Brand Child aims to provide a comprehensive account of current "tweens" and their attitudes, during the course of which Martin Lindstrom draws out the implications for marketers of modern trends and their influence on the youth market, and is by turns both fascinating and horrifying.
Many kids' marketers subscribe to the idea of a set of "enduring themes" - timeless kids' fascinations and yearnings, which a successful kid brand must tap into if it is to succeed - and Lindstrom is no exception, citing Fear, Fantasy, Mastery, Humour, Love and Stability. The study also identifies the motivations that explain many kids' phenomena, listing incentives such as 'Collection Value' (eg Pokemon), 'Gaming Ability"' (all computer games), or the 'Mirror Effect' (anything that involves aspiration towards and imitation of the adult world).
There is also an adept portrayal of the struggle that often characterises young teenagers as they strive to reconcile their need for love and stability with burgeoning urges to be independent from and triumphant over the adult world.
This is a generation of eight to 14 year-olds which has embraced digital media, would "love" a credit card if it were allowed, and is apparently responsible for US$300 billion worth of spending a year (only half of that spent by themselves - the remainder through 'pester power').
The Lindstrom tween is a high-tech snob who will settle for nothing less than the hippest clothing brands, the latest PlayStations and MP3 players, and is only capable of communicating in a proprietary language ("tweenspeak") forged by peer-to-peer chat rooms and text messaging. Tweens who don't speak this language, he says in hushed tones, "are at risk of being labelled nerds" - which would, of course, constitute the end of the world for the generation depicted here.
What follows is a description of how the transition from difficult tweens to healthy, brand-conscious adults occurs.
Lindstrom cites the "dramatic increase in the number of advertising messages directed at tweens" as a reason for the "clutter" of different brands they now live in, but is ever-keen to stress the massive levels of brand loyalty and advocacy which today's tween population could manifest if only marketers understood them better (clothing brands, it seems, is the only exception to this).
In spite of this comparative indifference to brands, the tweens are ascribed an enormous amount of influence when it comes to family purchases: as many as 20 per cent of respondents in the survey claimed to have been consulted by their parents on a major purchase.
Brand Child leaps to assimilate all the changes of the modern world, and in so doing, to meet the fears of marketers that the world of their consumer might have evolved beyond all recognition.
But one wonders if, in its laudable (and frequently useful) acceptance of every modern trend as an absolute, life-altering truth, it does more to feed those fears than to assuage them.
There are some really powerful insights here - the importance and persuasiveness of personalisation, of licensing, and of the cult of celebrity, to name just three.
Many of the comments he makes carry the ring of truth - this is a no-bullshit generation, which is exceptionally brand-savvy, and talking down to it would be fatal.
James Scudamore is account planner at J. Walter Thompson, UK. This book review was first published on Haymarket's Brand Republic's site brandrepublic.com.