MRG Evening Meeting: The Youth Market And How To Reach It
Yesterday’s MRG Evening Meeting considered how to research the youth market, a notoriously difficult job yet one which can provide huge dividends. The main point of contention was whether such a market could be researched using traditional methods of modelling and categorising or by using a looser, more flexible approach.
Dave Anderson, of Navigator Research, pointed out the reasons why this market is so hard to reach: it is fast moving, extremely cynical and very media literate. The market is hard to segment and there are no nineties icons.
His view was that while consumer research is obviously important, perhaps a more reliable tool for looking into this market is to contact the ‘Front Line Service Providers’ – these would be, in the beer market for example, bar owners, club runners and the style press among others. These people help to keep on top of changing culture and are able to stimulate ideas. They provide information for strategic purposes and for media ideas as well as predictions and possibilities; in contrast with the consumers who reveal the media they used, the reality of a campaign and the restrictions it contains. Anderson also pointed out the benefit of using models which show opinion-formers at the top and consumers at the bottom – though the gap between the two is narrowing all the time.
Nikki Mesham of Emap Metro then spoke about ROAR – the new survey for the youth market. As reported on *ROaR Research Results, ROAR is a continuous survey with a panel of over 1,400 15-24 year olds, providing information on attitudes, opinions and buying habits. The research is led by seven committee members from differing areas of the media – from researchers to sales and marketing people.
A core part of the ROAR research is segmenting respondents into seven categories, based on a sizeable number of attitude statements. These categories include the New Modernist (creative, well-educated and a trend setter); the Corporate Clubber (mainstream, fashionable, living for today) and the Conservative Careerist (less liberal, works hard, anti-drugs and with a high disposable income). Mesham believes that such a method demonstrates that 15-24 year olds are not one homogenous group of apathetic slackers but lots of different types of people who need to be sold to in differing ways.
In terms of buying habits, ROAR looked at what was bought in certain areas and also what influences purchasing and the images of differing brands within product fields. Three waves of research have so far been carried out and another is being planned for the Autumn at the moment.
Graham Hall, of Informer Research, explained his very different belief that putting the youth market into any kind of model or dividing it into different categories is out-dated and non-productive. Informer’s Youth Monitor is the largest qualitative study of young people in the UK: it has over 1,500 respondents and every six weeks 10 focus group carry out interviews with ‘opinion-formers’ within the youth market.
Hall believes that socio-economic models, questions about education, ethnicity and age are not relevant to today’s ever changing youth culture. The pyramid model has been superseded by the petri dish, which reveals small groups of friends forming their own identities and opinions: each cell tells a subtly different story. In this kind of survey it is important to pick out the accepted, popular and influential members of the group for interviewing. Hall also claims that increasingly clients are beginning to agree with this technique. The research is presented in CD-ROM format which includes video-clips of the interviews and the adverts discussed.
In response to one question, Dave Anderson raised the point that while Informer’s footage of a ‘tired and emotional’ teenager at Glastonbury expounding his delight at buying copious amounts of cheap drugs was amusing, it was not very useful in explaining why Caffreys is a successful brand.
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