00:00 Focus
pull, Christmas lights on tree
Tilt
down, Christmas tree on department store front
"Macys"
(Boston) store front
Pan
across portable cd players in shop window
Fashion
mannequins in shop window
Pull
out from reflected clock tower to show Business School
Prof.
de Chernatony at his desk
c.u.
book being lifted off shelf
Prof.
de Chernatony at his desk
c.u.
book on Brands
Guide Voice: It's Christmas time and thoughts
turn to presents and gift giving. But there are some drastic
changes taking place in the Christmas market place and Santa's
elves may need to swap their toy making skills for degrees in
advanced computer science or haute couture.
At the Centre for Research in Brand Marketing, at the UK's
University of Birmingham, researchers have identified a new force
in Christmas spending. The Tweenagers are here and Christmas may
never quite be the same again.
00:28 SOT: Professor Leslie de
Chernatony, Director of the Centre in Brand Marketing, University
of Birmingham - "I think the 8 - 13 year old age
group that some people refer to as the Tweenies, is the group in
which we're seeing this increasing awareness of brands. This is the
group that was born with a mouse in their fingers, it's the first
generation now coming through; this is the group where, typically
both parents would be working and as a result there is some degree
of guilt and therefore what they want to try do is to make up for
the time away from home by giving the child a present that you and
I, a few years ago, would just have thought was out of this
world."
01:01 Wide
shot - teddy bears in toy store
Exterior
shopping precinct in silhouette (Bullring, Birmingham, UK)
Couple
walking with child
mp3
player in store window
Exterior,
Karl Lagerfeld store
Tilt
down from shop sign ("Game") to goods in store
Wide,
children in school playground
Medium
shot, group of boys
Girls
playing schoolyard game
Guide Voice: Traditional toys are taking a back
seat as youngsters no longer ask Santa but tell their parents which
brands of electronic equipment or designer clothes they want to see
under the Christmas tree on December 25th.
Tweenagers, children aged from 8 to 13, have been identified as
having the fastest rising spending power on the high street and are
rapidly becoming more sophisticated and informed in their choice of
presents.
01:26 SOT: Sam Mabley, 10 years
old - "Electric Guitar, made by Fender Squire, an
mp3 player, mainly an i-pod and loads of cds like Green Day, R.
Kelly."
01:39 Tilt
up from boy on bed to game screen
c.u.
boy's face
Wide
of Game Cube, zoom in to brand name
Guide Voice: Evidence shows that this is an age
group that has a great awareness of brands - they won't just ask
for a games machine; they'll specify the make and model. They know
the market.
01:49 SOT: Michael Collett, 11 years
old - "It's just that the PS2s can also play
music and DVDs and the Game Cube can't do that because it has a
smaller disc space".
01:58 Young
girl at computer
c.u.
fingers on keyboard
c.u.
hand on mouse
Girl
at computer
Guide Voice: Because they're so technologically
aware and IT literate they can use their computers and internet
access to actively research the products they want to see in their
homes. As a result their advice is often sought when parents come
to making purchase decisions, especially if that decision concerns
hi tech gadgets.
02:15 SOT: Martin Collett, Father of
two Tweenagers - "If you think back to 2 or 3
years ago when they were 6 or 7, that sort of age, although they
were still looking at new gadgets it was much more on a toy or game
basis - the hand held game boys and that sort of thing. But it's
moved on now to the phones and the dvd players and items that I
suppose would be considered adult items. Items that we would want
in the house ourselves but it's actually the children who are
making the choices as to the things we end up
getting."
02:46 SOT: Prof. De Chernatony
- "The way that children are becoming more aware
of brands is something that is a global phenomenon. Part of the
reason for this being a global phenomenon is that we've now got
things like MTV, we've got mobiles, we've got internet. I mean for
an example a child now thinks nothing of talking to their friend.
Not next door, but in California - through the internet. So it's a
global phenomenon".
03:09 Pull
out from mobile phones display
"Skechers"
shoe display
Playstation
games on display
Trainers
(shoes) display
"RoboSapien"
Robot
Guide Voice: The average tween is now estimated
to have a total allowance in the region of 16 - 18 Euros a week and
this increases as parents compensate for time spent working by
spending extra cash on their children. Are they creating a consumer
monster that will come back to haunt them this Christmas?
03:27 SOT: Prof. De Chernatony
- "I think at the end of the day what the parents
have got to do is recognise that they're short of time but there is
a certain degree of economic well-being now occurring and the
parents have really got to start to also work with the child in
terms of thinking about some form of prioritisation of the list out
there so that, at the end of the day, both the child and the parent
are able to have a most enjoyable sleep on the 24th
December."
03:55 End of cut
Additional Material
03:58 SOT: Tracy Lancaster, Head of
Marketing, University of Birmingham - "I think 9
- 11 year olds/9 - 12 year olds are perfectly able to read between
the lines. They're incredibly intelligent young people who're
bought up in a society that from day 1 starts to advertise and
promote to them - and that's meant that they've built up filters
right from the very earliest experience of TV to be able to work
out what it is that they do and don't want" 24
secs
04:23 SOT: Henry Primmer-Pyke, 10 years
old - "Yeah, I do notice brand names. Things like
Hawke & Frapture (?), the quite cool skate brands that you see
everywhere" 07 secs
04:31 SOT: Henry Primmer-Pyke - "I
like looking at catalogues and looking through them and thinking,
"Oh, that's cool" because sometimes you see some nice
gadgets or whatever in Argos or something like that."
08 secs
04:39 SOT: Kate Hardy, 10 years
old - "I want "Mean Girls" on DVD and
for Game Boy games I'd like Scoobie-Do and Shrek 2 and cds, I'd
like Best of Blue and Jo-Jo and Girls Aloud". 18
secs
TOTAL TIME: 04:57
