Absolut-ly Naked Youth Marketing and The Beans Group!

Good day all! Welcome back - it’s been a little while, hasn’t it? Since the last blog post, which you’ll all remember, I’ve found myself a job! I’m now plying my trade at The Beans Group - which I imagine most of you will be better suited referring to as ‘that company behind studentbeans.com'. In fact, at the moment I sit on the commute home with a pile of Tech-y looking books and my new Chromebook on my lap.. It’s been a good start.

It's been a good start!

Such is the diversity of my role, I’ve wanted to blog since I started. It has inspired new topics, drove me down new avenues and pushed new boundaries that I’ve not had the opportunity to grasp fully before in a commercial environment. So within that whirlwind of opportunity, what better reason to start this new chapter with a blog post on youth marketing? In the last couple of weeks I’ve genuinely learnt enough to talk your blooming ears off about communication with 18-24 year olds. From developing knowledge of the companies flagship website studentbeans.com, to the up-and-coming research publication side of the business, Voxburner, I’d love to divulge all my three weeks worth of knowledge, but as we all know the two rules in life..

You know it..

So The Beans Group is hosting The Youth 100 on the 10th October after extensive research into the identification of the best-perceived brands according to 18-24 year olds. That not only got me thinking about all the routes of communication a brand has at their disposal, but also how they must be tailored to suit the fast-moving youthful consumer in comparison to those at the latter stages of the customer life-cycle. 

If there’s one thing the last two weeks has taught me, it’s the value that young people brings, or indeed can bring to an organisation. Low in brand loyalty, but high in disposable income might the youth population be - Not only do they make valuable consumers - but they also influence the purchasing decisions of their family and friends, and, if caught early, can develop into customers for life. As such, businesses of all kinds of industries have long been developing marketing and advertising campaigns aimed specifically at the youth market. In fact, if you think about it, I can’t think of one industry that wouldn’t benefit from youth marketing. It follows that I took a float through cyberspace and rose up with two specific campaigns at opposite ends of the drinks spectrum which not only give great examples of direct-youth marketing, but also have rather unique methods of positioning themselves in the young person’s mind.

a) Au-Natural, transparent and organically-magic: Naked Juice
Naked Juice are all about transparency in their communication with their target consumers, just as they are transparent in their feelings towards the furore surrounding preservatives contained within certain juice drinks. Their thoughts: Simply. Add. Nothing. For example, print advertisements in magazines focus on 18-35s by utilising taglines such as 'fruit wants to chill with other fruit' whilst humanizing fruit by adding that adding no preservatives is it's 'higher purpose'. Such promotional tools eminate a promise between the brand and the young consumer developing trust and a real sense of brand loyalty. Ooosh!

With health constantly served up on the youth population's agenda in today's society, the trust the brand is able to create also maintains their relevancy in the market. Promoting it's promise in print advertising right through to the listing all of it's ingredients on it's bottle, Naked Juice is able to maintain it's position and prestige within the market as competitors offering juices with higher sugar and water content enter the market. The creation of trust builds the brand loyalty that's important within an FMCG product, it allows the brand to defend itself against incoming competitors, but also go on the offence by highlights it's transparency through it's marketing campaigns.

b) Authenticity, community and the bringing up the past: Absolut
The Absolut brand is going through a period of transition, and today's target consumers were mere babies, if they'd even been born, when the brand was first making a name for itself! Absolut is a brand that continues to be successful due to work, seriously hard work. Always keeping a close eye on the development of the youth market they identified that, despite facing an uncertain economic climate and a very challenging job market, the youth market is not always driven to the lowest-priced products.

Rather they are value driven shoppers, willing to pay more for those products they feel are relevant and authentic, the new marketing to buzz word on the block. 

Andy Warhol's pop-art piece!

It follows that the brand has taken to engineering authenticity, a feat that has perhaps been coined by the brand itself. In 1986, Andy Warhol created an original pop-art piece of work for the iconic Absolut brand, but now with that iconic partnership only a vague recollection in the minds of young consumers it's time for Absolut to tap a new generation! It's recently released a new global-ad campaign to reach a new generation of artists, maintaining it's authencity enriched in it's history. It's teamed up with four digitally-focused artists from Brazil (Rafael Grampa), France (Yiqing Yin & Woodkid) and the US (Aaron Koblin) in order to project the brand's authenticity to a new generation, just as Andy Warhol did some 30 years ago.

With 50% of the brand's media budget being spent on digital advertising, it's clear that this type of branded content is deemed as essential for the authenticity-seeking brand to reach a younger demographic. By presenting something that is both useful and entertaining, it's absorbs the consumer's interest and remains authentic in the minds of the consumer. Happy days!

Two entirely different contexts in which a brand has positioned itself within the minds of the consumer. The main message I think for brand's is that once that context is set nothing must detract from that context if the brand is to capitalise on it's target market and gain a following, that's the easy part - from then on, everything must be meticulously planned as not the detract from the context. Wonderful adaptations from both brands, it's really opened my eyes as to just how important the youth market is for all brands - they are the future of a brand's following :)

Have a great week y'all - let's attack the days. Any thoughts? You know what to do - post yo'self a comment!

CLD

BSc Sport Management Graduate - Loughborough University

Twitter: @callumldraper (https://twitter.com/callumldraper)

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