Ultimately, the studies provide a holistic understanding of the lifestyles, behaviour, attitudes and mindsets of the youth, with the insights informing the development of long-term, sustainable and youth-relevant brand and marketing strategies.
To add to the ongoing Trax® offering, in 2008, Youth Dynamix’s YouthTrax® 2008/9 research study partnered with TRU USA in their Global Teen Study which included teens (12-19 year-olds) from 16 countries worldwide, representing 5 continents. The TRU Global Teen Insights Program is the most in-depth look ever at global teen that includes a variety of topics ranging from attitudes and values to lifestyles and trends, as well as consumer behaviours which contains brands, media, telecommunications and technology and much more. The similarities between the two studies, provided a perfect fit, and an ongoing affiliation, as well as comparable results, allowing us to be able to see where and how the teens in South Africa measure up to their global counterparts.
The countries in the Global Teen Study were categorised into “developed” and “emerging” countries according to the FTSE categories, and South Africa fits into the emerging category, along with Brazil, China and India. The results of the study demonstrated many commonalities in teens worldwide, with some differences identified between developed and emerging market teens which were largely governed by disparities in personal spending capacity.
As a rule, South African youth sit fairly comfortably in the emerging market teen profile, although in certain respects our youth think and behave more like developed market teens. For example, the cellphone penetration in South African teens, in terms of having their own cellphone, stacks up handily at 86% with teens in Germany (86%) and Greece (87%), and even slightly ahead of teens in the UK (85%), Spain (84%) and the US (83%).
Taste in brands is another area where true globalisation of teens has been seen: South African teens list Coke, Nike, Billabong, Levi’s and Adidas as their top five brands (irrespective of category); in selecting Coke as a top brand, they are joined by teens in Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Nike is a top brand amongst teens in Brazil, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Other areas illustrating the phenomenon of the Global Teen are their common leisure time activities, interest in sports, and favourite movie/TV stars.
On the other hand, developed and emerging teens show distinct differences in terms of personal spending capacity, interaction with media (in particular Internet, and favourite types of websites, as well as their attitudes towards various societal, politicial and environmental issues. For example, video and photo sharing websites are much more popular among developed teens than emerging. In this regard, South African teens are much more akin to their emerging market counterparts.
These insights are but a few of those to have emerged from the two studies and the partnership between them. For more information on where South African teens are, and where they stand in relation to their global counterparts contact Quentin Weldon at Youth Dynamix on tel (011) 806 8068 or email quentin.weldon @ youthdynamix.co.za.
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