The Bribing Of America's Children

publication date: Nov 29, 2007

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author/source: Michael Attias

I remember when my son Jerrod went for an exploratory visit to the orthodontist. He returned with a glow on his face, "Guess what the doctor gave me?" His sister chimed in, "Yea Dad. Guess what the doctor gave us?"

In unison they both exclaimed, "A free ice cream cone!"

The ice cream cone was not free. It would cost us $5,800. The braces were the bonus gift. The orthodontist knows what I've been teaching for years. Befriend the kid(s) and the parents will follow with wallet. I'd love to take credit, but can't. I think the cereal companies started it with the free prize. The morning after my mom went shopping; I dumped the cereal into a large bowl to fetch the prize. For some strange reason the box looked pregnant when refilled ;-)

At a recent consulting day with a client, we discussed the neighborhood marketing technique of creating affiliations with kid friendly venues to pass out your free kids meal certificates. We also discussed them getting a mascot to use for distribution of these certificates at kid friendly events like fairs, festivals, school events, etc.

Based on my personal success with this strategy, I believe you could keep a college student as busy as you'd like fostering these types of relationships. For a few hundred dollars a year in printing costs we kept our local schools well stocked in certificates. In turn, they kept us stocked with kids bringing full paying adults. One of the best promotions we ever ran.

Peruse your local parenting magazine to building a list of potential marketing partners. Here are a few to get you started: kid's museums, schools, zoo, karate studio, sports leagues magicians, and toy stores.

I was able to create a list of forty-four potential partners. This will keep your neighborhood marketing person busy and your kid friendly restaurant packed.