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Editorials
We encourage our readers
to submit relevant articles of interest to be published
on this web site. Students, members, and companies are
invited to take advantage of this opportunity! Please send
your editorial to: Dick Forrest, CPIM dforrest@charter.net
Ira Smolowitz, Ph.D. Professor of Finance and
Dean, Bureau of Business Research and Program Development
at the American International College, Springfield, MA.
Some of Ira's past articles of interest:
See Ira's current article below:
The Dynamic of Successful Marketing
By Ira Smolowitz, Ph.D.
Successful marketing, it seems
to me, requires the ability to capitalize on a trend that will be formidable tomorrow, but not obvious today.
For example, many marketing personnel may very-well fall into the traditional
mindset that the children’s market is different than the adult market.
In a new book authored by Christopher Noxon: Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons,
Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up he indicates:
- The average age of video-game players is now 29, up from 18 in 1990.
- The No. 1 vacation destination for adults is not the Grand Canyon,
not a great city like New York or San Francisco, not even the increasingly theme-park-like Las
Vegas. It’s Disney World. Half of its visitors are adults unaccompanied by children.
The Cartoon Network outranks any cable news network in rating among 18 to 34-year-olds.1
While there is nothing new about adults reveling in kiddie
culture – Shirley Temple, Roald Dahl and Pee Wee Herman all had plenty of
adult fans – market researchers say an especially strong wave of childishness
began about two years ago. Milk and cookies, macaroni and cheese and meatloaf began
appearing on the menus of highchair-free restaurants. Puma, Converse and Keds sneakers
leapt from the schoolyard set to the fashion-conscious crowd. And then there is Harry
Potter, whose cross-generational popularity prompted the British publisher Bloomsbury
to release an edition of the books with so-called grown-up covers. (Adult-friendly kid
titles are listed in "Booklist," the trade magazine, under "Crossovers:
Children’s Books for Adults.")
“We’re seeing this phenomenon worldwide,” said
Debra Joester, president of an independent licensing company that handles Care Bears,
one of the lines of discontinued toys and merchandise recently reintroduced in part
because of pent-up demand from grown-ups. (Other resurrected brands include He-Man and
the Masters of the Universe, My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite.) A 2001 market research
study by American Greetings, the creator of Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears,
showed that “purchase interest” was identical among women who wanted
to buy a doll for their child and those who simply wanted to rekindle a love affair of
their own.
“This consumer wants Care Bears in their life,” Ms. Joester said. “And
not just to share with their children.”
In part, researchers say rejuveniles are simply seeking comfort in jittery times. Who
better than a character like SpongeBob Squarepants to relieve free-floating anxiety?
According to Nickelodeon, a full 26 percent of SpongeBob’s regular audience is over 18.
Some social scientists, however, see signs of a deeply troubling trend. That so many
adults expend so much time and energy pursuing the thrills of youth just proves how
significantly “adulthood has lost its appeal,” said Frank Furendi, a
professor of sociology at the University of Kent at Canterbury in England. “Adulthood
has got nothing attractive about it anymore. That’s actually quite sad.” 2
-------------------------------------------------------
Noxon owns up to his own rejuvenalia. He dedicates his book to his playmates, his three children. He would call himself law-abiding and
hard-working; he has a mortgage and a minivan. But he would never say he’s mature. He hates to talk about mutual funds, lawn care, or even wine – topics he considers fit only for consumption by grown-ups.
The other rejuveniles Noxon finds include a mother who takes up skateboarding (her son thinks she’s crazy) and two men who started a kickball league. Others play tag or dodgeball, build with LEGOs, collect dolls, and paint faces for a living. Noxon assures us that these aren’t hipsters on a lark. There is no ironic posturing in their viewing of the Muppets or playing with GI Joe.
Some social critics, such as journalist Susan Littwin, author of The Postponed Generation, regard the rejuvenile impulse as irresponsible, the result of a lifetime of overindulgence. When it comes to a few of the people whom Noxon describes, such as the woman who wanted to make a career out of her passion for skipping or the middle-age couple who visit a Disney park once a month, I’d say that at the very least they’re taking this kid thing a little too seriously.
And of course here’s the strangest thing of all: Actual children can’t wait to grow up.3
Christopher Noxon, in my opinion, has managed to change traditional marketing perspectives. His insightful observations, and association implications, will serve to red-flag the traditional placement of consumers in traditional demographic categories.
References
1. Bailey, Marilyn “Are Grown-Ups Regressing?” The Sun News – Myrtle Beach, S.C. August 13, 2006, p. 6E
2. “I Don’t Want to Grow Up” New York Times, August 21, 2003. [Downloaded 8/25/06 from http: //www.chrisophernoxon.com/nyt_sub-rejuveniles.html. pp. 2 and 3].
3. “Adults Do the Darndest Things” Business Week Online, June 19, 2006 – [downloaded 8/25/06 from http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/06_25/b 3989120.htm ? chan =g1-p.2].
Articles printed with the
permission of Dr. Ira Smolowitz, Professor of Finance
and Dean, Bureau of Business Research and Program Development
at American International College, Springfield, MA.
The views and opinions expressed in
these articles do not necessarily reflect the views and
opinions of the Western MA Chapter #19 APICS, Inc.
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