The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 191

A97 THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE JULY 8, 1990 New kids clubs on the block MTV txfcV-k. 1 NEC PowerMate SX Plus 80386SX 16MHz, 0 2M RAM Memory 1.2MB Floppy 42 MB HDD 28ms VGA PortMouse Port The WLVI club is part public service and part promotion, with its two club hosts, Paul Wagner and Elizabeth Dann, recommending books and visits to educational locations in slick 15- and 30-second spots that are mixed in with regular commercials. Zuckerman acknowledges that his initial characterization of the club as having "zero commercialization" was not altogether accurate. The children's marketing department that he founded has paid for itself even in its first year, he says, through contracts that McDonald's and Child World and others have signed to secure low-key on-air promotions. "We would never have someone come on our club pitching Happy Meals, pitching Tootsie Rolls or things like that," Zuckerman says.

Claiming the largest kids membership is you could guess it -Kool-Aid's Wacky Warehouse, with 3 million to 4 million little consumers who send in "Kool-Aid points" for mugs, skateboards and, you know, premiums. The Wacky Warehouse, now in its fourth year, is the focus of Kool-Aid's advertising and is a place PowerMate 286 Plus 80286 812MHZ 1M ram Memory a 1.2MB Floppy 5 42MB HDD 28msT VGA PortMouse Port Us. "The child's name and town and state are woven though games and puzzles and stories." Some promotions of kids clubs are included in the national advertising campaigns for the products involved. Kraft's Cheese and Macaroni Club reverses the name of the product (Kraft Macaroni Cheese) to emphasize that it is the "cheesiest." And Scott Wallace, vice president of consumer promotion for Kraft USA, says a "kid spokesperson" named Annie helped sign up children in 45,000 households in only four months. None of those makers of products have as rich an opportunity to communicate with children as does a television station, and WLVI, Channel 56, has hired a wizard his actual title is director of children's marketing to improve the station's already enviable position among young viewers.

"Kids like to belong to things, whether its Little League baseball or Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts or whatever," says Ken Zuck-erman, who joined WLVI last fall and established the WLVI Kids Club in January. It already has 65,000 members, he says, and more pour in as the station reaches about 750,000 children each week, in its Boston broadcast area and cable markets. "I have Kids Club members out on Long Island New York Syosset and River-head," Zuckerman adds. ing, "We've received letters in which parents have told us that children demanded that mommy and daddy fly on Delta." Kurland, who founded Communique Group six years ago, says it is obvious why packaged-goods manufacturers and retailers want to talk directly to today's kids. "The tween' market, the 7-12 market, last year received $6 billion in allowance," he says, "not to mention the other $40 billion to $50 billion in purchases that they influence." He says Burger King has been able to increase its business, through its kids club, by recognizing what McDonald's has always seemed to understand: The four factors determining where a family goes to eat are price, menu, location and children.

"You want a mind-boggling statistic?" he asks. "For 10- to 14-year-olds, the average disposable income is $34 a week." There are an estimated 15 million in that group, putting their aggregate weekly spending at more than a half-billion dollars. Most of the clubs are free, but Geoffrey's is not. The Toys 'R' Us club went to $4.95 this year from $2.95. Kids club membership rolls, of course, make divine mailing lists for promotions.

"This club is very unique in that it is personalized, and they get four mailings throughout the year." says Dowling of Toys 'R' DOT MATRIX PRINTER KX-P1124192 CPD $299 KX-P1B24192 CPS $395 KX-P1 695240 CPS $429 HYUNDAI SUPER 286 80286, 12MHz, WOK 1S, 1P, 101 Keyboard DOS 3.3 GW BASIC 1FDO40MB HDDA 1 6 Btt VGA Card $1 14" Hyundai VGA If Monitor IB Waif SUPER 386 SX 80386SX. 16MHz, 1MB RAM 1S.1P Clock DOS 3 3 GW BASIC 1 FDO40MB HDD 16 Bit VGA Card 14' Hyundai VGA Monitor 5 1895 for use with HP Laserjet III IIP 25 Cartridges in One! $395 $325 PacificPage Postscript $425 $385 1MB Memory Upgrade $215 $215 2MB Memory Upgrade $305 $305 .1345 PC Warehouse 38625 Mrii job, 1 MB, HAM 1.2MB Floppy, 2S, 1P, 1G 1345 101 Key Keyboard PC Warehouse 386SX 1 6MHZ 386SX 1 MB RAM 1.2MB Floppy 2S. 1P. 1G 895 101 Key Keyboard $299 345 6SX-140 Color 24-Pln Printer Color Kit $55 mmm HI $171 i if where only kids can go, no parents EPSON LQ-510 24-Pln Printer allowed. Unfortunately, the Wacky Warehouse is a little like Santa Claus; it doesn't exist.

Says Jeff Shifron, Kool-Aid's promotion manager at General Foods: "We've actually had people show up at our mailing address, which is in Kankakee, 111., and say, "We want to see your Wacky Hi KID CLUBS Continued from Page A95 so successful with its J.C. Penney Sesame Street Club in the mid-1980s that none other than Disney Co. called on it to organize its new Mickey Mouse Club. The original was during the Depression, associated with movies. The second well known to the parents of Mickey Mouse Club members today was in the 1950s, tied to the television show.

"Kids clubs are prolific, I think, because children are moving into the marketplace as a very high-profile consumer," Sweeney says, "and they are doing so at a younger and younger age every year." The bulk of kids clubs have a lot of elements in common membership cards, stickers, game booklets aid "premiums," like toy animals. I guess, is a better rord than toys, says Ellen E. Oowling, sales promotion manager for Toys 'R' Us.) But they are as different in other ways as are the needs of the companies whose sales staffs created them. If you are a 3-year-old, for example, chances are you love to go to fast-food restaurants like McDonald's. When you get a little older, to the mature age of 7, say, Happy Meals may have lost their allure.

Chances are you do not want to be seen dining with all those babies in burger-and-fries places. "They tend to lose the 'tween' and early-teen market to pizza chains and other places," Sweeney says. "Tweens" are the group, about 7-12 in age, that falls 'tween small children and teen-agers, and since Burger King started its club it is finding itself more acceptable to that influential group, according to Communique Group's president, James H. Kurland. Burger King's spokesman, Michael R.

Evans, did not mention that objective, however, when he talked about the chain's club, which claims more than a million members. "A value-added, more unified approach to youth marketing" is Evans' adver-speak description. Asked about the Nestle Quick Hop Shop, spokeswoman Cindy Marks says, "It's a bunch of different merchandise you can get with dollars and proof of purchase." What, exactly? Bunny-shaped "Bent-cil" pencils, a bunny mug, a Benda-ble Quik Bunny, a Stuffed Quik Bunny, an umbrella, a bowl, a T-shirt. Many of the clubs boast a large display of closet-fillers, some of which are even displayed in catalogues that club members receive along with their newsletters. Dusty, the Delta Air Lion, is a plush toy the children can send for.

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Pate, manager of public relations for Delta Air Lines. "We sure see a lot of interest from the kids," she adds. "You can judge that from the number of letters Dusty receives." Some of the kids ask Dusty questions. "They ask him how planes fly," Pate says. "They ask what pilots do when they arrive in a city and they're not flying the airplane.

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