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... grown up with computer and internet technology, they are totally comfortable with it. This has proved to be the newest medium used by advertisers to reach their teenage consumers. A massive 19 million teens own computers, and 71 percent use the internet on a constant basis (Parr 65). Teenagers should also beware the advertisements that idolize celebrities. Teens need to remember that just because their favorite musician is shown in an advertisement, that it does not mean that he is using the product or even has any interest in what is being sold.
He is doing the commercial because he is getting paid, and the marketers know that his appearance with their product will boost its sales. As teens become gradually more materialistic, they ardently believe that looking good is a key component to being cool and successful (Zollo 122). As they identify themselves with celebrities or people depicted by advertisements, they are selling themselves short and causing harm to their self image. The media is an extremely prevalent source that is tapped by marketers to instill these feelings in teenagers. The more vulnerable they feel, the more likely they are to buy an advertised product.
As you and your friends leave the restaurant after paying the bill, you all return to your house. Your room, which is covered with posters of the latest music phenoms and your all time favorite movies, is the favorite hangout of your clique. You have the best flat screen television and an endless array of DVDs that you all love to crash in front of while snacking on Gummi bears and Sour Patch kids. The only problem is, your little brother left all his Star Wars stuff all over your floor when he was playing in there yesterday. Your friends laugh at you, and you feel totally embarrassed because the stuff that was left in your room depicts a person that is not cool at all. You vow to beat up your brother because he made your friends look down upon you, and scarred your perfectly cool and popular reputation.
Deciphering the concept of cool has become a huge driving factor behind all research regarding what teens buy. Whether a brand or a certain product is dubbed cool or not can make or break its success. According to surveys, two thirds of teens associate quality with being cool, and 47 % say a brand is cool only if it is made for their age group. 24 % say if cool friends use it, it passes the test. Gene Delvecchio, president of Youth Marketing Consultancy, says of perennially cool brands, All of these brands satisfy a timeless emotional need and dress it up in a current trend or fad (Ebenkamp 36). MTV, a very successful company that is geared toward teenagers taps into rebellion and angst; themes that have long been part of a teens heart and soul- and combines them with programs that are of the moment (Ebenkamp 36). Marketers also try extremely hard to pinpoint the sources of trends and how they evolve.
In general, they have found that the best way to spot trends is to observe teenagers and go where they go. 47 % of trends are said to originate from peers, which is a dead giveaway to how trends develop (Zollo 110). Another shocking fact is that twenty percent of teens consider themselves to be trendsetters. (Zollo 113). Brand choice and brand loyalty are other factors studied by marketers so that they can better understand what teens buy. A teens willingness to buy or campaign to their parents for certain brands is has a direct relationship with the importance of brand choice in the products category (Zollo 35). Teens are more likely to stay with one brand in terms of intimate products, such as tampons or personal hygiene products. When it comes to clothing, teens are more likely to buy what they like, no matter the brand.
Teens also tend to regard brands within the fashion category as the coolest because their importance to teens transcends their status as consumer products (Zollo 35). For teenagers, the importance of having cool things or being viewed as cool is one of the most important aspects of their daily lives. Slowly but obviously becoming a more money and looks oriented society, fifty-two percent of teens say that being good looking is what makes a person cool. What teenagers buy reflects what they think of themselves and how they wish others to perceive them.
Teens also see the act of buying as one of independence and conformity at the same time (Zollo 22). Teenagers must learn to look beyond all of this materialism, and not judge themselves or others by what they own or how cool they are. Teenagers can not get caught up in the medias picture of what is socially acceptable. In todays world, teenagers have to be themselves, and put a conscious effort into not conforming to society and what their peers deem worthy.
Teens need to realize that being good looking and popular are not the most important things in life. They need to look past the face and image set forth by the media and advertising and see themselves and what they buy for its their worth. Another aspect of the advertising and media in todays society that must be considered and examined is its adverse effects on the mental and inadvertently the physical health of teenagers. Just imagine, after a long summer vacation full of lots of free time for relaxing, you have gained 15 pounds. You can no longer fit into your May jeans or your designer Juicy top that you were planning to wear on your first day of school. You become depressed, gaze up at your Britney Spears poster and decide that you arent going to eat for a while.
Poofan eating disorder develops due what image the media sets forth as normal. According to Kilbourne, author of Selling Addictions, Advertising clearly has played a role in creating the current national obsession with excessive thinness for women (7). Diana Liu, a high school student affirms this theory by saying, [Some girls] are totally influenced by TV and magazines. Not only is their self image changed, but their self-worth also drops. They think they are not as important and special if they dont look like so and so (1 / 21 / 01). However, some teens, such as Greta Ackerman, a teen who has grown up in New York City.
