Will the Youth Market Revolutionise the Marketing World?
A Call for Research
Ethel Claffey, Lecturer/PhD Student, claffeye@tcd.ie1
Dr. Mairead Brady, Lecturer, bradyma@tcd.ie1
1
School of Business, Trinity College Dublin
I Abstract
The emerging interactive marketplace, characterised by high levels of heterogeneity, is giving
birth to a new type of technology savvy consumer. The advent of this new consumer would
seem to be making traditional approaches to marketing redundant. Young adults, in particular,
are early adopters of new technologies and the defining users of the digital media revolution.
This paper describes key influences on the youth market’s buying behaviour in the face of
emerging technologies and seeks to derive relevant implications for marketing managers
targeting the youth sector.
II Introduction
As a result of seismic change in the macro environment, a ‘new’ consumer and a ‘new’
marketplace is emerging (Assael, 2004). Companies are confronted with a consumer
that has variously been described as ‘active’, ‘knowledgeable’ and ‘post modern’
(Hawkins et al., 2004; Lawson, 2000; Assael, 2004). The youth market is described in
the literature as ‘the consumer of the future’ (Goldenberg, 2005, pg. 22), ‘agents of
change’ (Spero and Stone, 2004, pg.158) and ‘trend setting loyals’ (Bakewell and
Mitchell, 2003, pg. 96). Although this group is still motivated by the same aspirations
as previous generations: independence, privacy, ownership, status and peer pressure, the
key difference today is the new communication channels and the new advertising
content distribution that they use (Spero and Stone, 2004). The digital world is the main
environment where the youth market is located. Young adults are early adopters and
key influencers of new technology. Thus, they are the drivers of the new economy
(Schewe and Meredith, 2004). This presents special challenges and opportunities for
marketers and for academics researching consumer behaviour. Marketers targeting the
youth market need to understand this emerging behaviour to ensure they meet the needs
of this very discerning and influential group to ensure consumer loyalty. This new
consumer would seem to inhabit an interactive marketplace characterised by high levels
of heterogeneity, and be more marketing literate and IT enabled. This would seem to
dispute the assumptions of general marketing thinking.
III The Youth Market: Influences and Influencers
The youth market is traditionally classified according to age, i.e. 7-10 (‘tweens’), 11-13
(young teenagers), 14-16 (teenagers), and 16 + (young adults) (Stone et al., 2001).
However, more recently the youth market has been identified according to the lifestyle
traits they inhabit, i.e. interests, behaviour, social maturity, location, wealth and
ethnicity (Spero and Stone, 2004). Other terms used to define this group include
‘Generation Y’ (Bakewell et al., 2003), ‘Generation Rx.com’ (Rideout, 2002) and ‘the
Net generation’ (Foreman, 2003). Tapscott (1998, pg.20) describes the “N-Geners” as
including anyone currently aged 4 to 24, early adopters of new technology and the
defining users of the digital media revolution. He suggests that through the use of digital
media, the N-Generation will “develop and superimpose its culture on the rest of
society”. Schewe and Meredith (2004, pg.51) describe the youth market as being the ‘N
Generation’ or ‘N-Gen’, ‘coming-of-age’ (approximately 17-23 years of age) during the
‘Information Revolution’.
Therefore because the advent of a range of technologies
including the Internet, mobile communications and self service technologies is a
defining event for this group, they will be the engine of growth over the next two
decades.
According to Arnett (2000), the period from 18 to 24 years of age represents a
developmental stage which is distinct from other periods. During this period, young
adults develop a subjective sense of identity through experimentation and explorations
(Erikson, 1968). Arnett describes young adults as having a higher degree of
demographic diversity and instability, with many living away from home for the first
time. Moreover, many of this group gain a new independence and a greater sense of
financial responsibility.
In addition to acquiring significant buying power in the
marketplace, this group forms behaviour patterns, attitudes and values and, hence,
develops new consumption patterns that exert major influence on their behaviour as
consumers in later life (Olshavsky and Granbois, 1979; Holbrook and Schlinder, 1989;
Moschis and Moore, 1979).
