Secret is America's best-selling female deodorant. Keen to encourage a new generation of consumers to take up the product, parent company P&G tapped into a broad social concern that connects parents and children alike: bullying.

Wal-Mart’s new geoGirl line of ‘natural’ beauty products in recyclable packaging is controversially targeted at 8 to 12 year-old girls. It taps into this generation’s increasing influence as a powerful and informed consumer group.

The make-up aisles of today's pharmacies are a bright spectrum of colour – but there's always that one perfect shade of lipstick no company seems to make. Harvard Business School graduate Grace Choi is eliminating this irritation with Mink – a 3D printer just for make-up.

Targeting amenities at children rather than their parents appears to be a new tactic for some US brands, with a succession of hospitality ventures capitalising on the trend for child-centric marketing campaigns with a sophisticated twist.