Kids & Family Marketing: Two Audiences

By Pawel Heyne · Marketing perspective

A family product can be experienced by one person and chosen by another. That is what makes Kids & Family Marketing interesting to me: a child’s enthusiasm and a parent’s confidence can be part of the same decision, while responding to different needs.

Understand the experience and the decision

For a child, an activity or product may represent play, discovery, belonging or a chance to develop a skill. An adult may need to understand suitability, practical value, cost and what participation involves. Neither perspective should be reduced to a stereotype.

The roles also depend on age and context. A parent choosing an educational activity for a young child faces different questions from a family considering a sports programme with an older child. Audience development starts with understanding that situation.

Make the promise understandable to both audiences

In a hypothetical family sports event, children might want to know what they will do and whether they will enjoy taking part. Parents may ask about supervision, equipment, accessibility and the full cost. The useful communication answers both sets of questions without making claims the experience cannot support.

I would apply the same thinking to toys, entertainment and educational brands: show the experience clearly, explain its boundaries and help the adult assess whether it fits their family.

Build trust without relying on pressure

I am interested in communication that earns attention through relevance and enjoyment. Pressure to buy, artificial urgency or encouraging a child to persuade an adult can undermine that trust.

Commercial relationships should be recognisable and explained in a way the intended audience can understand. Age-appropriate language matters, as does being clear about purchases, subscriptions or any other commitment. An engaging experience should still leave room for an informed choice.

Treat privacy as part of the experience

UNICEF’s work on children’s rights and digital marketing encourages businesses to understand, assess and address the effects of their marketing on children. For me, that means asking early whether collecting information is necessary and how the experience could work with less data.

I would also consider how information is explained to children and parents, who is expected to make a decision and which market and platform requirements need review. A short consent message alone cannot answer every design question.

Look beyond immediate conversion

For a family brand, I would want to understand whether expectations were clear, the experience matched the promise and adults felt able to make a confident decision. Those questions complement commercial measures and can reveal why a relationship lasts—or does not.

This is an area of personal interest, and I value exchanging perspectives with people working in children’s brands, family sport, education and entertainment. The most useful starting point is the experience being created for the family.

Reference & related reading

UNICEF: Industry Toolkit on Children’s Rights and Digital Marketing ↗

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