Marketing to and through kids /

Guber and Berry's book is must reading for anyone wishing to tap into America's $150 billion kids consumer market. Parents would be wise to read it as well. As the authors point out, children not only buy for themselves, but influence family purchases ranging from the predictable cereals, candy, and toys to restaurant choices (witness the phenomenal success of McDonald's "Happy Meals"), vacations, consumer electronics, frozen foods, cars, and more. Savvy marketers, recognizing the power that kids wield, are creating special products just for them such as Polaroid's "Cool Cam," an affordable instant camera that comes packaged with sunglasses, and Keebler's Pizzarias, pizza-flavored snacks that rang up $75 million in first-year sales. The book covers all the bases--target marketing, conducting kids' focus groups (the authors advise separating the participants by age and sex, and using humor and role playing), creating ads, and choosing media. There is also a section on "Kidtrends" and their marketing implications for the '90s. Highly recommended for general readers, undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers. P. G. Kishel; Cypress College