Posted by admin on April 29th, 2009 in Middle School Boys

As parents, we are well aware of the market research behind product design and placement – products for us AND our children.  It’s rare we get a glimpse into the inner workings of that strategy.  Fearful of coming off as too manipulative,  companies rarely discuss this kind of field research.  Recently I read about “the kid whisperer,” (as some Hollywood producers call her).  Kelly Pena’s job is to unearth what makes boys tick.  On a recent afternoon, she was digging through a 12 year old boy’s dresser drawer to try to understand his thinking a little better to help the Walt Disney Company “re-assert” themselves among boys.

Ms. Peña and her team of anthropologists have spent 18 months peering inside the heads of non-communicative boys in search of  of psychological “insights”.   (The people on Ms. Peña’s team have anthropology and psychology backgrounds) Disney is relying on her insights to create new entertainment for boys 6 to 14, a group that Disney used to own way back in the days of “Davy Crockett” but these days is more known for girl-friendly fare like “Hannah Montana”.

Boys Are Complicated

Attempts to pick up one or two key traits (or “boy secrets”) inevitably fail and risk extending hackneyed gender ideologies.”  says Ms. Peña, who also has a background in the casino industry.  she immediately zeroed in on a ratty rock ’n’ roll T-shirt in the 12 year-old’s dresser drawer.  Black Sabbath?

“Wearing it makes me feel like I’m going to an R-rated movie,” said Dean, a shy redhead.

Disney XD is the  new cable channel and Web site  geared  to boys aged 6 – 14 year of age.  It’s no accident, for instance, that the central character on “Aaron Stone” is a mediocre basketball player.   Ms. Peña  told producers that boys identify with protagonists who try hard to grow.  “Winning isn’t nearly as important to boys as Hollywood thinks,” she said.  Actors have been instructed to tote their skateboards around with the bottoms facing outward because evidently boys in real life carry them that way to display the personalization.  The games portion of the Disney XD Web site now features prominent trophy cases. (It’s less about the level reached in the game and more about sharing small achievements, research showed.).

Boys Ages 6 to 14 account for $50 billion in Spending Worldwide

Thus far, Disney’s initiative is limited to the XD channel. And, they are hoping XD will produce a hit show similar in popularity to “High School Musical”.  That model allowed them to merchandise everything from live theatre to feature film and perhaps even a Disney World attraction.   With the exception of “Cars,”  “Princesses” merchandising line; the Jonas Brothers; and “Pixie Hollow,” a virtual world built around fairies, Disney has had little success marketing to  boys.   Disney Channel’s audience is 40 percent male, but girls drive most of the related merchandising sales.

Rivals like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network have made inroads with boys with “The Fairly Oddparents” and “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”    “We wrote the book on all of this,” said Colleen Fahey Rush, executive vice president for research of MTV Networks, which includes Nickelodeon.  Even so, media companies  struggle to figure out  boys’ taste in entertainment.   News Corporation tried to market to boys  in the late 1990s with its Fox Kids Network and a digital offering, Boyz Channel.  Both failed and drew criticism from parents and educators for segregating the sexes (there was also a Girlz Channel) and reinforcing stereotypes.

Why Are Boys So Difficult?

Boys hop more quickly than their female counterparts from sporting activities to television to video games during leisure time.  They can also be harder to understand: the cliché that girls are more willing to chitchat about their feelings is  true.  Just ask any parent of a Middle School Boy about communication!

Sometimes the research is conducted in groups; sometimes it involves Ms. Peña’s going shopping with a teenage boy and his mother.   The subjects, who are randomly selected by a market research company, are never told that Disney is the one studying them. The children are paid $75.  On a recent visit to a subject’s home, she said,“What’s on the back of shelves that he hasn’t quite gotten rid of — that will be telling.”    “What’s on his walls?  How does he interact with his siblings?”  One big takeaway from the two-hour visit: although Dean was trying to sound grown-up and nonchalant in his answers, he still had a lot of little kid in him.   He had dinosaur sheets and stuffed animals at the bottom of his bed.   “Boys are complicated. … So attempts to pick up one or two key traits (or “boy secrets”) inevitably fail and risk extending hackneyed gender ideologies.”  “I think he’s trying to push a lot of boundaries for the first time,” Ms. Peña said later.“You have to start with the kids themselves,” she said. “Ratings show what boys are watching today, but they don’t tell you what is missing in the marketplace.”

Disney’s XD channel is marketed to boys but it is also intended to include girls. “The days of the Honeycomb Hideout, where girls can’t come in, have long passed,” said Rich Ross, president of Disney Channels Worldwide.  During their research, Disney discovered boys had a strong desire for a new channel that was “fun with a purpose.”  Disney executives decided they had been thinking of boys too narrowly – offering all action or all animation – instead of a combination.

Disney XD,  has improved its predecessor’s prime-time audience by 27 percent among children 6 to 14, according to Nielsen Media Research. But the bulk of this increase has come from girls. Viewership among boys 6 to 14 is up only 10 percent.   Clearly there is still much work to be done.  During Ms. Pena’s recent tour of a boy’s home she was quizzing him about  what he meant when he used the word “crash.”  Ben, a 12-year-old friend who had come over to hang out, responded, “After a long day of doing nothing, we do nothing.”

Hello, Disney when you figure how they tick, will you let us know???