Friday, October 3, 2014

Profile for Persuasion: The Tweens


Main characteristics and values:

In the business world we know that there are generational cohorts that have purchasing power in the market. There are the baby boomers, generation x, generation y, and of course there are the tweens. The tweens, nowadays, are those kids from 10 to 12 years old that aren’t quite teenagers but try to act like them. They are the preadolescent kids that try to be as cool as possible, when really they haven’t even made it to the middle school yet. Girl tweens spend most of their time asking their parents to take them to the mall to look at makeup. Guy tweens spend the majority of their time curling 5 pound weights and looking at girls pictures in their school yearbooks. One thing that tweens all have in common is that they have the mindset of a teenager trapped in a little kid’s preadolescent body. In other words, they think they are older than they really are.

Likely/Unlikely to persuade:

Although it is up for debate, it is quite possible that the tweens are the most easily persuaded people ever. They are the whole reason that the phrase “peer pressure” is coined. When you are a tween, the ultimate goal is extreme popularity. This means that tweens will do whatever it takes to become part of the popular clique. 

Test case: Attending a play:

Tweens are only likely to go to a play if it seems like the “cool” thing to do. If everyone else decides to go a play, the rest of the tweens will go to the play as well. The attendance and the type of play have literally no correlation. It only matters if it is the popular trend. The tweens just want to do what they think makes them look the best in front of others so that they can take new steps into their quest of ultimate popularity. 

2 comments:

  1. great post! I remember my tween days. I was so excited to start shaving my "beard" with the cool razor. Along with always trying to be cool, I remember always wanting to compete with my brother who is five years older than me. For whatever, I thought my coolness level was some how associated with my ability to compete with him. I'm glad those days are over haha.

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  2. I literally laughed out loud when I read your line, "tweens are the most easily persuaded group of people ever." I wholeheartedly agree. It's interesting to think of a group dynamic where the only thing that every wants to do is the thing that the majority are doing.

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