MxMIndia

Tag: marketing to youth

  • When looking at a young audience, marketers can afford to make no assumptions. Samyak Chakrabarty explains why

    Young Track by Samyak Chakrabarty | 5 key things to consider when marketing to youth

    Samyak Chakrabarty

    What’s a 23-year-old writing a column on a site where the average age of columnists is… ? Ok, ok, we won’t reveal that number, but like it or not the youth constitute a majority of India’s population. Since the last few years, young Samyak Chakrabarty has been in and around media events and offices with his vision of how the youth can be targeted.

     

    In this period, he has organized a few conferences, participated in several of them in India and abroad, and works as Chief Youth Marketer with the DDB Mudra group. He’s organized a TedX youth conference in Mumbai, was invited to meet Hillary Clinton when she visited India and has co-authored a book ‘Generation Einstein 3.0 – India version’.

     

    Samyak’s column will appear on Wednesdays and as the title suggests, it will track the young – specifically keeping in mind the advertising, media and marketing fraternity – Ed

     

    This week, I would like to share five learnings I’ve had in my time so far as a youth marketer. While these are not scientifically proven facts, they are derived from my numerous interactions with college students at a very candid level (not survey sheets!).

     

    1 Youngsters don’t wake up thinking about brands:

    Large consumer brands often take it for granted that students already know about them and enjoy an automatic recall within that community. Often such arrogance is seen in the campaigns they conduct. But the truth is, brands are the least on the priority of the college-going crowd who have many more crucial things to worry about. The solution is not to therefore surround them with your brand and its aura at all touch-points all the time. In my opinion it would be prudent to ensure that the communication’s core message is so evocative and compelling that they are bound to not only remember it, but generate WOM even after the campaign expires.

     

    2 Youth is not a singular set:

    It is not sufficient to just aim at ‘targeting youth’ (this statement always irritates me in meetings!). Do bear in mind that youth behaviour is not uniform and hence a brand’s first goal should be to identify the ‘sub-set’ within the 15-35 age group which you want to target. As the next steps one has to develop a critical understanding of how those kind of youngsters think, breathe, talk, buy and dream. Often brands commit hara-kiri by assuming that being ‘cool’, ‘colourful’ and ‘celebrity-endorsed’ will appeal to all kinds of youngsters. It all depends on the product, price, persona and utility value.

     

    3 Product first, then packaging:

    Those born after 1990 have become more critical and conscious about what they buy. Therefore, the key factor which influences purchase is the product and not the brand’s communication. Hence, it is important that the brand manager as well as the product team work in sync and no silos to ensure that the two parallel functions deliver what each other promise to the young consumer, who will not think twice about shifting loyalty should he/she feel cheated. A classic example could be of a telecom brand – many students that I work with often complain that they are happy to move away from their existing provider just purely based on service issues, even though it means a more expensive plan or a less cool brand.

     

    4 Price does not always hit the G-Spot:

    One would often assume that for pocket money-dependent students, price would always work as a primary factor in deciding what to buy (applies for FMCG, Mobile Service Providers, daily utility gadgets and hangout places). In fact even I assumed so – but if one closely studies students from a metro city, price sometimes actually becomes a discouraging factor to buy if the aura around the product is more about its cheap price than about the qualities / aspiration value. I have noticed that many a time they tend to save up just to buy something more expensive because it is assumed to be better (nothing to do with reality!).

     

    5 The way your brand manager thinks, makes a huge difference:

    Often I see that some of the greatest brands often go through a period of disappointing communication only because their newly appointed manager (who may be extremely qualified and experienced) does not share the same thought process as the values embedded in the brand. This is more of a human resource function, but an extremely critical one – it amazes me how quickly a guy working for a sanitary pad brand can start to think for a cola! Many may hate me for saying this, but I believe that youth marketing too is not a uniform skill – one has to specialize and remain in that category to be able to successfully steer the brand in the right direction.

     

    Lastly, I think one should also start looking at adolescents today to be able to plan in advance as to how when they transform into young adults – your brand can already enjoy an automatic connect. In many ways, we have already lost those born after 1990 since preferences for essential products are already formed at a very young age.

     

  • Samyak Chakrabarty explains why standard socio-economic classifications aren't always accurate while understanding Indian youth

    Young Track by Samyak Chakrabarty | Why SEC data doesn’t reflect youth behaviour effectively

    Samyak Chakrabarty

    What’s a 23-year-old writing a column on a site where the average age of columnists is… ? Ok, ok, we won’t reveal that number, but like it or not the youth constitute a majority of India’s population. Since the last few years, young Samyak Chakrabarty has been in and around media events and offices with his vision of how the youth can be targeted.

