Any marketing manager knows that the real trick to extending the life of your product is to bring your customers into the fold as early as possible. Engender yourself to them when they’re young, and there’s a good chance they’ll be yours forever.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Apple has this down to a science. A bit of research would probably tell me exactly how many of the iPhone applications available for download are geared toward kids, but just trust me when I say it’s a lot. We’ve downloaded things that can keep Olivia quiet in a restaurant and keep Ava entertained for . . . well, a long time.
Ava loves to play the matching game on our phone—an application that’s free, but in turn, features add for other downloads. One of these — Cooking Mama — caught her eye a few weeks ago. She was desperate to own this game, but it was $6.99—quite pricey for a iPhone app. Plus, it was right after her birthday, and as a general rule, we’d prefer she not be spoiled until completely rotten.
So, instead of just saying no like responsible parents, we took the opportunity to teach her about money management. We helped her count out the change she’s gathered in her piggy bank, telling her she could use it to pay for the game herself. That amounted to $3.50.
Throughout the next few weeks, we gave her opportunities to earn a bit of change by picking up some additional chores around the house. She was quite dismayed to find out that she wasn’t paid for doing the daily chores we already expected of her, but she was excited about earning a dime or nickel for helping out with other odds and ends.
I attempted to draw out the process as long as possible, hoping she’d forget about the game along the way. And, at one point, she pointed to a toy in the grocery store that she said she really wanted. I gave her the option of using her money on that instead of the Cooking Mama game, but she remained resiliant.
When she finally had enough pennies in her piggy bank, we purchasesd the game for her. We told her that even if she didn’t like it, she couldn’t return it. This is, at least typically, where things go arwy for us as parents. With Ava especially, just as we start to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done, our efforts backfire spectacularly and we’re the ones learning a life lesson.
In this case though, it seemed to work. Ava loves the game, and she really seemed to grasp what it means to earn money and purchase something yourself.
This is a good thing, because she’ll need a hefty savings account to buy her first MacBook.
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