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Reading A Book of Paradoxes
China Youth Trends and BusinessImplications
By Lisa Li and Zafka ZhangChina Youthology2009www.chinayouthology.com
PREFACE
Can young people feel connected to brands? If so, has anyone figured out where thoseconnections exist and what they mean? It may be easy to pick up on the latest trendsand find out what’s hot among youth. Just knowing what is popular doesn’t make thatinformation useful to your brand and your marketing efforts. China Youthology isdevoted to make these connections more tangible to marketers, advertisers, designersand other innovators who want to connect their products and services to youth in China.Trend reports have dubious reputations. In the marketing world, trend research isusually criticized for lacking practical, actionable recommendations to marketingdecisions, ‘only scratching the surface’ or ‘not representative’. We, however, feelconfident talking about changes in young Chinese consumers -
and what it means tobrands
- due to numerous presentations given to marketing teams of big companiestargeting youth. These companies include Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsico Foods,Pernod Ricard, and world leading ad agencies such as OgilvyOne, TBWA, McCannEricson, and Dentsu. The questions and comments we received have helped us refinethis report. And the positive feedback has encouraged us to write it up a more readableformat, to share and discuss with you.
Who are we talking about?
By youth, we mean 18 to 30 yrs. They are university students and young workingadults.The trends in this paper are only relevant to the more developed cities in China (Tier 1and Tier 2 cities). The diversity in China makes it impossible to capture trends acrossgeography and city tiers.These 5 trends presented here are strongly manifested among the early adopters andearly majority. At the same time, they are increasingly prominent among the massouth.
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What kind of trends?
The trends we are talking about are not what fashion magazines want to feature. Theyare not about hunting the latest style and taste, but exploring deep-rooted changes invalues and lifestyles. These changes we discuss here became noticeable in 2008, and webelieve they are going to continue to manifest and grow over the next couple of years.Different from many consumer trends report, we understand the youth as ‘humanbeings’, rather than merely as consumers and shoppers. In order to understand them ashuman beings, we believe in a holistic approach that accounts for social changes,especially in an environment as fast changing and complicated as the China market.
What’s our approach to youth trends?
1. A holistic approachDifferent from conventional market research which mainly studies consumers at anindividual level, we see youth existing within three spheres: 1) the historical andongoing macro context (economic, social, cultural), 2) youth communities, built on bothcollective hobbies (music, sports, fashion, gaming, technology, visual arts, socialparticipation, etc.) and categories (mobile phones, skincare, sneakers, etc.), and finally3) an individual level (values, lifestyles, and interaction with products and brands, withintegrated understanding of online and offline experience). More at ourwebsite.
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