The point of sale and the connection with children

It is undeniable the power and influence that children have on the purchasing decisions of us adults, and it is a fact that we are always more inclined to buy brands and products that children like.

For this reason, in recent years, children’s marketing has gained vital importance in the strategy of many companies.

In order to develop campaigns and actions that capture the attention of children, we must not forget that their way of understanding the world, their tastes and their way of communicating is very different from that of adults.

In general, there are a number of “tricks” that always (or almost always) work with the little ones like:

• The use of your favourite characters
• Giveaways, point-of-sale demonstrations
• Participating in the proposed activity with friends or family members
• The immediate benefit
• Thematization of spaces
• Giving children brand experiences
• Gamification
• Among many others

Today we will dwell a little more on the concept of “gamification”… what is it? why does it work so well?

Gamificationis nothing more than applying game techniques in a non-game context, such as the point of sale, with the aim of building customer loyalty by making them interact through a game.

Children love to play, and that is why we can say that gamification is a good way to get closer to them.

Through the proposed games we should always promote positive values for them, such as motivation, effort, teamwork…

For the proposed actions to be successful with the children, it will be very important to set an objective and rules and, whenever possible, to include a gift for participating or reaching the objectives.

as this will make them feel that they are playing or competing for something (reason why). If this gift can also be a surprise, we will add that much-desired point of interest.

To give you an example and to try to clarify any doubts that may have arisen, we will talk about our game “Put out the fire with Sam the Fireman”.

In it we encouraged the little ones to helpSam the Firemanto put out the fire in the windows of a building, for which they had to try to knock down the flames with the help of some balls.

Simply for participating, they got a Sam The Firefighter activity magazine and a personalised firefighter badge with their name on it.

This activation was a great success, as it managed to attract the attention of the little ones through a fun game while at the same time informing parents about the characteristics of the brand’s products related to it, thus increasing its sales.