Marketers see babies' noses as pathway to profits

The corporate world is always looking for the next big market, and right now babies are it. With recent marketing research concluding that young children are up to 350 percent more responsive to the five senses than adults, and especially to smell, marketers are hoping to capture future consumers by putting signature smells in ordinary baby products that will later evoke positive memories. For a toy manufacturer, for instance, a scent on a stuffed animal could translate to a 7yearold's preference for that brand of toys just because the toy has the scent.

''You won't be able to argue with your brain," says branding specialist Martin Lindstrom of Norway, who advises Fortune 500 companies.

That marketers want our children is not new. That they are after even our babies and toddlers is an increasing challenge for parents and a concern to childdevelopment specialists.

Try to find a disposable diaper, even for a newborn, that doesn't have a media character on it, from Barney and Blues Clues (Luvs), to Mickey Mouse, Finding Nemo (Huggies), or Sesame Street (Pampers). The characters aren't just on the strip along the top of the diaper, they are front and center, big and bold. Right there where a seated 6monthold's drool dribbles.

Long before ''drool factor" became a hip way to refer to an item advertisers hoped consumers would covet, it had a more literal meaning. Ever notice how a 5 or 6monthold sometimes watches to see where his drool lands? Discovering that was an ''aha!" moment for former Texas A marketing professor James McNeal. He reasoned that if the drool dripped to a diaper or a bib imprinted with an image of a character that's linked to a brand, and if the baby sees the logo repeatedly. . .

Voila! Brand recognition in the crib! With cradletograve brand loyalty worth an estimated $100,000 per consumer, babies are ''the future market for ALL goods and services," emails McNeal from China, where he's researching youth consumerism.

McNeal came up with the drool factor in 1993, but the industry was slower on the uptake than he expected. Only recently, he emails, ''[has it] finally dipped down [to 1yearolds]."

If you're wondering, ''What's the big deal? We're just talking babies, for heaven's sake," McNeal will tell you: ''. . Research shows that the part of the brain responsible for cognitive learning comes on line gradually, over several years, but the right brain, responsible for emotions and relationships, is up and running from birth. Here's how it can work to a marketer's advantage: The more an image is repeated on diapers, toys, clothes, and food, the more familiar it becomes. What's familiar conveys a sense of comfort and security. That leads to an emotional attachment.

Babies and toddlers are most vulnerable. Cognitively unable to filter, they also take in more than we realize. What's most visually dramatic tends to be what children notice first, says Dan S. Acuff, a marketing insider turned critic. But ''the whole gestalt also imprints.

Marketers first recognized the value of visual repetition. Now they're on to sound and smell. A pacifier with a music chip? ''Don't laugh," says Lindstrom. Smell is even more powerful ''because it goes straight to the emotional register." Look for scented diapers on US shelves within six months, he says. Expect a smell of vanilla to infuse your nursery not long thereafter.

Boston College sociologist Juliet Schor doesn't tell parents to ban all branded items from the crib; as in so many arenas of parenting, moderation is key, she says. But extensive branding in a baby's life ''socializes him into a world of corporate values. A toddler grows up thinking McDonald's is good because it gives her things she likes. But McDonald's isn't healthy food, it doesn't pay decent wages," she says. ''By branding kids younger and younger, corporations count on creating the next generation to be more friendly to them. To the extent we are branding babies, we are bringing them up in a world that makes it harder for them to be critical of what they buy."

To be sure, you can find unbranded diapers, you can find unbranded anything. But it takes more effort and, often, more money. ''It becomes a class issue," says Schor. Finding unscented brands may be even trickier.

''It will be so subtle," predicts Lindstrom, who spoke via phone from Dubai. He urges manufacturers to be generous with labels and signs (''This is a product that uses smell to induce purchase.") to avoid a backlash from consumers who might otherwise feel duped.

Meanwhile, parents aren't as powerless as we may think:

Resist screens of all kinds. Since the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under 2, marketers have become more resourceful. The latest? Verizon offers ''mobitoons" on your cell: pass the cellphone to your crying baby or toddler while you're driving and, for $15 a month, you have unlimited access to famililar, calming ''Sesame Street" characters. There's a hidden cost, though. Linn cautions that children who learn to turn to a screen for comfort sooner or later are exposed to logos, branding, and commercials that further suck them into a materialistic culture.

Buy generic. A baby will find as much fascination in an unbranded crib mirror as one with Elmo on the frame, as much comfort in any cuddly stuffed animal as the plush version of a beloved TV character. When a toy is generic and openended rather than linked to a character, there's more opportunity for creativity, which leads to more learning. What's more, Linn says character toys lead to consumerism because they become boring, encouraging a child to want the next toy and the next.

Acknowledge, don't purchase. You're at the grocery store and your 16monthold gets excited as you pass a food item with her favorite character on it. If you say ''No!" and try to move on, you're into a power struggle that marketers count on parents losing. Instead, ''Diffuse the moment by thinking of this as a request for acknowledgment, not a demand for purchase. It's the fact of recognition that makes it pleasurable to them," says early childhood educator Ruth Anne Hammond: '' 'Look at that! You recognize Elmo!' " Hammond is director of the infanttoddlerparent program at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena.

McNeal downplays the industry's role in creating materialistic children. ''The danger is in what the parents do. All of it is funneled through parents in one way or another. They introduce the brands, the TV, the marketplace to their kids, starting at birth." Many parents, after all, are addicted to brands themselves, he notes.

Daniel Anderson is sympathetic to parents. A psychology professor and children's media specialist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, he says, ''I've seen with my own eyes the way a child reacts with wonder and delight when they get something that has a character they love on it: Dora the Explorer, Barney, Elmo. Any parent who sees that feels they've done exactly the right thing, buying that product."

Sympathetic or not, he suggests another way for parents to think about it: ''Children are forming attachments with media images. [With every branded purchase], you've turned over part of your child's love to a giant corporation."

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