Studies show that parents serve as important socialisation agents, transmitting values
and/or other attitudes to their children (Flouri, 1999; Palan and Wilkes, 1997). The
family is the first group to which a person belongs and maintains the longest affiliation
(Markin, 1969). Kollat et al. (1970) argue that young adult consumers continue to be
influenced by the norms and attitudes they have developed which have been directly
influenced by their parents. The family is viewed as a dominant transfusive agent of
values in most cultures (Engel et al., 1993).
It is evident, therefore, that much
information and attitude development concerning products and services is based on the
influence of family. Exposure to information is the first step towards brand awareness
(Feltham, 1998).
The extant socialisation literature also suggests that peers serve as important
socialisation agents, exerting a powerful influence on the behaviour of young adults
(Ting-Toomey, 1981). Furthermore, through peer influence, a young adult develops
autonomy and grows into adulthood, especially during the college period when family
influences can be expected to decline significantly (Brown and Huang, 1995).
Communicating with peers considerably influences an adolescent’s consumer-related
attitudes and behaviours (Moschis, 1987). This stage in the consumer lifecycle may
therefore provide an opportunity for brand switching. Although individuals are likely to
purchase the parental brand when they first leave home, this loyalty may be short-lived
when new influences on brand choice intervene.
Determining the specific factors that influence young consumers and their purchasing
attitudes and patterns has become an important element of consumer research. A
multitude of studies has examined how consumers learn what to consume (Keillor et al,
1996; Moschis, 1987). As discussed earlier, many of these are based on the foundation
of social learning theory, which proposes that individuals learn general behaviours and
attitudes from past experiences.
However, other research has indicated that consumers
learn or model behaviours, values, attitudes, and skills through the observation of other
individuals, or through the impact of electronic or print media (Bandura, 1986; King
and Multon, 1996). Media has always been considered as a main source of product and
service information for the youth market. Several studies provide evidence that media
strongly influences consumer skills and consumption patterns among young adults
(Delener and Neelenkavil, 1990; Mangleburg and Bristol, 1998; Moschis, 1987). The
proliferation of media choices including television, the Internet and magazines has
resulted in greater diversity of product and lifestyle choices for young adults. Television
viewing has been described as having a positive association with materialism among the
youth market (Moschis and Churchill, 1978; Wells and Anderson, 1996). It is not
surprising that many young adults are likely to display an opulent shopping style.
Situational influences, such as time and place, have also been described as having a
significant impact on behavioural outcomes of young adults (Belk, 1975). Peter and
Olson (2005) describe these influences as social factors (e.g. communication from
friends, persuasion attempts by a sales person etc) or physical stimuli (e.g. prominent
signs in a store, promotional deals or labels on a product package). Studies have shown
that young adults do not like to wait for a reward but like immediate deals such as
special offers and promotions (Ness et al. 2002). Banks and building societies have
courted this market for some years with special deals, overdrafts, music vouchers and
CDs. For them the reward lies in long-term benefits of customer retention, specifically
the prospect of a lifetime mortgage and loans (Bridges, 1995; Beattie, 1997). However,
many organisations have failed to make an impact on this group, largely due to poor
attempts to fulfil their needs and wants (Ness et al. 2002).
It is also important to note that young adults are also increasingly able to influence the
purchase and decision making of others, given their increased independence and
consumption sophistication (Loudon and Della Bitta, 1993). Recent research has shown
that many young adults now remain at home longer (MII, 2005), with some becoming
the ‘designated decision-makers’ for their parents or other relatives. This would also
indicate that the youth market is extremely attractive to organisations for the above
reasons and because of their relatively high disposable expenditure.
IV The Consumer of the Future: An ICT Mediated Environment
The youth market inhabits an exciting and ever-changing digital marketplace. Schewe
and Meredith (2004, pg.52) describe this group as ‘savvier than ever before, demanding
personal attention and products that suit their lifestyle’. Spero and Stone (2004) describe
this group as living in the digital environment, where patterns of adaptation mushroom
and wither quickly.
