Understanding the youth

This has emerged at the one-day marketing conference titled "Understanding the South African Consumer Markets and its Segments" held last week, Thursday 22 May 2006 at Illovo, Johannesburg, under the patronage of the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), a division of the University of Pretoria.

For the past three years, Instant Grass, a South African youth insight agency, has been conducting thorough research to help marketers have a better understanding of how to crack the youth market's "code".

'Prosumers'

In his presentation titled 'The Tribe has Spoken', Ian Calvert of Instant Grass identified five factors to demonstrate the abovementioned theory. "Today's youth," Calvert said, "do not believe what they are told, do not live where they say they live, read what they are supposed to read, buy what they are supposed to buy, and do not pay for what they are supposed to pay for.

"As a result," he added, "they have ceased to be consumers and have now become 'prosumers'. According to Instant Grass' research, prosumers - today's youth - are astute, informed and highly suspicious of marketing activity. They have a finely tuned filter screening out the ever-increasing number of commercial messages that are thrown at them, very few sticking. And with the help of technology, their speed and ease of communicating, and sharing information with their peers has dramatically increased. And the more information they have, the more they are in control of the marketing transaction. Increasingly, their tribes have become their sources of opinion, influence and identity.

Another speaker, Youth Dynamix managing director, Jane Lyne, also identified key trends that are currently influencing the youth market, strongly supporting Calvert's theory in the process. Globalisation, demand age, international expectations, technology, barbed-wire culture, changing family structures and changing in eating patterns are just some of these trends.

"Besides," Flyne added, "the acquisition of money is a primary driver for the youth market. Tweens and teens have become extremely materialistic and this manifests itself through extreme consumption. And this seems to grow on a steady scale every year."

Lucrative

Young people in South Africa represent a huge portion of the market and it would be a lack of judgment to just ignore them or brush aside their uncompromising attitudes. A recent study conducted by Youth Dynamix has found that the South African youth market constitutes 54% of the population, including approximately 13.5 million school-going children. "This means," the study emphasises, "the youth market is a highly lucrative with large amounts disposable income and decision-making and power.

So, marketers should understand the language and dynamics of today's youth if they are to achieve good results from of their segmentation models.

Heidi Brauer, Markinor director, said: "We tend to lose the plot when doing the segmentation model, and we forget to understand where some of our customers might end up in these segments.

Refiloe Mataboge, executive director at Research Surveys, concurred in her 'Universal Truths' presentation, saying: "Segmentation is essential, yet tricky but not sexy. People are multifaceted human beings but not static. Often when we segment, we only capture an incomplete picture of who they are. The values and belies can often be shifted and modified by what people are exposed to."

Youth tribes

Instant Grass' Calvert warns about using the old advertising model's interruptive in the youth market. "This is a very fragmented but very effective market," he said. Use a more integrative approach, and establish a direct and real relationship when connecting with them will give a marketer a better understanding of their behaviour.

"Overlay quantity segmentations with relevant youth tribes, bring these tribes to life with insights and textures, identify their key values and likely impact of trends, identify touchpoints and opportunities within their lifestyles and lastly track and forecast tribe dynamics on a bi-annual basis.

Asked to comment, Michael Goldman, GIBS lecturer in marketing, innovation and strategy, said: "It is exciting to see the texture and life that can be breathed into such an important segment. The idea of tribes can create major influences in markets and can particularly be used to add critical values to the segmentation approach.

"We are running youth programmes for high school boys and girls at GIBS called 'The Spirit of the Youth', and we are often amazed by the insights and inputs of these young people.

"I think businesses, whether they are connected to youth or not, should take account of these insights as they might revolutionise their segmentation approach," he concluded.

For more information, visit www.gibs.co.za/conferences/consumersegments and www.instantgrass.com.