Marketing the Cheetah-licious way

by Jeff Dorsch, January 16th, 2007, 7:00 am

Unless you have a tween girl in your household, it’s likely that you don’t know about the Cheetah Girls. In short, they are a pop group created by Disney that has been featured in two original movies on the Disney Channel (a third is in the works). More important, the popular young performers have generated a merchandising bonanza for the House of Mouse.

The tween demographic is getting extra attention from marketers, since these kids (and their doting parents) have some money to spend. Teenagers spend more, since they can hold jobs; still, to paraphrase The Who, the tweens are alright. 360 Youth estimates that tweens spend an eye-opening $51 billion a year on their own, while parents and other relatives spend another $170 billion on them. That’s a lot of cheddar for books, clothes, music, and other accoutrements of American tweendom. Claire’s Stores and Tween Brands (Limited Too, Justice stores) are among the retailers that target tweens specifically.

Earlier this month I took my 11-year-old daughter, who was fabulously dressed (in a cheetah-print dress from Limited Too) and elegantly coiffed, to a Cheetah Girls concert. It was a revelation for an old dad – prerecorded music, big dance numbers, multiple costumes. Yet, the screaming young girls seemed to get what they craved – an evening with three energetic, up-and-coming stars whose songs emphasize positive messages. (Lead Cheetah Girl Raven-Symoné has appeared in the movies but does not tour with the group.)

The Cheetah Girls are on an 80-date concert tour that winds up in early February. There was no encore after the hour-long set at the Erwin Center; the lights came up, and crew members started breaking down the stage. No wonder – they were doing another show in Laredo, 235 miles away, in less than 24 hours, and moving on to San Antonio the day after that. At the merchandise stand after the show, the vendors were literally taking in money hand over fist; posters were sold out, leaving only expensive T-shirts and cheaper trinkets for sale.

So, if someone tells you that Cheetahs never prosper, don’t believe them for a minute.