12 Insights into the Youth Culture from a Marketing Research Guru

Attention Youth Pastors: Want to learn how to reach this youth culture? Learn from the best. Here are 12 excerpts from a blog interview by Guy Kawasaki (who helped make Apple computers famous) with a youth market research guru Kathleen Gasperini.

On the researchers talking to teens: “In youth culture markets, a guy with khaki slacks and a blue button-down shirt and a clipboard simply scares off young people. Our field research teams are just as likely to have a tattoo as the person they’re talking to, but they tend to be older than the target market and many have journalistic capabilities.”

On the term “teen:” “For the sake of young people who may read this, we prefer to refer to ‘teens’ as ‘young people.’ No one these days likes to be referenced as a ‘teen.’”

On the popularity of sites like Facebook and MySpace: “The appeal is that they allow for creativity, communication, and discovery.”

On information overload: “We asked the question across all our global studies about information overload: “Do you feel there’s too much information coming at you to absorb?” The young people in the United States, Canada, and Japan said No. If anything, young people want more…they’re hungry. You can see this in our China Study too.”

On fads: “A 15-year-old’s sense of history is about three years, which explains, for example, why they think they’re creating punk rock, even though their parents may have listened to the Sex Pistols.”

On the importance of music: “Music is the common thread because it’s emotional and personal and taps into that mammalian cortex.”

On authenticity and grassroots marketing: “Grassroots and bottom-up is the most authentic way to go, and you can do this much faster than in the past given the speed of communication and viral marketing. But you can’t try to be cool and grassroots if it’s not true and real. Grassroots takes being out in the marketplace—being there, in their lives, and relevant … young people can smell anything that smacks of insincerity a mile away. To them, some companies just stink.”

On two ways to influence them (worth the price of your time): “first, get associated with music and artists; sponsor up-and-coming bands; and know what’s going on in various new music subcultures” and “The North American youth culture marketplace of 13-25-year-olds is among the most philanthropic and environmentally conscious demographic in the world. Young people tend to support brands that give back, and they have far greater respect for celebrity-activists. What this means is that there’s a great opportunity for reaching young people in an authentic and grassroots level by appealing to their sense of ‘ood causes.’”

CAN YOU SAY THE CHURCH, THE GREAT COMMISSION, SERVICE, SACRIFICE?!?! Are you hearing them now?!

What Motorola did right in marketing to them: “They targeted the lifestyle, not just as a communication device, but as a key accessory of cool, must-have information source and connector.”

Can you say “ring tones:” “There are young people who are eBay addicts and/or claim that a phone brand is their “favorite site” because they are obsessed with getting the latest model.”

Find out who snowboarder Shaun White: She calls him “a shining star” and compares him to Michael Jordan.

On the ever-popular T-shirt: “57.3% of young people in America buy ten to fifteen T-shirts per year, making T-shirts one of the highest grossing markets within the youth fashion industry.”

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