Brands Are Built Early in the Minds of Babes

As the family got some ice cream at our favorite creamy whip on Saturday night, I realized how early brands establish a beachfront in our minds.

The creamy whip is located on a busy road and a semi passed by while we hung out. It pulled a trailer from our local grocery store.

My two-year-old son, a truck aficionado, pointed to it as it sped by and exclaimed…"grocery truck!"

As you can see, there are no graphic cues of food, a grocery store or a related theme that might lead him to make that statement – just the logo. Now while I’m personally inclined to believe it’s further proof of his genius, the bottom-line is that brand recognition starts at a very early age.

This should be viewed as a responsibility by marketers and not an untapped opportunity.

UPDATE: Stanford University further reinforces my theory with another example of kids and branding using McDonald's.

UPDATE 2: The Stanford U update was added last Tuesday. One week later, The NY Times covers it. And people wonder why blogs should be in everyone's media diet?

tags | marketing | branding | brand

Comments

[Peter A. Mello]

We live across the street from an old New England inn with a pub and my son learned to "read" Budweiser at 2 years old as well. If we could just convert our teachers into brand managers or vice versa, think of what could be done to improve youth literacy! ;-)

[Eric Tatro]

I am continually amazed at how children can identify the Golden Arches at such a young age. In some cases, "McDonald's" is one of their first words!

[Kevin Dugan]

When children have these moments, they are full of mixed-emotions for the parents.

A friend tells me his daughter used to say "pizza's here" when the doorbell rang. Now that's just bad!

[Drew McLellan]

Kevin,

I must admit, I laughed out loud at the "pizza's here" comment. Although when you think about it -- how often does your doorbell ring any more?

My daughter, the offspring of a marketing guy, judges the quality of products on a unique scale. Do they have a theme song/jingle or not? Charmin or nothing at our house!

Drew