Kids' Buying Power to Top $21 Billion in 2010, Forecasts Packaged Facts
Tuesday, 30 May 2006
American kids – including preschoolers aged 3 to 5, younger kids aged 6 to 8, and tweens aged 9 to 11 — last year comprised a powerful consumer group of nearly 36 million. Last year, their purchasing power was estimated to be $18 billion, according to The Kids Market in the US, a new report from market research publisher Packaged Facts. That is forecast to reach $21.4 billion in disposable income by 2010.
Concurrently, families spend more than $115 billion on kids in key consumer areas, such as food, clothing, personal-care items, entertainment, and reading materials. Almost half of this total, $58.3 billion, is devoted to food expenditures.
By Packaged Facts estimates, annual expenditures by families on consumer goods for kids will reach approximately $143 billion by 2010.
Marketing to this big-money demographic can be tricky, however, as each age group has distinct tastes, buying habits, and levels of influence over purchasing decisions — not to mention additional influences, such as race, education level of parents, and household income. Then there are the wider-ranging kid issues that have focused anew the spotlight on the potential business and societal risks related to kid marketing.
“The major industry-wide efforts to proactively respond to kid issues, such as obesity, Internet safety, and the appropriateness of marketing and promotions directly targeting children, have certainly impacted the market,” said Don Montuori, the publisher of Packaged Facts. “While these need to continue to be major concerns, marketers would be wise to adapt to the rapidly evolving consumer attitudes and habits of today’s media-saturated kids — and their families — by going beyond what’s politically correct to find more meaningful and age-affirming ways to reach this demographic where they are.”