Youth Marketing: Shrewd or fickle? Getting kids to commit

February 5, 1996 by Strategy Staff

This is a series about the ins and outs of youth marketing.

Gregory Skinner is the principal of mina, a youth market research company. mina can be reached at MINA@inforamp.net or at (416) 654-8440.

Brand loyalty in today’s marketplace? Are you completely mad@#!?

It actually does exist, but most believe that they’d be hard-pressed to find it.

Loyalty has gone through its own little evolution, but once you nail it down, getting it for yourself is, well, a little less difficult.

Inherently, today’s youth market exhibits blazingly quick shifts in preference. Correct, but why?

Astronomical volumes of info, media junkies, it’s all true. But wait!!! With information comes a whole lot of choice and preference.

Older kids are sharp enough to know what’s what, and younger kids are seemingly born with the ability. Uh-oh, Trix aren’t for kids anymore.

That ‘fickleness’ that you find in youth is fueled by a couple of things:

* an extremely competitive marketplace – where everyone has a message and wants to be different;

* and the reaction of a generation that eats it all up.

Shrewd, youth-type people are going to find it difficult to commit, simply because they know the next big thing will be along shortly.

So, your ‘to do’ list begins to shape up like this:

Find your strengths:

Popular brands like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger understand what the market is saying to them and why kids dig their products.

Highly visible logos, non-committal identities – they’re responding to the flow of the market by taking advantage of elements in their arsenal that stimulate.

Market presence is essential. Credibility is won or lost to a large degree by simply hanging in there. Once you lose it, it’s gone, and then it’s all about rebuilding. And rebuilding is expensive.

Reinforcement. Youth are in a data wasteland, a virtual information bog.

Messages need to be reinforced on all levels – i.e. ad campaigns, sponsorships, market presence – because kids today are soooo aware.

Keep it fresh:

Ever wonder why Sega has been on-target for so long? It has the advantage of a product it renews continually, and uses this to build amazing campaigns. Stagnation truly is pungent.

Build for tomorrow:

Fila is fast-tracking because it’s invested in its own future – the best new, up-and-coming, nba draft picks. It’s got a good product, it’s got tomorrow’s stars. It’s smart.

Integrity at every level is a must:

Plain and simple, a campaign founded on hype will collapse. Advertising has shifted from an information bias to one of entertainment, but a strong message still has to be there.

There are three more important elements:

1. Maintenance. If you don’t do it, you’ll be quickly forgotten, based on the sheer volume of messages out there. The market inundates the individual and youth are info junkies – ‘Hear today, gone tomorrow’ is the new adage.

2. Be aware of your connection with the individual. Oakley and Airwalk made strong leaps to the mainstream based on their foundations; they’re from the core, they know how to manoeuvre in it, and they cater to it. Don’t forget your roots.

3. Finally, you do have to keep up; you do have to compete. Integrity isn’t just sitting and waiting for the competition to beat themselves up; crowning the next guy is definitely allowed.

Rampant experimentation and short-term dedication is going to happen no matter what you do, so accept it as inevitable.

Loyalty does still exist, but it’s something that you’ll have to bolster, motivate and perpetuate.

Hah, completely mad, indeed.