NETTING IT OUT
Marketing as we know it is about to change forever-at least, B2C marketing is about to change dramatically. Why? Because consumers’ behaviours are changing in pretty dramatic ways. We expect at least some of these changes will spill over into B2B marketing practices as well.
Here’s a summary of a year’s worth of market research carried out around the world during 2002. The market research focus was on urban “tween-agers” - kids between 8 and 14 years old - in 14 countries around the world. The research and its implications are discussed in our new book, BRANDchild: Remarkable Insights into the minds of today’s global kids and their relationship with brands.
Here are some of the most dramatic changes to which you’ll need to adapt in order to win the hearts and minds of today’s most demanding consumers (and their parents!):
1. The Customer is the focus; not the product or the brand.
2. Multi-channel interactive marketing and sales are required.
3. Authenticity and straight talk are important. Your product and brand must be authentic.
4. Secrets and nuances that can be discovered are vital to keeping the brand fresh.
5. Peer-to-peer guerrilla marketing is critical to success.
6. Online and offline worlds have blurred - use both.
7. Brand loyalty is more ephemeral; brand passion is stronger than ever before.
What’s the relevance of this research for B2B marketers? Customers are people. What works to motivate and connect with consumers is part of the fabric of how they approach the products, the brands, and the companies with which they interact both in their personal and in their business lives.
For example, we’ve all witnessed the impact that Amazon.com, Schwab.com, eBay and other consumer Web sites have had on B2B business processes. Because of what they’ve experienced as consumers on sites like these, today’s business customers expect to be able to shop online as well as by phone and in person. They expect to be able to interact with our businesses 24 x 7 across channels and touchpoints with great consistency. And, they expect to be able to dispose of and/or to acquire any product instantly in a global online marketplace.
Tomorrow’s adult and business marketing landscape will be shaped by tweens, who will have lived for years in the virtual worlds created in EverQuest, Entropia, Sims Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Lineage, and many other multiplayer fantasy worlds. They will be accustomed to creating their own personas with brands to match. They will want to shape their environments, interact with others constantly, and co-create their brand experiences, both online and offline.
The Customer Revolution continues, but it’s about to shift into hyperdrive!
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT TWEENS?
Tweens Have Incredible Purchasing Power and Influence
Tweenagers - kids from the age of 9 to 14 - currently spend $150 billion per year globally. Tweens also influence an additional $150 billion per year globally with “pester power.” And they indirectly influence another $300 billion per year, for example, in situations in which a parent makes a purchase taking into account kids’ tastes. That’s a total purchasing/influencing power of $600 billion this year!
In addition to the products that tweens buy for themselves and/or consume themselves (food, entertainment, clothing, music, electronics, etc.), tweens actually influence adults’ purchases of a large variety of products. (This will come as no surprise to most parents, who don’t want to be perceived as “uncool” by their offspring).
In its research with global urban tweens, market research firm Millward Brown asked urban tweens and their parents about the degree of influence tweens actually had over adult purchases in three categories: cars, designer fashions (for the parents’ clothes), and mobile phones.
Close to 60 percent of kids voiced their opinions on the subject of the family car purchase. That’s not too surprising. More startling was the finding that 58 percent of tweens also had influence over their parents’ fashion purchases. And 45 percent of parents’ mobile phone purchases were influenced by tweens. Parents were more likely to solicit tweens’ opinions about car and fashion purchases (30 percent and 28 percent), than about phones (20 percent). But most tweens weren’t shy in voicing their opinions, whether or not they were asked.
Nigel Hollis, who is the group strategic planning and development director for Millward Brown, summarized the results this way: “What is particularly intriguing is that so many kids said that their parents ask for their opinionÖOn average, the child was 50 percent more likely to claim that they had a say if they also claimed to be interested in the product category itself. This interest in turn appears to reflect the local culture. Kids in India, the U.S., and Japan are more likely to express interest in cars rather than fashions, and to voice an opinion about parents’ purchases in that category. Brazilians and Europeans are more likely to be interested in fashions, and were more likely to voice an opinion about what clothes their parents might buy.”TWEENS?

