Youth marketing

Youth Marketing is a term used in the marketing and advertising industry to describe activities to communicate with young people, typically in the age range of 12 to 34. More specifically, there is the Tween Marketing, targeting people in the 8 to 12 year-old range, Teen Marketing, targeting people age 13 to 19, College Marketing, targeting college-age consumers, typically ages 18 to 21, Young Adult Marketing, targeting young professionals, typically ages 22 and above.

The youth market is critical because of the demographic's buying power and its members' influence on the spending of family members. In addition, teens and young adults often set trends that are adopted by other demographic groups.

Reaching the market

The youth market is viewed as a difficult group to connect with and sell to, based on the fragmented media landscape and young people's keen ability to identify and reject marketing messages that lack credibility. Nonetheless, many brands market to youth by offering relevant products and services while communicating a brand message in an appropriate voice and tone. Successful brands marketing to youth have a foundation in or association with key interests and drivers among youth: music, sports, fashion, video gaming and technology, among others.

While frowned upon for preteens and younger teens, another common way advertisers target the older youth market is through product placement. Product placement occurs when a brand name product appears in a medium not necessarily related to the product itself. Companies often pay for their products to be placed in a movie or on a television show. This act, while not an overt form of advertising, seeks to target youth in a subtle manner.

Youth marketing strategies commonly include television advertising, magazine advertising and online marketing. Today young people expect to be able to learn about, interact and be entertained by with brands or services targeting them online. Other common youth marketing tactics include entertainment marketing, music marketing, sports marketing, event marketing, viral marketing, school and college programs, product sampling and influencer marketing.

Examples of brands embraced by youth and used as examples in marketing cases are: Vans Footwear, it used youth marketing tactics to grow from a niche sneaker brand to a successful international business and Mountain Dew, a well known soft drink brand that expanded market share through youth marketing tactics in the 1990s.

See also

*Marketing
*Promotion
*Publicity
*Viral marketing
*Word of mouth
*Online marketing
*New Media Marketing
*Youth culture