They suggest that new technologies are picked up quickly,
provided they observe the ‘basic rules of economy’, adaptability, technical
pervasiveness, and market pervasiveness. This would seem to indicate traditional forms
of media, such as TV, radio and magazines are incompatible with this group’s
behaviour.
Over the past decade the growth and use of information and communication
technologies (ICTs), particularly the internet and mobile phones, has enabled a new
generation of business. This is particularly evident among the youth market. In Ireland,
for example, the highest proportion of Internet users in 2005 was aged between 16 and
24 years of age, accounting for 33 per cent of all users (MORI, 2006). Forty three
percent of this group claimed to have shopped online over the last quarter of 2005. In
2005, ComReg reported that over 90 per cent of the youth market owned at least one
mobile phone. This presents many new marketing opportunities and challenges. The
popularity of the online channel and other interactive mobile devices offers marketers a
unique combination of capabilities including detailed customer data collection, real-time
customer targeting, rapid market feedback, and ‘on-the-fly’ campaign adjustments.
Vrechopoulos et al. (2005) indicated that the changing role of mobile communications
is reflected in the increasing use of mobile devices for e-commerce purposes. Supported
by the penetration of mobile devices and the evolution of mobile technologies, mobile
commerce promises to change the way certain business-to-consumer (B2C) activities
are conducted. An example of this is the use of 3G enabled mobile devices to send
advertising information to potential consumers. Future developments include allowing
consumers to make purchases using multimedia messaging services, such as shopping
‘buddies’ or automated ‘bots’(Doolin, 2005).
In addition, the European Commission has invested heavily in facilitating researchers to
investigate how to bring ‘pervasive mobile services’1 and technologies to the European
marketplace (European Commission, 2005). The introduction of pervasive services,
1
A context-aware composition of services cooperating in a seamless manner, so that the user can focus
on what he/she really wants to do (“send a post card of what I see now to someone I know”), without
being bothered by the complicated technology that is used for achieving his/her goal.
expected to become mainstream by 2010-2015, will generate an increased use of
information technology and mobile communications, with an increased number of
technical services and products being delivered to users on multiple devices. At a
simplistic level the term ‘pervasive service’ refers to the provision of mobile services to
multiple users on multiple devices using enhanced technical techniques to make the
underlying technology transparent to the users.
From a consumer behaviour analysis viewpoint this means that technology is always
available to consumers, consumers can be contacted at any point in time and in any
location, and product providers can address consumers individually by personalising
marketing and specifically communication information. This transformed approach to
marketing and communications would seem compatible with the youth market’s
expectations and behaviour. Moreover, this new technology provides the means to
provide location based advertising and purchasing enticements to consumers (for
example, a consumer walks in to a shopping centre and her phone alerts her to indicate
that the products she purchased on her last visit are now available at a lower price).
Mobile communications, the Internet and self service technologies are impacting on
how consumers are influenced to make purchasing decisions, but technology has a deep
role at the other end of the chain of events leading to a purchase transaction being
completed.
For example, the introduction of RFID2 will greatly increase the efficiency of
interactions at the checkout in shops and supermarkets. When this technology is fully
integrated into product outlets, shoppers will be able to bring a trolley of goods to the
checkout and pass a single scanning interface where all products will be instantly
identified and the final price calculated. Additionally, the user’s mobile device can be
integrated into the process to automate payment for goods. Radio frequency ID is
another technology that supermarkets are already using in a number of places
throughout the store. ‘We now envision a day where consumers will walk into a store,
select products whose packages are embedded with small radio frequency UPC codes,
‘Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and
remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. An RFID tag is a small object
that can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rfid
2
and exit the store without ever going through a checkout line or signing their name on a
dotted line’ (Albrecht, 2002, pg.534).
V Implications for Future Research
Young consumers have grown up in a period of relative affluence where consumer
choice is very important. It is difficult to anticipate what new technologies and
communication methods might affect consumer behaviour in the next decade but, at the
very least, one will continue to expect rapid and widespread adoption of these
technologies by consumers. If we agree with Kurzweil (2005:11) ‘the future will be far
more surprising than most people realise because few observers have truly internalised
the implications of the fact that the rate of change itself is accelerating’ He suggests that
due to ‘historical exponential’ rather than ‘intuitive linear’ that the rate of change is
speeding up and that ‘we will witness on the order of twenty thousand years of progress
or about one thousand times greater than what was achieved in the twentieth century’.
