Q: The City of Cerritos is interested in revamping our Teen programming and would like to know if LERN is aware of any current or popular trends. More specifically, we are debating whether we should rename our Teens section in our brochure to be "Tweens." The majority of our programming is for 11-14 year olds and we thought that would be more appropriate. Any thoughts or alternate suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
A: Since you have indicated that the majority of your programming is for ages 11-14, you DO have teens in the program so using the word “Tweens” for your program would be an issue for the 13 and 14-year-olds. Teens ages 13 and 14 WANT to be referred to as teens, so you would risk losing or reducing their interest if you use “Tweens” as the term to define the program. It would be better to simply use Teens/Tweens to cover both bases and not exclude anyone, or even something more generic like Youth.
Offer separate brochures devoted to your youth programs – especially for teens and tweens. We can show you some great examples. Teens and pre-teens respond very differently to marketing messages, and LERN research shows that marketing directly to the kids themselves when they are ages 11+ (teens and tweens) is most effective because they usually are involved in or specifically making the decision about what classes they want to take, while marketing to the parents of kids ages 11 and under works best.
Look into creating advisory groups of past participants in your youth programs – again, especially for teens and tweens - to gather their honest opinions, not what you or their parents think should be offered, written or designed. Contact past participants and consider offering them a free or discounted class or camp option or movie tickets or other incentive. You could discover some wonderful ways to truly reach your target audience members most effectively by involving them in the development of your programming and marketing.
Remember that members of this generation are tech-savvy, are the most diverse population and expect that to be reflected in images and messages, and don’t believe “the experts” but believe their friends (peer confirmation and testimonials are critical).
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