Panel Finds Uncertainty & Opportunity in the Global Youth Market

CHICAGO, May 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- TRU, the global leader in youth research and insights, predicted two years ago that a burgeoning global youth population, armed with unprecedented access to information and communication, would force significant changes to the status quo. "As recovery from the global economic crisis continues to affect young people disproportionately, we're witnessing a global youth awakening unseen in some four decades," Han Delin, TRU's VP of Global Insights, noted.

To explore what this change means to global brands and the world at large, TRU recently convened a panel of experts from the fields of marketing, sociology, and international relations. The resulting webcast, "Uprising: Uncertainty and Opportunity in the Global Youth Market," drew hundreds of key leaders from many of the world's top marketers to learn the panel's thoughts on how the world is changing and what those shifts mean to global brands.

TRU longitudinal data show a precipitous decline in the number of teens in the U.S. who agree with the statement "things are going really well for me"— a dramatic and unpleasant change that prompted many to look more closely at the complicated issues of the day. According to the "Uprising" panelists, such a process is being duplicated throughout the developed world, and it's beginning in less fortunate corners of emerging markets, as well.

Stan Sthanunathan, VP of Marketing Strategy & Insights for the Coca-Cola Company, said the prevailing view of teens as benignly complacent consumers is a thing of the past.

"Teens are going to mobilize a lot more," Sthanunathan predicted. "For a long time, they've been sitting there assuming someone else will solve their problems. But, increasingly, they're finding that, 'If it is to be, it is up to me.'"

Neil Howe, generational expert and bestselling author of eight books on American generations, including Millennials in the Workplace, cited TRU data showing relatively low optimism in parts of the developed world. He suggested Western Europe may be next big shoe to drop. Still, he said this generation isn't likely to undertake the kind of anarchic, corporate-franchise vandalizing mob action that characterized World Trade Organization protests of decades past.

"As far as individuals standing up, I think this is more of a 'we-first' than a 'me-first' generation," Howe said. "They'll make sure they have a consensus with their peer group so that they're dealing from a position of strength."

Ben Scott, Policy Advisor for Innovation at the U.S. Department of State, noted that the changes the world is witnessing are a direct result of a "potent brew" of technological and demographic factors: A historically large generation of youth harnessing unprecedented advancements in global communication.

"You can no longer talk about youth movements and technology movements as if they're separate things," Scott said. "They are now completely merged."

And, in a marked departure from the past, pan-global connections through technology have created young people who share a similar outlook the world over.

"There's a lot more commonality between a teen in Shanghai and a teen in New York City than a teen in Shanghai and a teen in a small, rural part of China," explained Sthanunathan.

Jamie Rubin, Executive Editor of Bloomberg View and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, explained that this global unity is appearing in places that don't tend to get much credit for openness and global accord.

"(Among the younger generation), the 'Arab Street' is no longer anti-Western and anti-colonization," Rubin explained. "That was their parents' generation." He notes that not only were no American flags burned during this spring's uprisings, the protesters actually called on America for aid. American brands—especially in the field of technology—were instrumental in the protesters' efforts, and they're getting credit as such.

Scott agreed, detailing an example from one of his State Department colleagues.

"One of our very senior foreign service officers came back from the region and said, in her view, Facebook, Twitter, and Google were the Beatles and blue jeans of the modern era in the Arab world," he said. "In a place where animosity toward the U.S. government continues to run very high, there is an enormous amount of interest and use of American technology. American technology companies are held in high regard."

In fact, in this time of upheaval, global brands can play a great role in bringing cultures together. TRU's Vice President of Insights, Scott Hess, noted a longstanding TRU position: Although multinational brands once arrived in other countries as flag-bearers, successful global brands now serve as bridges between cultures. Successful brands not only arrive with tidings from the outside world, they also telegraph parts of their new market back to their home nation and the world at large. This phenomenon, which TRU calls "Brand as Bridge," is why brands are often much more successful in fluidly crossing borders than can, say, movie stars, musicians, or athletes. Brands can focus on the core attributes that are most relevant to each market.

ABOUT TRU: TRU, a division of TNS Custom Research, Inc., has been studying teens for nearly 30 years and counts among its clients 200 leading brand marketers as well as a variety of social-service agencies. The TRU Global Teen Study, the only research of its kind, is based on interviews with more than 35,000 teens in 40 countries across five continents.

SOURCE TRU