The "Generation-X" keeps us marketers on our toes. They seem to be embracing change at such a rapid speed that as soon as we get a whiff of a trend, they have already moved on to the next! It is a challenge to get in step with the "youth" (though I don't think they call themselves that) - but with 45 per cent of the country's population estimated to be below age 19, its critical that we learn their lingo - and fast.
In my experience, what works for capturing this segment is a complete product design for Gen X. Be innovative - set the trend itself by being creative instead of trying to figure out what's cool today - because by the time you have figured that out, it may no longer be cool; be entertaining in your communication strategy. I have found that bold humour (but not risqué) works best with this target audience.
There was a time, not so long ago, when a funky and colourful ad campaign with liberal dosages of "hinglish" was enough to classify you as talking to the youth. But it worked when it was a new thing. Today, it's hardly clutter breaking. There was also a time when a tie-up with MTV could do the trick for you. And MTV still remains a good window to the teenager, but it alone cannot propel you into their world. Making your advertising young and cool sounding has now become a hygiene factor - something that's a minimum requirement but certainly not enough. The bigger trick lies in conceiving special Gen-X products that are in tune with their lifestyles. To truly create a Gen-X brand personality, you must start from the drawing board itself. Your product concept, design, features - all should be tailored specifically to this target segment.
I will use as a case study, our experience with our scooterette "Kinetic Zing" - what we did to position it as a desirable two-wheeler for the 16-21 aged buyers. Our brand tracks show that we have succeeded in this - with the brand personality being captured as "youthful", "fun" and "aspirational".
The "scooterette" is a smaller and lighter sibling of the full scooter. These are essentially urban vehicles, popular in mini metros and cities with large student populations. It would typically be a student's first-ever vehicle that you acquire upon passing from class X and entering junior college. You no longer go to school in a school bus. You go to college, to tuitions and activities, to movies and parties with your friends. So you need your own vehicle. It should be easy to ride and it should be cool to be seen on it! Standard specifications are 65cc engine, electric-start and gearless transmission.
This is the segment that we wanted to enter. Kinetic, of course, has strong brand equity in gearless scooters - which we have pioneered. When we created the Zing, we never lost sight of our target audience. The Zing was designed for the Gen-X from the word go. The primary objective of Zing was clearly defined as meeting the transportation needs of the college going teenager - whether a boy or a girl. It was designed to be trendy looking with clean, sharp lines (carefully balanced to avoid specifically feminine or masculine appeal - it incorporates cues of prettiness as well as aggressiveness without clear overtones of either); to be light and peppy in performance (compact but not puny), priced at an easy-to-convince-your-parents value price; and fuel efficient (55 Kmpl) to be pocket-money friendly. Even the brand name Kinetic Zing was frozen after a lot of deliberation (other names considered were Breeze, Tango, Viva). The colour palette consisted of an electric-blue, a passion-pink and a flaming-red in addition to the usual black and silver. (As an aside, the brighter colours did not really take off; the Gen-X seems to prefer conservative blacks and silvers). Even our logo is specially designed to have a youthful look.
The Zing got off to a very good start in the market. We launched it in August 2002, and by March 2003, we had cornered a cool 20 per cent market share.
But we needed to do something special for the months of April- July - considered the most crucial from a sales point of view as the "pre-college opening" turns large numbers of teenagers into king customers. With this in mind, we created a special variant of the Zing called the Zing Rockin' Series. The Zing Rockin' Series was innovative - it offered a host of never-before features that were bang on target for the Gen X. It had special attractive dual-tone colour schemes, and an under seat charge point as well as holder for a mobile phone, an FM radio and a cola-can holder. Such features and innovations have never been offered on a two-wheeler before, and it was successful in attracting the Gen X - as they all have mobile phones now, and FM radio is a craze among them.
Now that we had our custom designed Gen-X vehicle ready, the next step was to devise the marketing strategy for the summer. I will share some of our research with you that helped me to decide on the direction of the positioning.
Our research has shown that the teenager, at a very broad level, can be classified into two types of mindsets - the style seeker and the functionality seeker. The Style seeker is the carefree bird who enjoys life with no strings attached, and seeks freedom of expression in all activities - whether by himself or with friends. The functionality seeker sees himself as a mature individual who enjoys life responsibly and weighs pros-cons and trade offs concerned in all aspects. For example, the style seekers like their independence, and being able to make their own rules. Their view on newfound college life is about having a good time with their friends. The functionality seekers appreciate the lighter side as well as realise the seriousness - they try to learn the value of time and money and to balance between fun and work. In their purchasing decisions, the Style seekers look for status and fun focusing on aesthetic and appeal enhancing aspects, while the functionality seekers look for value and utility, focusing on functionally beneficial aspects.
Now the numbers. Among the youth, according to our research, the style seekers vastly outnumber the functionality seekers - 71 per cent to 29 per cent.
So then, the job is to talk to the Style seekers. As long as your product delivers utility and is priced at a good value-for-money, the functionality seekers will go for it anyway - and if it doesn't provide utility and VFM, then advertising is not going to influence their rational buying process.
Coming to our target audience then, the Style seekers want a positive rub-off on his image by associating with a particular brand. They talk about things like "my vehicle should look stylish," "it should be in fashion today," "it should create an impression on others," "it should be popular," "it should be new and different," "it should make me feel proud" and so on. Based on this, we created a summer marketing campaign that included a television campaign and a cool event/contest as a good way of creating some interactive buzz in the city and driving traffic into dealerships. I find that television and events are the best platforms to talk to the youth. Press is not as effective (perhaps they don't read newspapers at this age!) and I have found that contrary to popular perception, Internet is more effective for marketing to older executives than teenagers.
For the Zing Rockin', we conceptualised a contest the around the product with give-aways of free movie tickets and parties with a film star. We used Karishma Kapoor and Mahima Chowdhary for this contest that ran across twelve cities over a span of two months. We got thousands of participants in each centre, and the movie halls and discotheques we booked were full.
The next was the TV commercial. I believe that for this category, humour and entertainment make a TV campaign successful. I think that instead of sentimental, dreamy or simply enjoyable advertising, a marketer should use bold, provocative and clutter-busting creative concepts to get active scores. Conceptualise your communication to make sure it creates an impact, rather than searching to establish emotional connect. After you've made your product active, you need to make your communication active too.
With its unique features, the Zing would completely reposition other scooterettes as has-beens. Instead of taking a classic brand stand of saying we have these attributes, we decided to say that no one else has such-and-such. The idea we used was to create dissonance by saying 'Baaki sab ki hawa nikaal de". Then we took it literal - to mean that anyone without a Zing Rockin' will feel deflated. We blew up the 'hawa nikaal de' connotation, and this hugely helped the communication in standing out. When you actually show what it feels like when kisi ki hawa nikal jaaye, the impact is that much more. And we've managed that in this ad.
If you've seen the ad, it was bold and funny, slightly over the top but definitely entertaining. It made you laugh, and it really stood out. And it worked.
Some stills from the ad:
So this is my recipe for creating a brand personality for Generation X. Design your product for their needs and preferences. Be innovative. And in your communication, be entertaining, humorous, bold and aspirational.

Questions to ponder
>What are the indispensable constituents of an advertising campaign that’s aimed at generation X?
> If your product category is function-driven, what approach will you take to appeal to the style-seeking generation X?
>How will you use entertainment to design a creative for your product?