Business

Saturday May 16, 2009

Targeting teen market

By LEE KIAN SEONG


THE teenage market (those aged between 15 and 19 years) constitutes 14% of the Malaysian population, which makes it a huge market to tap for businesses.

Noteworthy is that technology is an integral part of the lives of teenagers, hence the rising emergence of the digital space as a platform for advertisers to communicate with teens. This trend was revealed by a research report called Point of View, a biannual opinions research, which uses Klang Valley as the pulse, carried out by Ogilvy and Mather (O&M) Malaysia.

The research compares teens from two generations – Generation X (Gen X) and Generation C (Gen C) – and shows the vast impact the evolution of technology and its broad usage has had on teenagers.

What sets Gen C apart from Gen X is technology and its usage. Gen X involves teens who have yet to embrace any kind of technological savvy such as mobile phones, e-mail, SMS and online chatting and as such, they are referred to as pre-technology babies (born between 1965 and 1980).

On the other hand, Gen C (a subset of Generation Y born in 1981 onwards) represents post-technology babies born during the tech-boom era of 1990s.

Zayn Khan(left) ... very few brands really understand the digital space.Caryl Heah (right) ... brands can provide teens with opportunities to self-express.

This group, it is discovered, is rarely impressed by the advent of technology and requires different needs to reinforce their identity. High in the priority list of these teenagers is the need for a sense of belonging, self expression, freedom in communication, privacy and self achievement, which they feel they can explore through the digital world.

O&M Malaysia group managing director Zayn Khan points out that while generally teenagers do not have high disposable income, they tend to lead the consumer market in many ways.

The services most relevant to this segment include, not surprisingly, telecommunications, fast-moving consumer goods, mobile devices, technological devices, lifestyle brands and media brands.

Khan adds that companies involved in these related markets can communicate with teens in more effective ways using digital platform, and this helps build brands.

“As Gen C has the online and mobile space that enables them to experiment with their identity and express themselves, advertisers need to tap different marketing strategies to connect with them in the digital space,” he says, adding that the digital space comes with powerful opportunities for brands to engage with teens.

Unfortunately, he says, very few brands really understand the digital space and how to effectively engage with this target market in that arena. “They still look at it in very elementary terms,” he adds.

Associate planner Caryl Heah says online social networking sites like Facebook and Friendster have a huge following in the teens market.

“Teenagers want to communicate with one another and technology helps them do this,” she says, adding that companies could create some interesting games online to attract teens while improving brand awareness.

As teenagers are sensitive about their privacy, she says it is an opportunity for companies to design a virtual diary or sponsor a particular product, which is under password protection.

For example, she cites the Hotlink-sponsored online treasure boxes that are password enabled where access is only among friends. “Mobile companies can also provide free talk time for teenagers to talk to friends to reinforce peer groups,” she says. Hotlink’s user profile also comes in sets of six ringtones for six friends, which is something teenagers warm up to easily.

She says brands can provide teens with opportunities to self-express via technological platforms and also to receive quick feedback from peers.

“Nike allows teens to experiment on Facebook by developing their own shoe design, encouraging friends to comment on that,” she says.

In this era, companies are better able to communicate with teens through various means and approaches to further build on its brand exposure and at the same time create better rapport and affinity with the target market.

Zayn says it is time to optimise the usage of the digital environment as Internet and mobile penetration rates are very high among urban teens in Malaysia.

“Just talking about advertising online is quite an outdated concept as creating interactive brand experiences for teens is the trend now,” he says.

He says digital marketing is not new in markets like North America, Europe, South Korea and Japan , but is relatively new in many Southeast Asian countries.

“Digital marketing is more precise, targeted and measurable and it can provide better returns,” he says.

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