T	His generation uses the Internet not just to find things out or to connect with friends from their neighbourhoods or from school

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT TWEENS?
Tweens Have Incredible Purchasing Power and Influence
Tweenagers - kids from the age of 9 to 14 - currently spend $150 billion per year globally. Tweens also influence an additional $150 billion per year globally with “pester power.” And they indirectly influence another $300 billion per year, for example, in situations in which a parent makes a purchase taking into account kids’ tastes. That’s a total purchasing/influencing power of $600 billion this year!
In addition to the products that tweens buy for themselves and/or consume themselves (food, entertainment, clothing, music, electronics, etc.), tweens actually influence adults’ purchases of a large variety of products. (This will come as no surprise to most parents, who don’t want to be perceived as “uncool” by their offspring).
In its research with global urban tweens, market research firm Millward Brown asked urban tweens and their parents about the degree of influence tweens actually had over adult purchases in three categories: cars, designer fashions (for the parents’ clothes), and mobile phones. phones.
Close to 60 percent of kids voiced their opinions on the subject of the family car purchase. That’s not too surprising. More startling was the finding that 58 percent of tweens also had influence over their parents’ fashion purchases. And 45 percent of parents’ mobile phone purchases were influenced by tweens. Parents were more likely to solicit tweens’ opinions about car and fashion purchases (30 percent and 28 percent), than about phones (20 percent). But most tweens weren’t shy in voicing their opinions, whether or not they were asked.
Nigel Hollis, who is the group strategic planning and development director for Millward Brown, summarized the results this way: “What is particularly intriguing is that so many kids said that their parents ask for their opinionÖOn average, the child was 50 percent more likely to claim that they had a say if they also claimed to be interested in the product category itself. This interest in turn appears to reflect the local culture. Kids in India, the U.S., and Japan are more likely to express interest in cars rather than fashions, and to voice an opinion about parents’ purchases in that category. Brazilians and Europeans are more likely to be interested in fashions, and were more likely to voice an opinion about what clothes their parents might buy.”

Today’s Tweens Are the First Globally-Wired Generation
Although earlier generations have grown up with computers and computer games, this is the first generation to have grown up with online chat and multiplayer online games as part of their milieu. This generation uses the Internet not just to find things out or to connect with friends from their neighbourhoods or from school. This generation uses the Net to make new friends from all over the world, to compete with them for mastery of their virtual worlds, and to co-create new communities and planets.
Today’s tweens are also masters of multitasking. They are able to do their homework, talk on the phone with friends, watch TV, surf the Net, chat online, and listen to music - all at the same time. To today’s tweens, information overload is a non-sequitur.
Like the generations before them, today’s tweens also live in a very physical world. They play sports, hang out in malls, ride freestyle-bikes, skateboard, roller-blade, and snowboard. And, like tweens before them, today’s tweens fantasize about their music idols, their sports heroes, and their comic book heroes. However, today’s tweens are also likely to configure and equip their own heroes, to engage in online games that last for days, and to compose and share their own music with friends on a different continent - friends they chat with every day, but whom they’ve never met face-to-face.

THE RESEARCH BEHIND THIS BOOK
BRANDchild combines current market research along with observations and analysis from seasoned brand marketing executives and consultants - people who have been marketing to kids for decades. Author Martin Lindstrom was the founder of BBDO Interactive Asia, and he has worked as a valued brand and marketing consultant for Pepsi, LEGO, Mars, Cartoon Network, Ericsson, VISA, and dozens more companies. Contributor Yun Mi Antorini was a senior director at LEGO, responsible for Global Brand Strategies. Contributor Nigel Hollis (17 years with Millward Brown, formerly at Cadbury Schweppes) and the entire global team of Millward Brown market researchers have been conducting Kidspeak research for the firm’s clients around the world.
These brand experts are all in agreement. This generation of tweenagers is qualitatively different from previous generations in how they feel, how they act, and how they interrelate. If you want to be able to market to them and/or to welcome them as adult buyers or employees, you should take the time to understand what makes them tick and how it’s different.

