9 - The competition

Summary

Recalling our new additional 4Ps presented at the end of Chapter 1, this chapter illustrates a number of objectives for changes in products and places, but with the main emphasis on product changes. We analyse the competition from three main perspectives: (1) defining the competition; (2) monitoring the competition; and (3) countering the competition. Given the importance of early childhood development for later adolescent and adult behaviours, of special interest is the ‘competition for kids’. The targeting of children has gone from being virtually non-existent in the early 1950s, to specific targeting of child products, and, more recently, to an all-out drive to inculcate consumption values as the dominant cultural values. The commercialisation of schools in particular has been monitored extensively in the United States (see Annual Reports on School-House Commercialism). This monitor now includes the United Kingdom and Ireland (Molnar et al. 2008). Indeed, there is a growing backlash in North America (Klein 2000; Quart 2003), the United Kingdom (Glayzer and Mitchell 2008) and many other countries about marketing to teenagers and children, with food marketing being of most current interest.