, campers…what does this have to do with YOUR marketing? A couple of thoughts…first of all, remember Sargeant Preston’s Law of the Yukon: The scenery only changes for the lead dog. I’d also suggest that it’s better to find a way to market to your audience that doesn’t include alienating them – or at least the people that pay the bills. I’d also observe that too much market segmentation leads to market cannibalization, as too many marketers fish the same small ponds. But that’s just me. Your results may vary. 

It seems to me like Club Penguin’s competitors are playing follow the leader, instead of innovating. That will make for a crowded market that will quickly get “over-fished.” Not good. Better would be to have some of these penguin-come-latelys try something different – something that would differentiate them from the lead dog…um…penguin. And my first suggestion would be to find a better way to monetize their membership than sticking parents with a sawbuck and change bill every month to mind meld with their progeny.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 12th, 2008 at 11:02 pm and is filed under advertising, marketing, media.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.