     

    In this period, he has organized a few conferences, participated in several of them in India and abroad, and works as Chief Youth Marketer with the DDB Mudra group. He’s organized a TedX youth conference in Mumbai, was invited to meet Hillary Clinton when she visited India and has co-authored a book ‘Generation Einstein 3.0 – India version’.

     

    Samyak’s column will appear on Wednesdays and as the title suggests, it will track the young – specifically keeping in mind the advertising, media and marketing fraternity. The column started last week, and we are happy to present the second in the series  – Ed

     

    Very recently I read the latest India SEC report which really made me think: does any of this make sense when I look at youth consumption and purchase behaviour? After critically observing patterns of youngsters from varied backgrounds, I realized that at many points the standard classifications fail to justify much of the spending in this age group (16 to 28, urban, male and female) since the larger money outflow is coming from the most unexpected lot. Thinking aloud, here are three reasons why I think so:

     

    1. Parents’ income does not always necessarily trickle to the kids

    I compared the lifestyle and backgrounds of two 17-year-old males studying in the same college in South Mumbai. Paras’s father, a wealthy businessman had an annual income of Rs 75 lakh and lived in a plush apartment on Marine Drive. Whereas Amit lived in Bandra and his father earned about Rs 18 lakh a year working as a senior accountant in an MNC. Obviously, it would seem that Paras would fall under SEC A+ and Amit in SEC B. But, when I compared both their possessions (gadgets, variety of clothes and smartphone apps) and expenditures (nightclubs, restaurants and outings with the GF) – Amit’s life seemed more interesting since he had the latest iPhone, went to the best of bars and all that. Paras on the other hand only got a pocket allowance of Rs 1000 a week and travelled by local trains all that time, even though he had two luxury sedans in the garage. Typically, brands would target him vs Amit since Paras’s background made him a potential spender on premium products. The truth is otherwise, only because Amit’s dad wanted to give his son all that he could never have in his youth as compared to Paras’ dad who wanted his son to get everything the hard way. This is an everyday occurrence in many homes, but realities like these which don’t reflect in algorithms and statistical formulae can prove some very expensive brand targeting decisions wrong.

     

    2. Income levels fluctuate until 24

    A number of college students, in metro towns especially, are doing a number of entrepreneurial activities as one-offs (such as events, paid blogging, part-time internships etc) which for a certain period of time give them access to a lot of money. So let’s assume, in the summer break some students occupy themselves with a lucrative activity. During that period, the profit could enable them to buy pretty much any gadget, meal, excursion or extravagance that the twins in Antilla could (apart from the private jets and Maybachs ofcourse). But then due to zero knowledge about the virtues of saving up at this age, the money is over as quick as it came and there is no scope for continuing their buying spree. Hence marketing to this set could prove to be a loss-making investment. Through this example, which of course is not an everyday one, I am trying to indicate that the personal income of college students is never sustainable, hence a lot of their buying decisions are more on impulse than well thought out.

     

    3. Even with a lower income of first jobbers, there is more willingness to spend

    Blame the credit card for this, but many first jobbers tend to spend more than what they actually earn. This is very often seen when it comes to call centre employees or in our own advertising industry, where based on income levels the ability to buy certain products seems bleak but they always end up having it all – like a car, smartphone, Europe trips to name a few. Hence in such a case, brands while marketing should analyze their potential client base at the convergence of mindset and the income level to be able to (as much as possible) accurately identify them.

     

    In my opinion, the most practical method would be to classify youngsters based on “Mindsets” rather than SEC alone, since that way one could get more of an insight into factors which will trigger purchase and a better understanding of the type/brand of products they would be most likely to buy. It is also important to consider that the time difference between wanting something and acquiring it has reduced drastically for the enterprising young born post-1990, and this has nothing to do with present income since they find many innovative ways of working smart to make that quick buck.

     

  • More than RoI, it’s social currency that matters when measuring the effectiveness of marketing to youth, writes Samyak Chakrabarty in this new weekly column

    Young Track | New column on youth marketing by Samyak Chakrabarty

    What’s a 23-year-old writing a column on a site where the average age of columnists is… ? Ok, ok, we won’t reveal that number, but like it or not the youth constitute a majority of India’s population. Since the last few years, young Samyak Chakrabarty has been in and around media events and offices with his vision of how the youth can be targeted.

