(mobileYouth) Busted! 5 Popular Myths in Youth Marketing Exposed youth marketing, youth, teens, students, millennial, millennials, geny, gen-y, genz, gen-z, gen-c, genc, generation y, generation-y, customer experience, customer experience management, CX, crm, social media, social media marketing, fans, amazon, gopro, zappos, lego, holacracy, digital anthropology, trends, research, case study, case studies, statistics, data, grahamdbrown,

1. mobileyout h.org http://www.mobileyouth.org/post/busted-5-popular-myths-in-youth-marketing-exposed/
Graham Brown
Mobile Youth
Busted: 5 Popular Myths in Youth Marketing
Exposed
Do you believe that youth are cheap, lazy, thrill-seeking digital natives who want brand
attention?
Take a look at data from the Mobile Youth Report that bust these myths about young
people.
1. Youth are self-centered narcissists
Remember that TIME magazine cover which proclaimed millennials as The ‘ME ME ME’
Generation? Turns out millennials would rather be The ‘MEOW MEOW MEOW’
Generation.
It is quite common for marketers to label youth as selfish people who care only about
themselves.
Our research on millennials shows that this approach is flawed.
55% of 12-18 year olds participate in volunteering activities compared to only 29% of
adults.
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Young people are more likely to go out of their way to help others than adults.

2. 5 Ways Youth Are Critical to Tech Companies Today?
* How youth influences the adult consumer market
* The impact of youth Super Influencers in marketing
* Our Mobile Future and the role of youth in shaping it
* Selfie Culture Explained: how can we understand the future of technology through how
youth use it today?
* The 3 Reasons Youth Are Important to Your Business
5 Resources to Get Up to Speed on the Youth Market Today
* Digital Native or Disconnected Generation: how can we understand youth today?
* Youth Buyology: The Why of Youth Purchase Decisions (manual)
* Youth and Word of Mouth Motivations (research)
* Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: The Role of Youth in the Future of Social Media
* The Mobile Youth: Voices of the Mobile Generation (book)
2. Youth live in the here and now
One of the gross misrepresentations of young people has been their portrayal as people
in search of instant gratification. The industry wrongly assumes young people to be
short-sighted thrill seekers.
The reality, as revealed by the Mobile Youth Report, is that young people not only think
about the long term but also act on it.
94% of 17-29 year olds are saving up to buy property in the next 5 years.
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3. Youth are digital natives
Almost every month a new study is published about how young people have given up on
driving and meeting their friends in the real world because now they can just chat with
each other online.
But Mobile Youth research has repeatedly shown that young people prefer face to face
communication over texting, voice online methods.
67% of youth prefer face to face communication over texting, voice and online options.
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4. Youth want cheap products
Go to any mobile service provider and they will most likely have a youth offering which is
the same as the regular offering but at a lower price point with limited features.
It is the norm in every business to think of the youth segment as an afterthought. The

3. rationale to justify this mindset is that young people don’t have money so they must be
looking for cheap options and discounts. This assumption does not hold true against
data and insights in the Mobile Youth Report.
48% of 18-23 yr old smartphone owners own the most expensive handsets compared to
37% of 30+ adults.
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5. Youth want to connect with brands
Most online marketing is done with the mindset that young people want to connect with
brands. Youth spend time online to stay up to date on their peers and family, not to find
out about the latest products and offers.
Brands need to approach youth marketing with a mindset to help youth connect with
other youth.
Top 3 youth smartphones activities are email (78%), SMS (76%) & taking pictures (74%).
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All data in this post is taken from The Mobile Youth Report.
Get the 'Complete Guide to Youth Word of Mouth for Mobile Brands'
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4. "A compelling exploration of how the mobile youth culture revolution is driving our
increasingly social and mobile future"
- Derek Baird, Director Product Development, Disney
"This book offers instant texture to anyone confused by the core technology driver"
- Edward O'Meara, SVP Wunderman
"What makes this book such a great read is that’s it’s written as a narrative in the life of
different young people around the world"
- Marc Kornberger, CEO Student Village
* Kindle/iPad version from Amazon
* Paperback from Amazon
* PDF download online