T	His generation of tweenagers is qualitatively different from previous generations in how they feel, how they act, and how they interrelate

 

Why Urban Kids?
The Millward Brown team wanted to talk with the kids most likely to represent the future global consumer population - those most likely to have the purchasing power now and in the future. So, they focused on kids in urban settings in large and mid-size cities.

Which Countries?
The research team chose to do primary quantitative and qualitative research in seven countries: China, India, Japan, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Denmark, and the United States. The team felt that this selection represented a cross-section of economies and of western and non-western cultures. The primary research included face-to-face interviews with kids in shopping malls or other public venues. The sample was selected from a socio-economic class in each country/culture that allowed them to have TV in their homes, an opportunity to access the Internet, and contact with upscale brands. Tweens were also visited in their homes.
This primary research was supplemented with secondary research from 7 additional countries. The Patricia Seybold Group also sponsored its own panel of tween research in the United States to understand the emotional motivation underlying tweens’ relationships with brands better. (See last week’s Report, “Understanding Your Next Generation Customers.”)
In all, the research sampled thousands of tweens, divided equally between boys and girls, with equal distribution across ages from 9 to 14.

P	Perhaps the most surprising result of this global urban tween survey is how similar tweens’ access to Internet technology is across countries

HOW WIRED ARE TODAY’S TWEENS?
Perhaps the most surprising result of this global urban tween survey is how similar tweens’ access to Internet technology is across countries (among urban, affluent kids).

Wired Behavior:
How wired are today’s urban tweens? They spend as much or more time on the Internet than they appear to spend on mobile phones.
Based on this research sample:
l 45.7% of urban tweens worldwide use the Internet regularly.
– United States: 72.8%
– Japan: 56%
– Germany: 52.5%
– Brazil: 49%
– China: 31%
– India: 23%
l Of those, 75% access the Net from home.
– United States: 85%
– China: 83%
– Japan: 83%
– Germany: 77%
– Brazil: 69%
– India: 36%
l 20% of the urban tweens surveyed have their own mobile phones.
– Germany: 52%
– Spain: 33%
– Japan: 24%
– Brazil: 21%
– United States: 14%
– India: 4%
– China: 3%
l 45.1% of those send several text messages a day.
– Japan: 64%
l 47.2% of urban tweens enter chat rooms and engage in real-time conversations on a regular basis.
– 70% of urban Brazilian tweens regularly engage in chat on the Web.
– 19.1% of urban Japanese tweens go to the Web to chat.
l 64% of tweens use the now-burgeoning global Instant Messaging vocabulary. (Martin Lindstrom refers to this IM vocabulary as “TweenSpeak” in BRANDchild.)
l 39% have friends or relatives in other countries, and most of them use the Internet to stay in touch, several times a week.

Gaming Behaviour
Tweens gravitate to gaming behaviour, which includes a winner, losers, and some kind of points system. Games usually also incorporate fear, humour, and fantasy elements as well as mastery. According to Lindstrom, fear, humour, fantasy, and mastery are core values for tweens, along with stability, and love.
l On average, tweens spend 2 hours a day on interactive gaming.
l 68.3% of tweens who use the Internet play or download games from the Internet.
– 77.6% in India
– 75.7% in the United States
– 74% in China
l 36% have at least 2 different avatars (online personalities).
– 7% have up to 10 different avatars.
– 46% of Chinese tweens have up to 3 avatars!
– 37% of U.S. tweens have up to 3 avatars.
– 10% of Japanese kids have up to 3 avatars.

T	Today’s tweens selected family first and friends a close second in terms of what they value the most. The findings were remarkably similar across the geographies

 

ISSUES AND VALUES
What did this market research tell us about the state of today’s tweens’ psyches? Among the sobering findings were tweens’ concerns about the threat of terrorism and the stability of their families.
Family, Friends, and Helping Others
Today’s tweens selected family first and friends a close second in terms of what they value the most. The findings were remarkably similar across the geographies. Family ranked highest, with an average of 98 percent. Friends and “helping others” both earned a 94 percent rating for “things that are most important to me.”

