Brand Loyalty: Marketing the New Kids on the Block, Then and Now

Anybody remember the New Kids on the Block?  You know, the boy band from the ‘80s?  Many people remember them as a manufactured, over-marketed group of teenagers calling themselves a “band”, a boy band to be exact.  In the late ‘80s you couldn’t escape them.  They were on every magazine cover, every talk show and every radio station.  You could buy everything from bed sheets to lip gloss to action figures, not to mention the vast array of posters that so many teenage girls plastered their bedroom walls with.

Whether you like the New Kids or not, whether you think they have any talent or not, there is no question that the New Kids had a tremendous impact on entertainment marketing.  Their marketing team knew exactly what they were doing.  They knew exactly who their target was, what they wanted and how they wanted it.  Hormonal pre-teen and teenage girls were spending their allowance money on a fantasy.  Although teenage girls have been doing this for years… swooning over actors and singers…with the New Kids, the marketing team now had 5 guys to use instead of just one lonely solo singer.  Each guy had their own image, presumably manufactured to appeal to as many different teenage girls as possible.  Donnie Wahlberg was “the bad boy”, Jordan Knight was “the sexy one”, Joey McIntyre was “the baby” and got the attention of the 8 – 12 year olds, Danny Wood was “the smart one”, and Jonathan Knight was “the shy, quiet one”.  Every girl had their favourite guy and the fans were adamant that these were the true personalities of the guys and there was nothing manufactured.

To many people it might have seemed to be a bit of overkill, but to the fans, they couldn’t get enough.  There is no doubt that the New Kids had a brand that nobody would forget, whether you were a fan or not.

Then, all of a sudden, they disappeared.  No more concerts.  No more albums.  No more screaming, crying girls.   Fast forward 20 years to 2008.  All of these die hard fans are all grown up, with only memories (and maybe a collection of posters, pins, T-shirts and dolls) of their favourite band.  In 2008, the New Kids quietly announced a comeback.  No over the top marketing efforts were needed.  Why?  Because they knew that their target market was a loyal bunch even 20 years later.  They released their first album since 1990 and went back out on a North American tour.  It was no surprise to the fans that the tour was sold out.  The non-fans were now calling them the Old Kids on the Block and joked that they’d be coming on stage with their walkers.  But even if they did, the fans would still be okay with that.

Over the past 4 years, the New Kids haven’t had to do a whole lot of marketing.  But of course what they do now is geared to a different demographic.  Where teenage girls once went crazy for T-shirts and magazines, grown women are now spending hefty sums of money to go on a yearly cruise hosted by the New Kids.  Some of the guys have solo careers as well.  For instance, Jordan Knight recently went on tour to promote his solo album, complete with tickets for his fans to have brunch with him.  His albums would have sold even if he hadn’t gone on tour, but creating that extra connection with his fans is just his way of continuing to feed that brand loyalty.

The New Kids know they have a sure thing in their fans.  It’s cheaper and easier for companies (and boy bands!) to retain existing customers rather than acquire new ones.  When your company is new (like the New Kids were in the mid – 80s) or you’re launching a new product, strong marketing efforts are needed to capture the attention of your target market.  But once you have those loyal customers it is imperative to build relationships with them.  Then, like the New Kids, your fans will still be spending money on you 25 years later.

Advertising Impacts Your Choices More Than You Think

What made you choose to stop at Tim Horton’s this morning? (Yes, I said “choose to” because although you may think it’s just a normal part of your day, it is a choice.)  What made you by that particular box of hair dye or lipstick?  Think for a second about how much advertising really affects your daily purchases without  you even realizing it.

Let’s try an experiment.  Turn off your TV, radio and internet for a month.  Don’t look at a magazine, newspaper or any form of media for that time.  I doubt very many people could that for even a day, let alone a week or a month, or God forbid… a year!!

I’ve been doing a lot of family history research lately and I’m fascinated at how my ancestors lived their lives.  And as my hometown, the City of Timmins celebrates its hundredth anniversary this year, I’ve been interested in how people lived during that time.  A hundred years ago, my grandfather was a 3 year old little boy growing up on a farm just outside of Brodhagen, Ontario.  At that time, he didn’t have a TV, a computer, magazines or video games.  His parents were farmers living away from any sort of “city life” with really only the radio to keep them up to speed with what was going on in the world.

They went into town when it was necessary to buy what they needed.  That was it.  But, of course, once at the store, the manufacturers had their own “advertising”, like packaging to entice you to buy their product over another.  The store owner could have been having a sale, maybe to get rid of old product.  But unless my great-grandparents went into the store in the first place, they weren’t aware of the different products that were available or any sales that might be happening.  And if it wasn’t in the budget, they just didn’t buy it.

My great grandparents were not educated people.  In fact, even my grandfather only had a great eight education.  But even, today, with so many of us being much more highly educated, we’re not even fully aware of all the marketing activities companies do to entice us into buying their products.  That takes me back to our experiment.  If you lived like my great-grandparents did a hundred years ago, with limited access to media, how would your purchase decisions be different from how they are now?  Would you spend less?  Of course, this is only hypothetical because as we all know we can’t fully escape advertising.  But then again, do we even want to?

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