Marketing and Media Communications Targeted to Children as Consumers

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Marketing and media communication targeted to children as consumers is recently a topic of discussion in order to increase children consumer protection. Considering that children and youth spend a lot of time in media environment (Multi-tasking process), it is important to map the environment, including both the traditional marketing communication ways (TV, radio, DVD, video-games) and the new methods that are increasingly being preferred by children and youth (e.g. product placement, viral marketing, guerilla marketing, internet and social network environment, interactive games and quizzes, commercial website entertainment). Children are referred to as primary target group in the given communication, that is, the advertised products are addressed to they, as well as secondary target group, that is, the products are addressed to other members of the family, but the message focuses upon children as they significantly influence the shopping process in the family. This marketing communication mix, which consists of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations, uses both traditional as well as new tools and techniques which target the children's segment. In this paper, we focus on the traditional marketing techniques applied by the media environment (e.g. repetition, celebrity endorsements, and premiums) as well as new techniques emphasizing their application in educational practice.