Character development

Editor’s note: Sally Schmidt is manager of strategic planning and research at SpectraCom Inc., a Milwaukee e-business and marketing firm.

To market successfully to youth, it is important to listen to them and not allow our adult biases to influence marketing message development. Internet research methodologies provide an opportunity to communicate with this hard-to-reach market segment and provide timely insight to guide creative, character, and message development.

The KidsCom.com site, an edutainment Web site for children 8 to 15 years old, has been continually changed and updated since Circle 1 Network established it in 1994. Some of the most important changes have involved the development of a set of characters that represent the site. Circle 1 Network has worked with our firm to use research with youth to define and develop these characters to ensure the site visitors could identify with them. Circle 1 Network did not want to develop characters that their staff (of adults) thought children would connect with - they wanted to develop characters that they knew the children connected with. At least four surveys have been conducted over the past eight years specifically about the characters. These surveys have been done with children around the world, with some questionnaires appearing in the children’s native language. Being a global site, it was important to find character designs that appealed to a broad audience and would not have negative cultural connotations.

Sharing opinions

We have found that online surveys are an effective way of gathering input from kids who are old enough to have typing skills. They enjoy sharing their opinion and a survey allows them the opportunity to state their opinion without being challenged by another peer. The online surveys for the KidsCom character research were all conducted with the KidsCom Club Youth Panel, which consists of children whose parents have agreed to allow them to participate in research. Registered KidsCom Club members can participate in surveys and receive KidsKash points as an incentive. These points earned by taking surveys can be redeemed for merchandise on the site.

When conducting online research with children, researchers need to be aware of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires parental consent before collecting any personally identifiable information from a child under 13 years old. Although research results are reported anonymously, this rule still has impact on researchers. Often researchers use personally identifiable information (such as an e-mail address) to ensure that each person only participates in a survey once or to provide an incentive and it is essential that COPPA guidelines be followed in any contact using personally identifiable information. The KidsCom Club Youth Panel is fully COPPA-compliant.

Through many online surveys with children we developed some guidelines that are helpful when developing surveys for children. Creating online surveys for kids requires special attention to word choice and survey length to ensure usable results. Survey directions, questions and answer options should be worded so that they are age-appropriate, allowing the children to understand them. Children and teens are very literal in their interpretation of copy; so specific, accurate wording is needed. It is especially important to pre-test youth surveys to ensure that they are comprehended correctly. The length of a survey should be monitored to be age-appropriate since younger children are still developing their reading skills. They will quickly become fatigued by a survey if it is long or contains many open-ended questions. We have found that surveys with a maximum of 15 closed-ended and two open-ended questions work best. Interesting topics, graphics to illustrate questions and interactive question choices help keep children and teens involved in a longer survey if necessary.

Initial character development

From its inception in 1994, the KidsCom.com site has included characters. The first characters were very basic, one-color figures. As the site content grew and the audience target geographically expanded, new characters were added and existing characters were enhanced to represent different areas and activities on the site. Input from kids was used at various stages in the characters’ development to name, enhance their personalities and evaluate them with different audience targets.

In 1996, the site was redesigned and 11 characters were featured more prominently. A survey was conducted with members of the KidsCom Club Youth Panel to determine which characters were their favorites. The characters chosen as favorites by the children had their identities further developed on the site and were used to promote different content areas and educational messages than the less popular characters. The less popular characters were removed from the site over time.

Can characters deliver a message?

In 1997 two surveys were used to test a new character for the site in response to the need for children to provide information responsibly on the Internet. To promote understanding of safety and privacy issues online, a character was developed that would appear next to any area where it was appropriate for them to provide personally identifiable information. This character was designed to let site visitors know that an area was safe to provide information because the site was following safe data collection practices. The goal was to help guide children to understand where on a site it was safe to provide information because it was going to be used responsibly versus when it was unsafe (e.g., to provide information to another site visitor in the chat area). Note: This was prior to the enactment of COPPA.

The first survey was used to design the character to make sure that its association with privacy and safety was easily understood. In the online survey, KidsCom Club Youth Panel members were asked to evaluate two characters - one based on a lock and one based on another design concept - and then identify if the character reminded them of being safe or being private. The lock character (Figure 1) was preferred and reminded them more of being safe than the other design approach. The character (Kidbe Safe) was trademarked and was used on the site anywhere it was safe for visitors to give out their information.

A few months later, a follow-up survey was conducted to see if visitors could learn to identify the character with an associated action or behavior. The Kidbe Safe character was again tested in an online survey, along with three other characters. Over two-thirds of the panel members correctly identified the character and knew that Kidbe Safe meant it was safe to give out information, proving that children could learn to associate a character as a guide to modify their actions on the site.

Developing personalities

In 1998 a review of all 18 characters available on the site was conducted through an online survey with the KidsCom Club Youth Panel. Participants were asked to rate each character and then choose the one they liked best. For the character they liked best, they were asked to suggest a name and to choose from a list of adjectives to describe their favorite character. The names and adjectives suggested by the panel members were used to further enhance the character identities and to build new content areas based on these identities.

Of the 18 characters, six of the characters with the highest ratings were chosen for further design development and to become active participants in content on the site (see Figure 2). Games and activities and story lines were then developed using these characters to further enhance message delivery. For example, the dog character, named Riley, was seen as funny by over half of the children in the 1998 survey. He then became the featured character in the “Just Joking Around” area of the site where visitors can read a daily joke and submit their own jokes. He also became the basis of content that taught children that it is important to do the right kind of jokes and to be careful of hurting other children’s feelings. The nerdy character, named Dumonde, was rated smart by three-quarters of the children and teens. He was redesigned to be a cool science-and-gadget-geek type of kid and is featured in content areas that involve doing science discovery or creating things.

Refining the characters

In 2001, the characters were tested again. This survey covered the six characters featured on the site. KidsCom Club Youth Panel members were again asked to rate each character and then choose their favorite and least favorite character and explain why. From some of the feedback received about the characters, they were redesigned to make them more engaging so visitors could build stronger identification with the characters (see Figure 3). The characters have grown to have unique personalities and relationships that are used to provide a variety of personality types for children to identify with and to help them learn about themselves and positive social interaction.

Important to listen

Kids play an active role and are a growing influence over their own and their families’ online and offline purchases. The Internet is an effective tool to reach kids. Online research with kids can be used to design and develop effective marketing tactics and is not limited to Web site development. Input from kids can be used to guide the development of new products and online and offline advertising or promotions. To market successfully to kids, it is important to listen to them and not allow adult biases to influence marketing message development. Research methodologies based on new technologies can provide an opportunity to communicate with this hard-to-reach market segment and provide timely insight to guide creative development.