     

    In this period, he has organized a few conferences, participated in several of them in India and abroad, and works as Chief Youth Marketer with the DDB Mudra group. He’s organized a TedX youth conference in Mumbai, was invited to meet Hillary Clinton when she visited India and has co-authored a book ‘Generation Einstein 3.0 – India version’.

     

    Samyak’s column will appear every Wednesday and as the title suggests, it will track the young – specifically keeping in mind the advertising, media and marketing fraternity – Ed

     

    Measuring ROI: When it comes to spending on Marketing to Youth

    I am 23, not (academically) qualified to tell Mr Brand Manager of a 100 crore+ FMCG on how to sell his product to youngsters, but yet I decide to take the Dutch shot of courage and enter the room. Someone once told me, “As a youth engagement consultant in a country like India, you have 2 choices -“either tell your prospective client how cool his/her brand is and give some worldly gyaan with complicated numericals on how I can come on board to make it cooler OR stick to what my stand is on his brand is even if its at the risk of hurting his/her ego (which, I’ve come to realize is more of a suicidal thing to do then even going wrong in the deliverables) and loosing the business”.

     

    So at this meeting, I am faced with the question that I am asked at every other meeting, party or conference – “Youth is on our agenda now, now tell me how can i increase the number of likes on our Facebook page from this TG”. At best the variation is “I think youth is the future of our brand, can we sponsor some college festivals (sic: and tell youngsters that we exist for them?)”.

     

    Youngsters in India who are born post 1990 are at the cusp of the transformation in the way we communicate, consume, dream, think and live. Obviously, modern external influences such as social networking, information overload, evolved societal expectations and most importantly a plethora of choices in everything does play a critical role how they make their decision. However I am a believer of the theory which says that “the modern consumer is just perceived to be so, in reality – at a store, he behaves exactly as his forefathers did”. Yes it is true that they think faster, spend more and want more all the time – but that does not change the very DNA of how a consumer behaves whether young or old.

     

    One cannot rely on statistics alone to ascertain which way the wind will blow (predicting youth trends), it requires the brand custodian to also be instinctive, passionate and most importantly have an open mind. As prominent inhabitants of modern society, youngsters (irrespective of SEC) are more whimsical and their preferences change constantly until they touch the age of 27 since they are more exploratory / risk taking then the previous generation.

     

    Young Track Files #1: Redbull
     

    An example of a brand which is rich in social currency amongst Indian college students

     

    There has always been little or no TV advertisement of this brand and nor is there a film star endorsing it. However it always enjoys top-of-mind recall among students. The red bull vans and hot ladies stationed outside colleges giving out free samples especially after exams, college festivals and sporting events has been their only sustained marketing expense which in my opinion is giving them 100 percent ROI. They hit the G-Spot by doing this since it conveyed that the brand thinks about their TG and is present where they need it. So therefore next time during a match, hardcore party or after an intensive exam – youngsters will always desire that cold can of crispy Red Bull. Furthermore, the company has ensured that their consumer does not have to walk many meters to get hold of one when he needs it - the distribution team has ensured presence of the product at all possible touch points. Their association with Formula One has also won them many brownie points in India as well.

     

    You may find a slight contradiction in what I am saying now and what I’ve written above – my point is that as consumers, youngsters are almost the same as their forefathers but as people they are very different (than the previous generation) and it is this very ‘split personality’ which creates a confusion in thinking what will really influence youngsters. Before you disagree – let me guess what you are thinking “This is BS, my son is more aware of brands then I ever was and has more gadgets then I ever did”… right? Now, think again -“Is it only because your son (as a consumer) is more evolved then you or is it because the choices/influencing factors now are greater in number than in your time?” J . I hope this proves my point to an extent.

     

    This brings me back to talking about the holy grail, how does one then measure ROI on investments made towards marketing to youth? Truth is, numerically the method is the same as what works when you compute numbers of what is spent on the other age groups. But then there is another parallel matrix which one must also consider i.e “Social Currency”.

     

    As the custodian of a youth brand, being a Millionaire with this form of earning is key in not only sustaining but growing your connect with youngsters. I would base the valuation of your brand’s social currency wealth on these five things ie conversations, perception, feedback,(active) social media influence (such that it is engaging not just by number of likes / posts alone) and how inclusive is your TG in shaping your product as well as marketing strategy. I hope you noticed that this has nothing to do with how cool, colourful, cute your brand is or which film star is your brand ambassador – these are just peripheral things that may or may not be needed.