Your Next Influencer Might Be A Sixth Grader

Grandma time is the best time. It has been too long since I have been to Florida to visit with my three younger grandchildren, and when my son shared that my youngest would be celebrating her first Holy Communion, I cleared my calendar and hopped on a plane. When my daughter-in-law was told that there was an alert for a potential shooter at her son's middle school, she kept him home, and we got to have some quality time. Matthew is a wiz just like his Dad on the computer, and when they asked me to help him with his homework from his Engineering Class (yes - taking engineering in sixth grade!) I panicked. Grandma may know her way around a kitchen or is a wiz at space planning, but this was way out of my comfort zone.

Matthew and his class were learning about designing floorplans and space planning, and they could access everything they needed online. They use a program called Floorplanner.com that I had never heard of, but I am excited to start using it. His teacher online had created a floorplan and space planned it, and the homework was for Matthew and the other kids to recreate what the teacher had designed.

Of course, I looked at it and immediately wanted to move walls and redesign the entire home, but the exercise was different. I am unsure if the version available for free online is the same, but the version the kids use is from the UK. We looked at what the teacher designed and tried to search for the same items. An oven was a "cooker," and he had a mop next to the cooker, but we stayed faithful to the task. But what excited me was when we got to some of the other appliances, and I immediately realized they were from Smeg.

What brilliant marketing by Smeg - their line of appliances is not only functional, a lot of them are fun to look at as well. They have great shapes, colors, and licensing programs with names that we all know. They got the attention of these kids, especially my grandson. So, I had to share with him the Smeg story and some options that might not have been available in this program. He now has instructed me that he wants a Smeg500 car cooler for his room, and his Mom is hoping for a Dolce Gabbana-style one for her She Shed.

We are in different times. My 17-year-old grandson is a pro gamer (I now know what that means!), was the first draft pick, and was able to pay for his car. Matthew is following in his cousin's footsteps and is active in eSports as well. The more time I spend talking to actual consumers, the more I wonder if our marketing efforts are reaching them. As a member of Les Dames D'Escoffier and a volunteer with TEXSOM - an international wine competition, I have become known as the "appliance source" when people have questions about where and what they should buy. All are very knowledgeable but need to figure out where to go to purchase appliances and who to trust. Smeg might have the right idea - if we can educate the younger generations with information that is easy to share, I bet they will help their parents and grandparents make better decisions.