Thanks for the note. First, I left a link off the post, but have put it in there, a link to one of Fred’s episodes. That would help show how this is less than appealing. I have also put a link to the Justice store website to provide more background on the consumer, the Tween.

I think our definitions are different. My definition of consumer is the end-user, the tween who loves Fred and wears the shirt. The shopper is the one with the money, the mom that gets dragged into the store to endure a screaming kid on the TV and watch the reaction from her child.

You are correct, it’s all about relevance. In this case, I’m seeing a shift in a different environment. To elaborate, a grocery store has messaging targeted directly to the shopper (the one with the money). The shopper might also be the consumer, but in families, the shopper also buys for consumers that are not present (Mom buying Frosted Flakes for her 12 year-old son at home). In the case of Justice stores, the shoppers can be moms and tweens. The interesting thing to me is to see how a network must cater to two radically different demographics: The Mom (almost always the shopper in this case), the one with the money but without any interest in the fashions of the tween demo and the Tween (sometimes the shopper because sometimes she has money) with a raging interest in fashion.

To be able to cross promote effectively is…well…very effective.

As a matter of fact, this very presentation has driven me to write a little more about this due to some other stuff I have seen that show the power of the Tween in brand engagement. Fascinating stuff.