Saturday, July 4th, 2009

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What is mobileYouth?

I’ve been writing mobileYouth for 6 years now and it never ceases to encourage me that there is plenty more work to be undertaken.

mobileYouth is both a study of the universe of young people and a guide to better develop and market products for these consumers. It’s all too easy to get lost in the technology, the non-sensical self-talk of the internet, mobile and media industries when sometimes the smallest things create the biggest leverage in customers satisfaction.

Building dialogue and trust with young consumers through internal change

Points of change typically revolve around:

  • Building proactive dialogue with consumers rather than “listening”
  • Change through adopting new internal language and semantics (e.g. dumping useless terms such as “killer applications”, “value chains”, “end users” etc in favour of “services”, “value networks”, “consumers”)
  • Integrating the product development and marketing processes
  • Creating consumer advocacy through establishing the company within the peer group
  • Experimenting with youth as brand stakeholders
  • Measuring internal performance and KPI through “lifetime customer value” rather than “net adds”

Apple to Xerox

We’ve been covering nearly 60 countries now since the project’s inception and it continues to grow, bringing on board new and exciting clients who we have the privilege of working with and learning from for the first time - from McDonald’s to Adidas to Apple to the European Commission. It doesn’t really get much better than that in terms of scope and scale for consumer insight.

What is it not?

It’s worth noting that mobileYouth is not a study of technology. It’s principally a study of young consumers and, incidentally, how mobile technologies fit into and compliment their lifestyles. Readers expecting to see reams of “killer applications” and a business case for the adoption of MMS are often disappointed, because they’re trying to shoehorn the consumer needs into effectively shoes that don’t fit or don’t appeal. I’d rather they were disappointed with the research than their consumer loyalty figures. mobileYouth is also not:

  • It’s not for companies focused on young people. It’s for all companies who have consumers that are or were once young. As the modern consumer becomes less responsive to traditional marketing techniques and the digital age implies a greater premium on the trust between brand and audience, the importance of initiating a dialogue between the company and the consumer at an earlier stage cannot be overlooked.
  • It’s not about trying to sell to young people. It’s about developing a lifelong dialogue with consumers young and old that starts when individuals become “consumers”. Yes, Harley Davidson has been phenomenally success in the last 20 years. Why? Because. like the mobile industry it rides the crest of a wave, constantly focusing on the needs of the customer with the deepest pockets rather than the greatest lifetime value. Harley’s wave comprises aging but cash-rich consumers. The average age of an owner is now 51. What will Harley do in 20 years when that hits 71? Riding the wave brings many benefits, but all waves die out, and with it your brand. It’s harder, yet more profitable in the long term to swim into the current.
  • To be honest, it’s not all about mobile either. It’s about the mobile nature of young people more than anything, how we live in a changing world, yet their needs are fundamental and often timeless. Mobile touches so many aspects of our daily lives, we could not consider this project without also considering media, marketing, consumer loyalty and so on.
  • It’s not about finding the “next big thing”. Long term success does not come in quick fixes. You won’t find us touting the equivalent of “The Secret” here. Unfortunately for those that would rather pick the lock than find the keys to success, it requires hard work and to some degree change and introspection. You can hire all the trend-spotters in the world and many of them are fantastic at what they do - namely identifying what piques your consumer interest, but they are unlikely to answer the why question. Yes, London youth today like to hang out and listen to Grime on their mobile phones but will this information help you identify what comes next? As Harry Beckwith said in “What Clients Love”, “we cannot predict the future, but we can predict what our customers love”. Studying these fundamental drivers of behaviour that shape the social domain provide insights into the motives behind apparent trends such as text messaging, Facebook etc.