Being Safe
Safety and security are more important to today’s tweens than privacy, if they have to make a trade-off.
l Being safe is important to 91.9% of all urban tweens.
l 52.5% of all urban tweens still worry about terrorism.
Privacy
l 44.5% of urban tweens surveyed are concerned about online privacy, including the handling of personal data, monitoring their behaviour, and the use of their data for commercial purposes.
l Yet 28% of the wired urban tweens surveyed were willing to let the government check their emails in order to counteract terrorism.

Environmental Concerns
We were interested to see how strongly tweens feel about environmental issues, and not just in the already-developed parts of the world. Product planners need to pay serious attention to this environmental sensitivity.
l 83.9% of urban tweens believe that products that are bad for the environment should be totally banned.
– 91% of tweens in Brazil and China support a total ban on environmentally unfriendly products.
– 70.5% of U.S. tweens support such a ban.

T	Tween consumers want to know things that others are missing. Being clued in when the rest of the world is clueless has high value

TWEENS’ RELATIONSHIP TO MARKETING AND BRANDS
The bulk of BRANDchild is devoted not to statistical findings, but to understanding how the tween world works, particularly in terms of tweens’ relationships to brands. You’ll find lots of guidance and many examples and anecdotes throughout the book to help you understand how to relate to - and how to market to - this generation.
After pouring over this research and participating in the analysis, here are my top seven take-aways:
1. THE CUSTOMER IS THE FOCUS; NOT THE PRODUCT OR THE BRAND. Today’s new breed of customers want to influence and interact with the brand promise. Let your leading customers shape your brand, interact with your brand, and make it their own. You’re not in control. Ideally, they are! Listen really carefully; respond quickly.
BRANDchild is full of examples of what happens when customers, mostly tweens, bond with a brand. There are lots of ingredients required before this bonding will happen, including some element of history that is shrouded in mystery. But once customers begin to gravitate to the brand and to explore its mystery, successful marketers both fan the flames of devotion and encourage these fans to become the spokespeople for the brand personality. They listen carefully to these fans’ concerns and criticisms, and act quickly to allay them.
2. MULTIDIMENSIONAL, MULTICHANNEL, AND HIGHLY INTERACTIVE MARKETING AND SALES ARE REQUIRED. In order to be successful, today’s products must have multidimensional interactive marketing programs across multiple channels in parallel. The most important of these channels to the tween audience are TV, music, magazines, friends, stores, “seen-on-the-street,” Internet, chat, and interactive gaming. As one young man described it, “I won’t go see the movie until I’ve already played the game.”
Remember that tweens are not only multichannel, 24x7 creatures, but they’re also multitasking, multichannel customers and prospects. If they see something in a magazine or in a store, they’ll want to check on its status in the chat rooms. If they see it on TV, they’ll go online for an interactive gaming or discovery experience.
Music is a major part of the interactive experience. Yet, one of the most interesting research findings was the incredible diversity of tween musical tastes, not only across cultures, but within cultures. The homogenisation of global brands that we’re accustomed to seeing in clothing and food is actually going in the opposite direction in musical tastes. So while there’s a high correlation between musical tastes and brand preferences, there’s an explosion in musical tastes. That tells us we’re going to see an explosion in brands as well - lots of niche brands, appealing to niche audiences.
3. AUTHENTICITY AND STRAIGHT TALK ARE IMPORTANT. Your product and brand must be authentic. No false promises, nor glossing over issues. As we’ve said, environmental issues are particularly important to this current generation of consumer. Authenticity means letting it all hang out, even if you screw up. You have to come clean immediately and tell the truth. If your brand personality is opinionated or extreme, that’s good. It’s more authentic.
4. SECRETS AND NUANCES THAT CAN BE DISCOVERED ARE VITAL TO KEEPING THE BRAND FRESH. Tween consumers want to know things that others are missing. Being clued in when the rest of the world is clueless has high value. You’ll find lots of great stories in BRANDchild about how products and brands are shrouded in secrecy. Clues are left for the initiated to track down. The product’s provenance and history are veiled in mystery, but you can pull off the veils if you persevere.
This aspect of product/brand mystique is very similar to the fantasy gaming world these tweens inhabit. For every brand, there should be a fascinating history, full of twists and turns, to explore.
5. PEER-TO-PEER GUERILLA MARKETING IS CRITICAL TO SUCCESS. Tweens are influenced by older role models who represent the values and opinions they emulate. Recruit these influencers carefully and let them shape the message for each sub-stream/sub-culture you’re targeting. Today’s tweens are less enamoured with mass market stars, particularly sports heroes, and more interested in cult heroes for their own sub-communities of interest. Whatever niche markets you’re targeting, you’ll want to find the teenage opinion-shapers and get them on board as enthusiastic boosters. Word of mouth remains the most authentic way to pitch your brand. So your boosters must be genuine and your guerrilla tactics (street graffiti, parties, give-aways) cool.
6. ONLINE AND OFFLINE WORLDS HAVE BLURRED - USE BOTH. Tweens live in parallel online and offline worlds. They have multiple personalities online. Consider product placement in online games and virtual worlds. Which characters or attributes resonate most with your brand image? Consider introducing a new product/brand in the virtual world first! But remember that tweens’ different alter egos will have different likes and dislikes. A brand they identify with as one avatar online may be completely inappropriate for their offline (real world) persona.
Don’t ignore the parallel economies of virtual worlds. Remember, the GNP per capita of EverQuest’s Norrath is now greater than that of India or China. And a tween who devotes time and energy to creating great characters or powerful imaginary weapons can earn more online than he or she can in a minimum wage job.
7. BRAND LOYALTY IS MORE EPHEMERAL; BRAND PASSION IS STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE. Tweens are much more fickle than adults when it comes to bonding with brands. As tweens mature from 9 to 14, their sense of autonomy becomes stronger and their need for conformity declines. The younger they are, the more subject they are to peer pressure. Lindstrom calls this rapid switch from brand to brand, “fish-streaming.” Yet tweens are very emotionally attached to the brands they select and create to represent themselves to the world. The great paradox we’ve found is that today’s tweens are more passionate and emotionally connected to brands than ever before, despite the fact that they swarm from brand to brand.

