Tween Marketing

“Marketing and Tweens”, by Alicia de Mesa. Retrieved July 9, 2010 from http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content.com


This article appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek on October 12, 2005, but the material is still relevant today.

The American Girl books, dolls, and accessories are given a lot of attention in this article. The American Girl Products are aimed at girls between the ages of 7 and 11.
The American Girl Series deal with historic ethnic girls, such as Kaya, a Nez Perce from 1764 and Molly, an Irish immigrant growing up during World War II. The dolls can cost $79, but the spending does not stop here. During the writing of this article, Mattel, the parent company of The American Girl Series, was planning a 40,000 square American Girl Store, which will feature a 150-seat theater for a live Broadway-style “American Girl Revue”. There will also be a hair salon, where the girls can get their doll’s hair done. Finally, there will be a café where the girls can have tea with their dolls. I am not making this up.

The article goes on to say that the Disney and many of the other big players are busy marketing cell phones to tweens. They say they are doing this so the parents will know where their children are, but I question whether Disney and Verizon are doing this so the tweens can mimic teens and eventually want bigger and better phones.

The most troubling segment of this article dealt with how the manufactures ascertain what is going to be hot and what is not. Girls Intelligence Agency has set up a computer network called Best Friends Forever. What they do is give girls prototype items for the tween market. The girls discuss the items on Best Friends Forever Network, and report resulting comments back to a Girls Intelligence Agency agent. Seems Orwellian to me.