She is mentally stronger than this and says, I try not to let ads that intentionally portray the closest thing to perfection out there as the norm dictate how I feel about myself. Ads distort truth to portray the ideal that everyone wants to be, not the truth that everyone wakes up to (1 / 21 / 01). A child psychologist, Carol Moog shows concern for the adolescents in todays society. She say that teens are more vulnerable every year, as the ability of parents to be around and provide a mature presence at home is eroded by the economic picture advertising is growing in power because too often, nothing much else of value is happening in the kids lives (Farrington 6). Another teenage voice states that, I do think one thing commercials try to do is make you feel self-conscious, they want you to worry about zits and clean pores, about your hair being shiny enough, about how muscular you are, and how much you weigh.
They push at me, and bring it all up in my mind (Farrington 7). Teenagers need to understand that the truth that advertisements throw at you is not reality. Also, the advertisements that portray cigarette smoking and drinking have a huge effect on children and teenagers. Alcohol, tobacco and drugs are the most heavily advertised products in the nation, spending over two billion dollars a year to reach out to people (Kilbourne 5). Usually to no avail, the government tries to counter this force, by spending one million dollars per year on public service announcements and pamphlets informing people of the dangers of smoking (Kilbourne 5). Because sexuality is used to promote these adult activities, it reaches out to adolescents who are exploring and trying to understand their sexuality.
This has had such an effect that it has provoked the uprising of girls smoking under the age of eleven, the group who have become the largest new smokers in the country (Kilbourne 4). Kilbourne states that It seems safe to say that advertising played an important role in creating a climate in which cigarette smoking by [teens] was seen as normal, acceptable and even desirable, thereby encouraging more [teens] to smoke (5). She also states that alcohol and cigarette advertising do [portray an environment] in which dangerous attitudes toward alcohol and cigarettes are presented as normal appropriate and innocuous (6). It is obvious that teens are being effected by the advertising into buying products and adopt habits that they would normally not think of. Not only do adolescents very seriously relate themselves to advertisements and the media, but they think that in order to be cool they must assume the roles of the characters portrayed in the advertisements. Since the group of teenage consumers is gargantuan, teens are targeted in all markets.
The areas that are forbidden to them, such as smoking and drinking have a special appeal. Teens are extremely impatient, and love to buy products that make them feel sophisticated and older. On average, adolescents aged 12 - 14 want to be 18, and 15 - 19 year olds want to be 20 (AP 42). This statistic shows that teenagers will do almost anything to make themselves feel grown-up, even if it means breaking laws or rules that have been set forth for them to follow. Eight out of ten adults agree that todays marketing and advertising worlds exploit kids by convincing them to buy things that are bad for them or that they dont need (McGee 52). Teenagers need to realize that they are being taken advantage of so that they can make more educated purchases and feel better about their status as consumers.
They cannot let themselves be told what to do or how to look by advertisements. Teenagers need to establish their own identity and be able to make purchases without the influence of the advertising traps or the peer pressure that surrounds them. You sit on your plush Urban Outfitters couch and flip through a fashion magazine. You find that you are suddenly able to spot the schemes and traps that have been created to catch your attention and lure you into buying a certain product. You have learned how to become a better consumer, and will be more cautious when judging yourself and others by what they buy or own. You know that just because advertising depicts a certain truth that it does not necessarily portray the real world.
While three fourths of teenagers agree that good advertising can be really humorous, and confess to watching the Superbowl in order to see the newest commercials, they are slowly becoming more aware of the world around them and the scams that are thrown at them on a daily basis (Zollo 250). Teens need to increasingly learn the ways that the marketing world ensnares them and learn how to combat the pressure placed upon them. No other group of consumers cares more about what their purchases say about who they are, and identify themselves with their material possessions (AP 42). Adolescents need to learn that they are not encapsulated by any possession or image that they associate themselves with.
Each is unique and special, no matter what they own or how cool they are among their peers. The growth of the teenage market has become so enormous that it is natural for the advertisers and marketers to try to take their part of the 540 billion dollars spent annually by this influential group of unaware children. Why do companies want to pin kids down? Call it a Youth Quake, call it teen power. Whatever, for the first time since the baby boom, kid culture is king. its all about pop culture, and pop culture is all about buying! (AP 42).
There are many reasons that justify the importance of targeting a teenage audience. The teens have discretionary spending power, and spend a lot of their family's money. They are the worlds future consumers and are influenced easily as they are searching for an identity. Their population is growing by the minute; at the moment they make up eleven percent of the people of the world (AP 42). Teenagers need to learn to stop buying on impulse and start making conscious decisions about their purchases.
Because so much pressure has been placed upon teenagers and their families to make perhaps superfluous purchases, they need to become more aware of the advertising and marketing tornado that encircles their lives at all times. Teenagers need to understand that they are targeted in order to be able to refuse the countless offers and deals being made available to them. So next time you sport your new Nike sneakers or reach for your Sprite, think about what influenced you when you decided to make that purchase. If you become more aware of what is going on around you, you will be able to make decisions that truly reflect who you are. Bibliography:
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