Consumer Forum

I am very proud that my team and I have built a successful business by putting our consumers at the heart of everything we do.  Nothing unusual there – it’s what all good companies should do. Our difference however, is that as well as their parents, our consumers are children.  We quite deliberately aim to listen to, empower and inform them trying to influence their food choices – so that they themselves actively choose to eat a healthier and more fun diet.  We’re successful partially because we create some of our marketing to appeal to children. Some people may find this controversial.  We think it makes perfect, ethical and commercial sense.

 

Children make thousands of decisions on their own every day.  They evaluate their options – in their own ways – and decide what they want.  Sometimes they get what they want and sometimes they don’t as they often have to persuade a ‘gatekeeper’ – usually their mum or dad – that their choice is good. Their decision making process may be simple or sophisticated, rational or irrational, emotional or logical, expected or unexpected but they certainly take decisions when they see a choice important enough to them.  Children are obviously one of the most vulnerable groups of our society and need protecting from irresponsible influences and unfair choices particularly when they are not able to understand the consequences of their decisions.  But that is a long way from saying that they should not be informed or encouraged to make choices which will have a positive impact on their health and wellbeing.

 

I am passionate about children and their welfare.  Ella’s Kitchen engages with children from young babies through to primary school kids, at their level, in their language and in their own owned environments with responsible information; encouraging them to make certain choices.  Wanting them to choose our products and brand.

 

I have been a hands-on father for over 10 years and have worked professionally with children for over 15 years.  That collective experience has taught me that they are different from adults in many ways. Indeed they are different from each other in an equal number of ways too, but for the purposes of this blog let’s lump ‘children’ together regardless of whether we are talking about a 9 month old baby, a 10 year old tweenager, a 4 year old boy-sy boy or a nine year old girl-y girl.  Kids, for example, smile 20 times a day more than adults and their favourite colour is often more important to them than how much pocket money they get.  As consumers they really count – there are 7 million under 10 year olds in the UK who control over £2 billion of the economy’s spending power – influencing not only what they directly consume but also, for example, where their parents buy their home, what brand of car they buy or where they take their summer holiday. They are incredibly honest (join us at one of our products in development taste tests to see!) and see life in refreshingly simple terms.  They hate to be patronised, but at the same time can be fickle.  For example, today’s best friend can be next week’s worst enemy.  They constantly want to be seen as their own person, sometimes as older than they actually are and other times it may be a regression into the safety of when they were younger that they crave.  They can be frightened of the unknown or the untried or simply of ‘change’. That’s why, for example, a young child won’t try a new food.  It’s not that they know they don’t like it, it’s that they are frightened that they MAY not like it and at that age such fear outweighs the pleasure they may get if they actually tried and loved it. 

 

As a brand that truly aims to interact with kids, we need to understand this stuff and use this knowledge positively.  To argue that in spite of their evidenced sophistication children’s influence in purchasing decisions can be reduced to the simple, bogey-phrase of ‘Pester Power’ is patronising and naïve.  To further argue that because of pester power children shouldn’t be involved in consumer choices or be exposed to marketing or communicating about choices is plain wrong.

 

At every point of our communication we aim to ‘connect’ with both our consumers (kids) and their gatekeepers (parents).  Indeed we go out of our way to turn the perception of ‘pester power’ on its head by putting parents and children on the same side of the debate or choice decision.  Our packaging is specifically designed to engage children.  Our baby food pouches are bright, shiny and tactile to which are much more fun for a young baby to explore than explore a cold, hard glass jar of baby food,  whilst the practical information on, and the functioning of, the packaging is important to parents.  The language we use on products for older children is carefully chosen in terms of meaning, context and tone so that they feel communicated with at their own level.  We choose to create television adverts that play out on channels like Nickelodeon, and not more generic terrestrial channels because of the environment in which the ads are watched and heard by children even if less children actually see them. The connection, and communication, will be better when the child feels the messages are on their turf.  The ads themselves are designed to be visually engaging, light hearted, childish and funny, with the voice over being much more for the parents, but supported by child engaging music or tunes. 

 

Some countries ban television advertising to children arguing that it will 1) reduce “pester power” or 2) that children are not sophisticated enough to make choices once they see adverts, or indeed that all adverts are either misleading, dishonest or for products that are not good for children.  To me this seems like a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and again patronises the ingenuity and sophistication that children have in terms of understanding what is being said to them, why and what they think about it. Turning pester power on its head again.

 

Self evidently children are our future and, as people, they have the right to hear and be heard. From the youngest age they make conscious decisions about many, many things and my view is that they should be encouraged to develop those choice making skills early, should be respected to make decisions that they can base on reason and  – if marketed to in an honest, regulated and respectful way – they will make informed decisions.  Just like adults do. Power is with the consumer whether a toddler, a pensioner or anyone in between.

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