Opinion

Netting the youth market

By Rowan Benecke (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-30 11:33

One area that always intrigues me as I travel the region of Asia, and indeed the globe, for business and pleasure is how similar or different people are. More recently, I have had the opportunity to spend more time in China and through this have been able to continue on my journey of comparing and contrasting the habits of different people.

It seems the majority of the "post-80s" generation in China today, particularly those from urban environments, are more self-centered, they are very much influenced by their peers and they are what we call Internet natives. And it seems that technology is playing a big role in shaping this generation of young people.

Where the parents of post-80s Chinese saved and tended to buy only what was necessary, the children are brand conscious, and influenced by celebrities and their peers. They spend money on themselves, for example on clothes, gadgets, entertainment including games, travel, mobile phones, and they keep spending until they start thinking of settling down.

Netting the youth market

So if you have a product or service that you want to market to post-80s youth, it is definitely worth exploring the use of celebrities and the power of the online world. Via the Internet, using the tools of social media, everyday people become journalists. They write reviews of products, places, services and food. People discuss these in chat rooms and via forums.

There are tremendous opportunities for companies to leverage online media to engage young Chinese consumers.

Beyond blogging in China, brands such as Nokia and Lenovo already have created brand presence in social media channels using viral videos, seeding new products or sampling opinions within specific user forums and BBS communities.

With the right tools and tracking, companies can understand what their customers want by seeing how many times someone clicked on a certain product.

With the right framework, companies can even connect their investment in online marketing back to actual sales.

For example, by using analytics software and looking at the number of people logging on to your site and clicking the "buy" button, you know exactly the value of your investment into that channel.

In fact, marketers must understand that right now young consumers are probably already communicating about your company online. They are quick to tune out companies that still practice one-way static communications, whereas they are likely to embrace those that engage in more two-way conversations.

So companies that are considering a social media strategy must first ask some important questions: Are we listening to the right communities? What are we learning? And how do we engage?

A word of advice: Be authentic, honest and genuine. This is a space where you live by your reputation. It is about true dialogue and real conversation, not one-way selling.