TweenSpeak: do you get it?

Citation

Lindstrom, M. (2007), "TweenSpeak: do you get it?", Young Consumers, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/yc.2007.32108bab.003

TweenSpeak: do you get it?

TweenSpeak: do you get it?

Martin Lindstrom is author of BRANDchild and BRAND sense.

Last time in Young Consumers, I discussed the extraordinary purchasing power of tweens (children aged from eight to 12 years of age). This time, I would like to explore another interesting tween phenomenon: their language.

Tweens communicate with others all around the globe. In fact, 15 percent do so on a weekly basis. Furthermore, 70 percent of all tweens in Europe text message – or SMS – each other every day. According to BRANDchild, the world’s largest ever study exploring kids and their relationships with brands, a unique language is always emerging and evolving within the tween community. I call it TweenSpeak. For example, our research figures show that close to 60 percent of all kids across the world have discarded traditional grammar in favour of the far more cool texting language. In fact 25 percent state that they would prefer to text on their cell phone or chat on the internet rather than communicate “for real”. And this is even if they are sitting side by side.

It has become increasingly clear to me that TweenSpeak is much more than a new way of writing. It is a new language which operates with icon-based symbols, abbreviations, contractions and numerals – enabling tweens in the USA to talk with tweens in Japan with very little misunderstanding. Now that phones come with full-color screens and built-in cameras, messages are jam packed with cartoons, broken hearts, houses, trees, animals, and a whole host of emoticons.

See for yourself. Ask any tween to give you a glance at their emails or online conversations, and you will see what they call “cute” icons, proving in a whole new way that pictures are speaking a lot louder than words.

As the BRANDchild study revealed, 80 percent of all brand purchases by parents are heavily influenced by their young tweens. So marketers have to develop dual strategies. Part of this will necessitate talking TweenSpeak. This does not mean discarding a brand’s corporate language, but it is important that brands consider the value of communicating to both audiences simultaneously. The challenge will be to integrate the corporate language and cool TweenSpeak.

Tweens are a unique generation. They are the world’s first truly interactive population, born with a computer screen as their window on the world and a mouse in their hand for navigating that world. Their expectations of brands is enormous. Their desires need to be satisfied instantaneously. And their influence, as we have discovered, is huge. For all these reasons, marketers need to rethink their understandings of their consumers, and perhaps re-design the way they plan intend to appeal to their audiences.

It is a challenge to achieve the balance between conveying a brand message while at the same time maintaining an ethical approach so necessary when speaking directly to children. But, if marketers fail to pay heed to the language of tweens, it will not take long for them to persuade their parents to support much “cooler” brands – brands which are likely to represent competition the non-tweenspeakers just do not understand.