Marketing To Youth : Youth Power or Myth

Economic Times (25/05/09) has a very interesting and enlightening article on Indian youth. Written by Mr Rajesh Shukla, the article throws light into some important data regarding the Indian youth market.

Read the article here : Harnessing Indian Youth Power

Some of the important statistics are reproduced below :

The total youth population (13-34) is 390 million which is 38% of the total population and is expected to rise to 440 million by 2020.

70% of the youth reside in over 600,000 villages.
72% of youth are literate.
41% of these literate youth fall in the age group (13-19 years) , 23% fall in 20-24 and 36% are in 25-34 years.

59% of literate youth are male. 7% are graduates and 12% have passed higher secondary.

The article also presents a clear view about the definition of youth. According to Rajesh Shukla , youth refers to a category rather than a group. The difference between category and group is that category has diverse or heterogeneous elements unlike groups which are similar in its composition. Youth relates to an age group that is transiting between childhood and adulthod and may comprise of a conglomeration of sub-groups with differing social roles, expectations and aspirations.


UN defines youth as those in the age group of 15-24 years. UNICEF defines youth in the age bracket of 15-30 years. Indian National Youth Policy considers all individuals in the agegroup of 13-35 years as youth population. NYP divides the youth population into two groups - 13-19 years as adolescent and 20-35 as Youth.

As far as marketers are concerned, the sheer size of this market is a huge opportunity. But no one so far has been able to rightly understand the Indian Youth's psyche.

As the article points out, the youth market cannot be considered as a group because it is not homogeneous. So does it mean that marketers cannot segment this market on the bases of age alone ? . Segmentation is based on the assumption that the members display homogeneity . So if the members of a specific age group display heterogeneous characteristics, it no longer becomes a segment.
The implication is that marketers should find out variables other than age to segment the Indian youth market.So when age becomes irrelevant, does it mean that the so called Youth Market is a myth just like the much hyped Indian MiddleClass ?
Most of the marketers tend to use Lifestyle as a variable to define segments with in the Youth market. How ever lifestyle segmentation is tricky and highly subjective in nature.

This probably explain the reason why Indian marketers are still finding it difficult to find a formula to tap this huge lucrative market.

What do you think ?

Marketing Funda : Branding a Commodity

My article on branding a commodity in Adclubbombay.com. Read it here

Brand Update : Cadbury Eclairs

This year Cadbury Dairy Milk Eclairs has comeout with a new campaign and a new positioning. The brand has identified itself with a sweet chocolate time bomb that will explode in your mouth. 

The brand is running an interesting TVC to communicate the postioning. 

Watch the ad here : Cadbury sweet bomb

Cadbury's Dairy Milk Eclairs has always been focused on its chocolate inner and as a consumer  we get a special feeling when the crispy outer covering of the eclairs give way to the soft chocolate liquid inside.  The brand is now trying to capture this feeling through the new campaign. 

The brand is equating this experience akin to the blowing up of a chocolate bomb from inside. The ad captures this concept quite beautifully. 

Although the ad is quite good, there is a striking resemblence with the recent KitKat ad claiming to be more chocolatey. The only difference is that the chocolate explodes outside the head.

Watch the Kitkat ad here : Kitkat exploding

Competition is not only for market share , it is also for the ad copy.

Related brand

Cadbury Dairy Milk Eclairs

Brand Update : Popy

Rainy season has started in Kerala and the ad blitz of the umbrella marketers has reached the pinnacle. As usual, the umbrella marketers of Kerala has proved that innovation can be a game changing strategy.

This season is also no different ,where the two major brands in the Kerala umbrella market - Popy and John's vying for consumer attention with mind-blowing new umbrellas.

Popy has come out with a new commercial for its Nano sub-brand. Popy Nano claims to be the smallest folding umbrella which has a hieght of 16 cm when folded. The brand is being promoted as the " World's smallest big umbrella " .

The company claims that the umbrella when opened covers a larger area compared to ordinary umbrellas. The brand also claims to be the lightest and strongest in that category of 3 fold umbrellas. Popy Nano has come out with a decent catchy campaign which superbly communicates the brand promise.

Watch the TVC here : Popy Nano

While Popy Nano is aimed at older customers, it is the kid segment where there is intense competition.
In the kid's umbrella segment, Popy has come out with a new product " Popy Kuppi Kuda ". Kuppi in Malayalam language means bottle. So Kuppi Kuda means umbrella in the shape of a bottle.
The brand has introduced this product using a teaser campaign.
Watch the ad here : Popy Kuppi Kuda

The competition is not sitting idle. The main competitor John's has also come out with two new products . John's Air was launched this year which claims that the umbrella will be able to withstand wind speed upto 50 Kmph.