New information and communication technologies are constantly emerging, altering
business methods, and particularly, the relationship an organisation establishes with its
customers. Therefore, it is essential to analyse the impact of these technologies on
customer behaviour (Ricard et al., 2001). It is argued that emerging technologies and the
young people that utilise them to the full will revolutionise the world (Snyder, D. and
Edward G., 2004; Tapscott, 1998; Spero and Stone, 2004). Some of the key existing
information and communication technologies identified in the literature include mobile
communications and the Internet (Chung-Hoon Park and Young-Gul Kim, 2003;
Constantinides, 2004; Shwu-Ing, Wu, 2002).
Additionally, next generation
technologies identified include RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification), pervasive
communication services (Vrechopoulos et al., 2003; European Commission, 2005;
Albrecht, 2002) and biometrics (Shugan, 2004). Shugan defines biometrics as the
“automated identification or verification of a person made by comparisons of physical,
physiological or behavioural traits to a stored digital template” (2004, pg.473).
Examples of biometrics which are said to be used extensively in the future are retina
scanning, voice recognition and fingerprint checking.
While this technology is
potentially available, Capizzi et al. contend that the value of using biometrics will
depend on the imagination of the marketer. Technological innovations ensure that, as
soon as consumer behaviour in any field is on the verge of stability and explainability,
new products and services are introduced to destabilise the consumer behaviour model
so as to create competitive openings for challengers, niche players, and other
contenders’ (Firat et al., 1995, pg.42).
The findings generated by this research have implications for both marketing theory and
practice. From a theoretical perspective, the study highlights the need for marketing
academics to consider more fully the importance of consumer behaviour of the youth
market in a marketing context. Greater emphasises on the family buying unit for high
involvement purchases and less attention on the traditional focus towards the individual
would seem evident, particularly for the youth market. However, it is also apparent that
online purchasing is very popular among this group which would seem to be a very
individualistic practice. Because advances in computers and telecommunications are
fundamentally changing the nature of consumer behaviour particularly among the youth
market, the consequences have specific implications for marketing academics and
marketing practitioners.
It is suggested that this group’s spending power is significant. Moreover, their desire
for leisure experiences and branded products seems to be high. The youth market’s
affect and cognitions, behaviours, and the environment by which they conduct the
exchange aspects of their lives must be investigated to gain a deeper understanding of
consumer-purchasing motives. From an advertising and communication viewpoint, it is
evident that pervasive mobile services’3 and technologies are ideal ways for targeting
this group. The extent of ICT access, usage and literacy would also seem to have
tremendous implications for marketing strategy and practice.
VI Conclusion
This paper suggests the need for a research agenda focusing on the youth market and a
holistic rather than individual view of the ICTs available currently and also the potential
and even more explosive ICTs in the pipeline. Baker (2003) suggests that organisations
3
A context-aware composition of services cooperating in a seamless manner, so that the user can focus on what
he/she really wants to do (“send a post card of what I see now to someone I know”), without being bothered by the
complicated technology that is used for achieving his/her goal.
need to develop enhanced consumer responsiveness, which means gaining a greater
understanding of the consumer and replacing the focus on customer retention with a
value-centric orientation. He argues that marketers need to develop a deep
understanding of the attitudes and behaviours of this new consumer if they are to break
away from the mechanistic models of the production-driven era and develop a relevant
approach to exploit the business potential of current consumer culture.
It is evident,
therefore, that while emerging technologies present a variety of new strategic options to
organisations, it has not changed the fundamentals of marketing management. The
essence of effective marketing is still the generation of value by offerings to customers
(Mathur and Kenyon, 2001). This study would drive marketing academic theory
forward and challenge many of the underlying tenets of marketing practice. This is a
crucial and timely study if marketing does not wish to be left behind, laggards in the
understanding of how the ever increasingly ubiquitous ICT is firmly based in their
domain.
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