Yes, set up focus groups, but don't forget to ask your kids what they think. You might be surprised.

Children notice marketing messages in painstaking detail. Even if they're not the target market. Children aren't as desensitized to advertising, marketing and design as we adults are. They're not jaded yet. They still look at these messages with fresh eyes. Plus, I think that their growing brains are more likely to pick up on subtleties that we miss as we tune out the noise. Whether it's food packaging or car insurance ads. They still looooove the noise.

Logo Studies

My 8-year-old daughter recently told me that the Tostitos logo had people eating chips and salsa in it. Wha? I hadn't realized that they had evolved their logo. I bought the chips at the grocery store without even looking at the bag. Blue corn? Okay. In the cart. Where are the fish sticks?

Tostitos' current logo

It's a pretty great logo actually and I was kicking myself for not looking at it more closely. Check out their logo evolution here.

http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/Tostitos

As consumers, we do this all the time. We read the same way, recognizing the look of a word without actually sounding out the letters. That's why successful logo evolutions are usually baby steps away from the original. Similar type, similar shapes, similar colors and an updated mark that fixed whatever problems needed to be addressed.

Logo evolutions strive to preserve the existing equity and look of the original mark so it can still be quickly recognized. (More on this in another post.)

There's a popular internet meme that demonstrates word recognition, however, it apparently didn't originate in Cambridge. Here's a link trying to explain it more precisely.

http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

amazon.com's logo

Everything from a-z.

My daughter also pointed out to me last week that the Amazon.com logo now shows that they have everything from a-z. I had actually noticed that one, but I was proud of her for noticing too. Their level of perception with logos is pretty amazing. Whenever she sees me working on a logo, she likes to draw her own version too and insists I present hers to the client too which is fun. Who doesn't love kid art? Nobody.

http://www.amazon.com

A conversation with kids selling car insurance

Both of my children are currently trying to get me to change insurance companies now too based on the constant barrage of ad campaigns they've seen.

My son: You need State Farm. "Like a good neighbor.." That's awesome. Or "Nationwide is on your side." That's a good one too.

My daughter: Farm Bureau is laaaaaaaame. What does a guy in a goofy baseball hat do? Nothing.

Me: Actually I like Farm Bureau. I don't like their ads either, but I've had their insurance for a long time and have been very satisfied with their rates and service. And I'm an actual consumer of car insurance unlike you two monkeys who don't even know what car insurance is.

My daughter: Daaaaaaad! I like Geico! Geici, Geico, Geico! Geico is cool. They've got that little lizard guy.

My son: "15 minutes could save you 15%."

Me: *Sigh.* You know all the slogans too, huh?

My son: Or you could get Progressive. I like that funny girl. They do bundles you know. Let's get ready to bunnnnnnnnndle. You can get a discount for having more than one type of insurance with them.

Me: They all do that.

My daughter: (Pretending to be Dennis Haysbert) "Are you in good hands?." That guy with the deep voice is cool. Hahaha.

Me: What about e-surance? If I was going to consider internet insurance instead of a place with an office down the street, I'd look at them. I like the music in their Pandora ads. It feels safe and efficient and no nonsense.

My daughter: Yuk! Geico! Get Geico!

What does all this mean? Maybe Geico is intending my daughter to be a secondary influencer of my purchasing decision. Maybe insurance companies spend too much money on media buys. Or maybe I am paying too much for car insurance after all.