Kids product - market to kids or parents?

[stormjb1]

Hey guys, I'm in the middle of starting a line of digital products for kids, but unsure of who my audience is in terms of marketing and call-to-actions. Growing up watching Nickelodeon and the rest, the traditional kids products such as toys were pretty much always advertised to directly to kids ie the language, copy, visuals used were aimed at kids. Should this approach be used on the web too?

For example, if my site is populated with free content for young children from which I upsell to products on my store should the copy be geared towards the parents who are ultimately the ones who open the wallets or at the kids who is the consumer.

I also wanted to use a lead magnet for building my email list but unsure of whos email I should be collecting. Considering the products are for 6-10year olds who probably dont even have email addresses, and even if they did, the open ratio is likely to be low. Would it be advisable to ask for their parents' email adds? Is it considered unethical to do this?

Been racking my head all day thinking about this issue but cant seem to figure it out.
Of course it would be best to test both scenarios, but I simply dont have the resources at the moment to do so, so any advice/thoughts would be super helpful! Will be transferring reps.

Cheers! JB

 

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[PureA]

Ultimately your customer is the parent, market as such. Definitely collect emails.

 

[MoneyDoc]

Do kids have credit cards?

Target the parents.

 

[mws87]

Parents. Kids can want anything in the world, if it's something of value to the parent AND the kid, that's a win

 

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[Dwight Schrute]

That's a hard one.

TV ads target kids, who think they will be the happy king of the hill if they have this or that.
Those kids then beg their parents to buy it. They'll annoy them until they get what they want.
The parents want them to shut up and will look for the product, what it is and if it could harm their kids, or benefit their education.

I'd steer my marketing/ads towards the kids, but the copywriting/sales letter should be written with the parents in mind.

 

[Aktion]

Honestly the only way to know if your particular product is better marketed this way or that way is to A/B split test. Keep the traffic the same but test the copy or appeal against a different type of copy or appeal.

While I would agree that marketing to the parent is better, guessing and "best practices" is dangerous and honestly stupid, and could leave you leaking revenue.

By A/B split testing you would not only find the answer to your question, but you'll learn something that you could further test, which will lead to further knowledge about who buys from you which will lead to further tests and so on.

 

[The-J]

Kix's slogan says it best.

Kid tested, mother approved.

Make the kids WANT it, and make it so it's easy for the parent to say yes (and hard for the parent to say no).

 

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