Ever since the word was coined somewhere between the 1920s and the 1940s, "teenagers" have occupied the wild space between childhood and adulthood with both confidence and anxiety.
Looking to stand out from the crowd, the average teen is also surprisingly desperate to fit in, cultivating a sensitivity to peers' opinions. The period of time between ages 13 and 19 is complex, making marketing to teens an exercise that requires a trained hand, loads of data, and a set of tools to gain insight into it all.
Money and The “Cool”
Nowhere has this complicated reality seemed more true than in the realm of teens' purchasing habits. As a buying demographic, teenagers have long been treasured by retailers and brands, because, as Issie Lapowsky points out at Inc.com, their brand preferences and tastes are still in flux. Tell them what they want and hook them young, the marketing theory goes, and you'll have them for life.
In the Internet and Technology Age, however, that approach is too simple. The gatekeepers of the “cool” are no longer concentrated in magazines, radio DJs, record labels and MTV; instead, the cool has been scattered bit by bit across the Internet via apps, feeds and phones, and teenagers, not their elders or the marketers who want their loyalty, are the ones sitting at its many gates.
With teenagers being more independent than ever these days, how in the world are digital merchandisers—let alone parents and teachers—supposed to know what they want, let alone get their attention?
Big Data and Desire
Enter big data and its near-infinite spotlight. Because, while it may be true that what teens want isn't as directly malleable as in days past, the reality of how they spend their time and money has never been more accessible thanks to the amount of data available today.
While teens spend money on clothes (activewear is in), video games and accessories, the two biggest back-to-school desires harbored by teenagers—and revealed by big data—are mobile tech and food.
eCommerce retailers can reach teens through their favorite social media sites and play into the “peer opinion” side of behavior that is so important in the teen years. With data from mobile devices and apps, it’s possible to connect even more of the dots.
More Mobile Tech
For teens, mobile is the undisputed king, and while that translates into a desire to own the newest smartphone on the planet every time another school year rolls around, what they can access on their phones and how easy it is to access are just as important.
For digital merchandisers, optimizing for mobile across multiple platforms and developing a reliable and easy-to-use app is a must in order to appeal to any part of the teen market.
Second only to clothing, teens say, a person’s cell phone tells the most about their social status or popularity, outranking jewelry, watches and shoes.
Food? Yes, Food
It may not be exciting, but most of teenagers' spending money goes to food and drink, and Starbucks remains the favorite. Every back-to-school season brings another opportunity for parents to fill up the tank on loyalty cards, which means for digital merchandisers not in the food and drink business, a cross-promotional relationship with the coffee giant or other popular teen restaurant—Chipotle, Chick-fil-A and Panera Bread—would be ideal.
Just make sure the marketing relationship is part and parcel of teens’ mobile experiences with the brand.
Whether you sell socks or backpacks, if you're a digital merchandiser looking to capitalize on teenagers' back-to-school desires, one desire stands out: Mobile commerce is a key investment for today’s eRetailers.
Download The Digital Merchandiser's Guide to Maximizing Margins with Visualized Data eBook today to learn more about how you can stay on top of social media sentiment and real-time inventory to improve conversion rates.
