Incorporating innovative ICT in child-oriented marketing - A retail sector case study

Abstract

The retail sector, although being primarily traditional is deconstructing and modernizing itself in order to keep up with the technological and digital enhancements. The Portuguese panorama is remarkably structured upon child-oriented marketing initiatives with the involvement of technological platforms, gamification and enrolment components. The scrutiny of existing applications of innovative ICTs focused on children's marketing will serve as the basis for a new business campaign aimed at children and supported by digital marketing and innovative technological features that might trigger a future campaign's success. In addition, we conducted a small survey to parents and subsequent potential campaign customers to understand the indulgence of a children's marketing action and a triumphant social media advertisement. The in-store retail system has a huge competitor in the online configuration, in some product categories in conjunction with the privilege of buying anywhere and anytime. In what concerns child-oriented marketing, there is an understanding that actions need to focus on aspects such as interactivity, multimedia and personalized content, where the survey displayed a 99% approval in the creation and necessity of child-oriented marketing campaigns to retailers, and a 54% acclamation of a promotional social media action. This reveals that the online channel is a valid channel, and the in-store retailers, even still being preponderant, need to rethink the inclusion of an Omni-channel solution to solve the in-store versus online shopping retail system. Additionally, is recommended the creation of child-oriented actions to convert customer loyalty from a younger age and influence family consumption.