In Kerala we can see lady pillion riders of two wheelers desperately trying to hold the umbrella during the rain. Most of the time, these umbrellas cannot withstand the wind and will collapse creating an embarrassing situation. John's Air is aiming to fill that need for a stronger umbrella that can withstand wind.

John's also came out with a product for kids branded as John's Macha Mia. This is an umbrella with a bubble maker and bubble breaker. Kids can make bubbles with an attachment fitted with the umbrella handle and then try to break those bubbles using a dart gun fitted along with the umbrella. Sounds complicated isn't it ?

Both Popy and John's are flooding the media with their campaign and kids are a happy lot with lot of options to choose for.

Popy and John's are proving once again that innovation can bring life into a once dull product category like Umbrella.

Related Brand
Popy

Scoobee Day : My Friend

Brand : Scoobee Day
Company : Anna Group ( Kitex Garments)


Brand Analysis Count : 400

I am celebrating the 400 th brand analyzed in Marketing Practice with a Kerala brand.

Scoobee Day is a pioneer in the branding of school bags in Kerala. The brand is from the Anna Group which is a major player in the textile and Aluminum products in the state.

School bag market is essentially dominated by the unorganized sector. Except for a few national brands like Duckback and Bata, most of the players are local manufacturers.

During the early 2000, Anna group launched the brand Scoobee Day in the school bag segment.
Scoobee Day quickly captured the attention of the kids. One of the reason for the quick attention and recall of the brand was the brand's phonetic resemblance to the popular comic character Scooby Doo. During the launch of Scoobee Day, Scooby Doo cartoons were a huge hit among kids .

Scoobee Doo became a quick success through a very careful brand building process. The brand knew the pulse of the target market and the strategies were bang on target.

Scoobee Doo was primarily targeting the young school children in the KG and Pre primary segment. This brand was built on the art of story telling.

School bags are seasonal products . The consumers buy these products during May-June period. Mostly the parents let their kids choose the product since a new bag is definitely a motivation for kids to go to school.

Scoobee Day adopted the strategy of hooking the kids. The brand name itself was a hit and there was something more. The brand told a story. The hero of the story is the brand mascot - a Bee named Scoobee.

Scoobee Day is positioned as a kid's best friend. The brand all through its journey had told stories of how Scoobee Day helped the kids in distress , fighting those monsters who tried to attack the kids.

Watch an ad here : Scoobee day old ad

Watch the latest ad here : Scoobee Day 2009 ad

The brand also had the tagline " Scoobee Day en Changathi " ( in Malayalam) translated to Scoobee Day , My Friend.

The brand told consistent stories which involved kids being chased by dragons and monsters and how Scoobee rescues the kids and tames the demons.

The jingle containing the tagline and the catchy stories of Scoobee helping the kids, made a very strong impression in the mind of the kids. Even my four year old child recites the jingle and is very familiar with the brand.

The brand also ensured that it provided excellent value for money for the consumers. The bags are of very good quality and is very durable. So parents are not complaining for the premium paid for the brand.

To counter the price competition from the local players and cheap chinese imports, Scoobee Day is flooding the market with freebies along with the bag. Free offers include tiffin boxes, water bottles, pencil box etc. This year, the brand is offering pencil box, tiffin box, water bottle and a Scoobee mask.

Scoobee 's success is a classic example of brands built on story telling. The brand had a compelling story and it told the stories consistently . When entering a market dominated by unorganized players, the critical factor for success lies in differentiation. Scoobee Day differentiated itself from the rest through strong brand elements backed by product quality.

Now Kerala market is flooded with branded school bags. But Scoobee had the first mover advantage. The brand had already created huge equity and brand recall among the consumers.

Brand Update : Horlicks

Yet again , another brand extension from Horlicks. Horlicks has recently launched a ready to drink flavored milk product branded Horlicks Chill Dood.

The product category is reported to be worth around Rs 250 crore. Dairy based products are now seeing more action these days owing to the shift of consumers to healthier products. Amul is the most visible in this segment with its Kool drink.

Horlicks ChillDood comes in attractive flavors like chocolate and the product is targeting kids. Animated ads are now on air to promote this product.

2009 has seen this brand undertaking aggressive extensions into un/related categories like energy bars and now dairy products.
Horlicks is one of my favorite brands. I liked it because the brand was very flexible in adopting to changing competitive environment and proactive in launching new products in new segments .
But one gets jittery when the brand becomes too ambitious. Horlicks has always been associated with health drinks and it was highly focused on that category.The result was obvious, the brand has been a market leader for long time.
The current extension gave me a feeling that the brand is taking too much far by extending itself into categories like energy bar and milk. All these new launches will get a positive initial acceptance by the consumers because of the huge brand equity of Horlicks but all these launches has the potential to dilute the core brand.
The silver lining is that all these launches are in the health related products and thus cater to the emerging trend among the consumers.

Related Brand

Horlicks