HOW TO PUT THESE LESSONS TO WORK FOR YOU
First, become educated about the values and the ethos of today’s globally interconnected and instantaneously communicating tweens. These are your next-generation customers and employees.
Second, think about how you can begin to create a tween-friendly interactive discovery experience for your products and brands. Adult customers won’t want you to bombard them with games and clues, but, like their tweens, they’ll also resonate with authenticity and straight talk. They’ll probably appreciate your giving them more information to explore about the history and provenance of your brands and your products.
Third, if you have customers who show signs of being fans-people who have already bonded to your brand-recruit them to represent your brand to others by making them heroes. Create lots of opportunities (chat rooms, open forums, etc.) for these fans to give you an earful about what’s not right about your products, your service, and your approach. Listen, react, respond, take action, and continue the virtuous cycle.
Fourth, take your messaging multichannel. Use the streets, use the Net, use product placements online and offline. Make every marketing campaign a multichannel campaign. Keep it alive, fresh and interactive. Engage customers, and give them humour and a bit of fantasy.
Fifth, don’t try to homogenize your brand image. Keep it vital, but tune it to lots of small sub-markets. Assume that your prospects and customers have many different persona(they certainly have many different contexts and scenarios). Tune your brand's messaging to stay true to its core, but to connect with lots of different sub-markets and personalities.
with lots of different sub-markets and personalities.

turning point

"It's no coincidence that this emerging generation (tweenagers) has become powerful enough to have a specific allotment in every marketing director's budget." Martin Lindstrom Author and Branding expert

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Patricia B Seybold is the founder-CEO of Patricia Seybold Group in Boston and is a well-known customer guru and best-selling author. She has a working arrangement with Innovative Media for various customer-related initiatives for India and Middle East. She may be contacted at imedia@vsnl.com.