Logos, Children and Brand Awareness
As a parent you want to believe that your child is the smartest amongst their peers and that everything they do automatically qualifies them as the world’s next brilliant genius who will go onto a life of fame and fortune. Then they remind you they’re two years old and color their entire body in, thankfully, washable marker. However, being a first time parent I’m not sure what I’m about to share with you constitutes smart, advanced or even normal, but my daughter has a slight fixation with brand recognition. Her first brand to recognize and repeat, incessantly, was Starbucks. That was at about a year and change. Every time she sees the logo I get an enthusiastic “Starbucks! Daddy Starrrrbucks!!!” yet now that she is two and a half Starbucks has transformed into an experience and the one that she frequently visits provides her with a “Mommy you might as well sit down with that chai latte” level of entertainment via a collection of children’s books. I’m sure Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, would be most impressed if he found this out and perhaps would send her a Starbucks branded travel cup for her milk. That excitement over learning has now spilled into knowledge of the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots and Boston Celtics. I’ll take the blame for that one, because she might have a pennant or two in her room, a few articles of clothing and a trip or five to Fenway Park.
Now I have a scenario on my hands that has caught me by surprise and it all started with potty training. Somebody gave us advice to have her read while “on the potty” so she would be relaxed. It’s amazing, as a culture, we get started reading on the toilet at such an early age. If only I could teach her to safely light a match. We started with her books, but eventually she took an interest in the various magazines in the bathroom. Since it was new and fascinating we got a lot of “What’s that?” and “Who’s that?” from her. In no time she was able to recognize Barack Obama and John McCain in Newsweek. For sixteen years I have subscribed to European Car and never once she has picked it up until a few weeks ago. I’m sure you know what happened next. Yes, now my little future wrench monkey can recognize every single Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and unrelated to the magazine, but because our neighbor has one, a Ford Edge AKA “Justin’s Car”. Today, my wife came home and said “It’s gotten worse. I couldn’t even see the logo of a BMW ahead of us and now she recognizes it by design, from the rear”.
I have to admit that I never would have expected this until maybe four. That would have been my guess. It’s not as if she is watching television and being exposed to commercials. If the tube is put on at all it’s to watch Sesame Street yet at two is intimately familiar with ten brands. She’s obviously going to carry that with her for life. I just hope that on her sixteenth birthday she’s not asking me for a Mercedes. The National Institute on Family and the Media cited a study saying children recognize logos at age three. The Center for a New American Dream pushes things a bit further with their findingd that children as early as six months recognize logos. As absurd as that would have sounded to me prior to having a child I’m now living proof of that and thus I have to take it as normal.
I’m curious to know, if you have children of your own or neices/nephews how early they got into brand recognition. Characters like Elmo are one thing, but Volkswagen is another. Then again last night I was asked “What kind of Audi is that Daddy?” and I had to answer “It’s an R8“. “Ohhhh an R8, what kind of Mercedes…….” I’m in trouble.
