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Summary: Asia offers new opportunities for both old and new youth brands as a stepping stone to global markets.

By Graham Brown

Overview: The growing interest and confidence in Asian youth marketing means we expect 2010 to provide an opportunity for established “Western” brands who don’t enjoy market leadership to reinvent themselves locally and for new players with localized themes (e.g. Chinese skate brands) to emerge on the global scene. The globalization of Asian brands will occur at first through localized niches (e.g. Asian Americans in the US).

Story: We’re only a few weeks away from our Young Ideas Salon Mumbai (Feb 9th) so it seems appropriate that we share a word on Asia.

This is the decade of Youth Marketing in Asia. India has 500 million people under the age of 30. China is beginning to find its own feet in the fashion capitals of the world.

We continue with our Youth Trends 2010 Report this week with the release of part 2 (download here).

Reborn in the East - Sample slide from the Youth Trends Report 2010

Back in 2009 I spoke to a then soon-to-be Youth Research Partner John Solomon from enoVate China about brands emerging in the Chinese market (see full interview here). John shared insights from his Shanghai perch that resonated with my own experiences having lived in Japan during the 90s. Also check out the interview with Lisa Yi of China Youthology and Kevin Lee of Ringier Advertising.

Western brands like Doritos and Kappa are successfully reinvented themselves using the beachhead springboard that China provides. Without the yoke of legacy these brands are able to reengineer their backstories to suit the local market and then use this beachhead to return to the global stage. I’ve seen similar with the global boom that launched Burberry to fame during the late 90s stemming from a small but highly active group of focused consumers in Japan.

But it’s not just Western brands going through the Asian mill benefitting from being recast in a new light. There is a raft of new brands that remain until this point relatively unknown outside of Asia. Li-Ning and Warrior are just a few examples of streetwear brands finding their feet with local Asian youth. In time they will have built capital and know how to begin exporting their content to other Asian markets (as Manga and J-Pop producers did successfully into South East Asia during the late 90s). From there, the world awaits.

Next Steps: View the full Youth Trends Report Part Two here (or download it)

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