[3] Products and brands with Social Power encompass the notion that “Corporate cool hunters are searching for teens that have the respect, trust, and admiration of their friends.” The American Psychological Association said, “Advertisers understand the teen's desire to be "cool," and manipulate it to sell their wares, a concept that's been offered to marketers by psychologists including James McNeal.
Salancik & Pfeffer's (1978) Social information processing theory addresses mechanisms by which peers influence individuals' behavior and attitudes.
According to this theory, social information consists of comments and observations made by people whose views an individual considers relevant.
[7] Salanik & Pferrer's social information processing theory addresses mechanisms by which peers influence individuals behaviour and attitudes.
This encompasses the notion of key opinion leaders, who are very influential in a peer group as they are perceived to have higher social standing, credibility and trust.
Psychologists say that this results in children developing more materialistic values and have the tendency to own endless amounts of new products, otherwise they will feel inferior.
For example, fashion is a powerful social symbol because when a certain trend is successfully adopted by a number of people, this can impact the perceived value of the product.
Whether it be through sponsored health educational assemblies, or as simple as the vending machines in the lunch room, or contests/incentive programs, and the companies that supply the schools with new technologies such as Mac computers.
The academic setting becomes a prime marketing tool in reaching our youth because the classroom provides a captive audience for any product or brand to be modeled in front of.
One example that the Media Awareness Network provides to explain how the academic environment can be used to silently speak and market to the youth is contests and incentive programs like the Pizza Hut reading incentives program in which children receive certificates for free pizza if they achieve a monthly reading goal.
Interruptive advertising such as television, radio, email and telemarketing are considered ineffective techniques for youth marketing because they can be ‘annoying’.
However, a minority of the youth population may not be able to comprehend the persuasive intent of an advertisement and do not necessarily feel pressured but are at risk of deception.
[24] Companies are targeting young consumers because technology has become influential and nearly everyone in the world owns an electronic device which allows them to access the Internet.
They grow up to be highly active online, therefore, making it easy for youth to be directly reached through games and social networking sites which are full of ads.
It is easier to detect youth marketing in phone apps because they tend to pop up as little advertisement banners and users are having to close the ad because it is disruptive when playing.
They offer prizes such as T-shirts for filling in "lengthy profiles that ask for purchasing behavior, preferences and information on other family members.
"[25] Advertisers, then take the information they obtain from these polls and surveys to "craft individualized messages and ads" in order to draw and hook them into a world centered around a certain product or brand.
They sponsor the American Youth Soccer Organization and a traveling geography exhibit in order to promote and get eyes on their brand name and logo in child-friendly settings.
There's[clarification needed] analysis of the process of the development of a child and how it relates to how marketers know they can have a great deal of power in the field of persuasion on them at such young ages.
John C. Geraci, through the article “What do youth marketers think of selling to kids?”,[32] conducted an online poll consisting of 878 interviews, each around 30 minutes long.
Most of those polled also feel that the ethical standards are on par with other industries, but at the same time, they feel that ethics can be a matter of intentions and not results, including campaigns denied by companies due to a lack of accessible demographic and focus testing data utilized by marketers to appeal to youth easier.
Most ethical procedures in the youth marketing industry occur behind office walls and are usually not seen by the public, media, or politicians, which Geraci surmises that most issues with youth marketing don't originate from those creating ads, but are the result of multiple causes, citing childhood obesity as a health concern that has developed due to multiple factors, influencing how the public reacts to certain ads and products created and promoted by these companies.
The research that is done on youth marketing quickly becomes outdated by the time it is published as a result of the growth of digital media as educators and health professionals continue to get a grasp on the situation.
Other factors that may co-determine children's consumer behavior include socioeconomic level of the family, frequency and kind of parent–child interaction, and involvement with peer groups.
[33] The introduction of advanced technology has guided media fragmentation, which allows consumers to view information on different platforms.
[36] The launch of smart phones can represent this new hybrid technology which allows users alternative ways of accessing their information.
[41] Young consumers are more susceptible to marketing as part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex is not fully mature until early adulthood.
Cognitive studies use Piaget's Theory to analyse age-based differences in a child's ability to process, understand and comprehend television content.
In the concrete operational stage, a child now has the ability to understand the world more realistically and the intention of advertisers to sell products.
For example, the events that made the biggest impression on members of Generation Y who graduated from school in 2000 were Columbine, the war in Kosovo, and Princess Diana's death.