Looking for a place where teenagers can have good, wholesome fun? If that seems a contradiction in terms, you don’t know the venues Greg Sobocinski does.
As a partner of Target Market Concepts in Ovid, NY, he distributes samples on behalf of his clients to young people at 450 roller-skating rinks across the country. With a 90% market share – reaching in-line and four-wheel locales (nearly 50% of them are still outfitted for four-wheel skating) – he knows his arena.
“A rink is a family-friendly location,” Sobocinski explains. “This is where the kids and teens are – a place where you can get a product into their hands in large numbers in a very controlled and systematic way.”
That’s what Bob Perlstein wanted to hear when seeking a distributor for his Girl 2000 sample bag program, which targets adolescent girls between the ages of 13 and 17. The pair are running a test during the latter part of this month to hand out 50,000 bags at 20 rinks in Georgia, South Carolina, Delaware and New Jersey. The program is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2000.
“Even in this crazy, progressive, nutsy world we live in, skating rinks seem to be the safest places,” says Perlstein, president of Sports & Entertainment Direct of Atlanta.
Sure, girls go to the rink to meet boys, the marketers admit. But because it’s an enclosed, supervised environment, parents prefer it to the ubiquitous shopping malls or fast-food joints kids typically frequent.
Wherever a marketer can reach this demographic, it tends to pay off. Cosmetics and apparel manufacturers develop entire lines for girls because “they are great consumers,” Perlstein declares.
Teenage girls have about $41 of their own money to spend each month, adds Andi Rosen, a project manager for Girl 2000 and a former middle school teacher. “When they like what they see, they go for it. They are very trendy.”
Girls – more than boys – help marketers through peer pressure. Perlstein admits that “if this pays off, we’ll find an approach to boys.” But, he adds, “Boys are interested in girls. Girls are interested in everything. Girls have a tendency for spreading the news. They will try something because their friends are doing it.”
In keeping with the wholesome attitude of the campaign, Perlstein says he will not accept anything in the bag “that could tick parents off,” such as hair-removal or feminine hygiene products.
The venture is Sobocinski’s first involving multiple samples – and the first bag program he’s heard about for this age group. He also says his background handing out samples to youths has taught him valuable lessons: “Parents trust us that the samples are things they are not uncomfortable with their kids getting.”
Although deals with national advertisers weren’t entirely sewn up at press time, samples expected to be in the bag include a facial cleansing pad, lip gloss and hair accessories like barrettes or scrunchies. Other possibilities include CDs by such pop acts as the Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears, a promotion for a youth-oriented TV network, a clothing catalog and coupons for apparel, skating gear and teen-magazine subscriptions.
The 14-by-16 plastic bag with handles will have the companies’ logos on one side, and the program’s Girl 2000 skate logo on the other. Starburst shapes hawking the bag’s contents will be sprinkled among the logos.
“When you have something small in the bag, it can get lost unless you have some acknowledgement,” Perlstein points out.
If the test goes well, the rollout calls for distributing some 300,000 bags throughout Sobocinski’s rink network.
The goal is to add the teenage girl group to advertisers’ market share. Those distributing the bags at rink exits will gauge reaction with one- or two-question spot polls and by taking occasional snapshots of girls opening the bags.
Eventually, a longer questionnaire will be part of the contents “because teen data is very scarce,” Perlstein says.
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