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This week we’re look at youth marketing in China. Click the photo to access Ebooks, Videos & Interviews on Youth Culture in China:

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My recent conversation with John Solomon of enoVate in China reconfirmed to me that for young entrepreneurs graduating today this market holds a similar draw that Japan offered me in the early 90s. Here was a market full of potential, a market living at the cutting edge.

There’s no doubting it, China is experiencing a period of massive change – most of which is occuring at the bottom of the population pyramid. Check out Youthology’s insightful overview of a few of these social trends.

1) There are 630 million people under the age of 24

And it’ll take 5 million people just to count them according to the BBC (GB: our own and IDB data is slightly at odds with that cited by the BBC – appears to be 100m out, but still we’re splitting hairs in the grand scheme of things).

2) 250+ million of them own a mobile phone

The stats are here

3) Chinese youth are nearly there…but there is still a way to go

Even though Chinese youth place a premium on style, are fashion conscious and aware of trends they haven’t yet achieved the levels of brand-savvy you could ascribe to the typical Japanese kogyaru of the 90s. We still have yet to see a foreign and largely niche brand such as Burberry spin out of China on the back of being reinvented, re-cast by the domestic youth.

Interesting trends include the development of home grown youth brands that seek the global stage. Check out these examples here.

4) Think Facebook? Think QQ, 360 Quan etc

In China, Facebook doesn’t have the mass appeal we’ve grown accustomed to overseas. Think QQ, 360 Quan as an example of one of the many home grown SNS variants.(Note: QQ’s revenues were reportedly 4x higher than Facebook so there you have your comparison).

That said, China has plenty of niche communities. It’s not all populist like the “Love China” movement earlier. This electronic dance community is a good example of how some trends are just global.

China is still finding its feet and it will take time. That said there’s certainly no shortage of entrepreneurial vigor and an emergence of a creative infrastructure when it comes to experimentation within niche communities. Check out these examples of trends in the music scene.

5) When the market’s this new, Brands need to focus on educating as much as engaging

For example, surfing (think Bondi beach rather than TCPIP) in China is largely an unknown support. Yes, there are surfers but in a population of 1,000 million the numbers are negligible. That’s why youth brands such as Quicksilver are focusing on educating youth to surf before, reaching out to both wannabes and existing surfers.

Product education is a big market in China and these examples from neighbours Taiwan so the premium that youth place on sharing insights and information about brands themselves.

6) Yes, even in “Communist” China, rebels have a place

The juxtaposition of contrasts is even more stark when you consider such a brand is none other than Doritos.

On a more serious note it appears that social expression for youth is best directed through social rather than political causes. WWF is a good example in China of a popular cause.

7) Chinese youth love to Skateboard as much as their American cousins

Maybe they don’t have the legacy or a Tony Hawk but there’s no denying that Chinese youth are catching up on the Extreme Sports scene. Skateboarding in particular resonates with youth (also check out PSFK coverage), providing the badge of arrival into the wider global skater diaspora. (Here’s a telling post on the Parkour scene in China). Just check out the capacity they have to grow this market considering the facilities already in place.

8) Even Chinese youth the Iphone

This could be a long and technical post including all the intricacies of the 5 million fake IPhones out there on China Mobile’s network, the Shanzai, bandit phone scene and so on. Yet, just bear in mind that even in Beijing as they do in Regents Street London, Chinese youth camp outside the store for this highly sought after piece of kit.

9) The agencies make the same mistakes in China as they do here

Yes, if it’s youth it’s gotta be a flashmob right? On the one hand China could claim a lack of experience that leads to benchmarking and following marketing fashions from the West. On the other you could argue that the lack of experience leaves the market open to wider experimentation. More likely, however, is the fact that agencies in China are just more of the same.

10) While they may appear different, underneath they’re the same species

There’s a lot of content concerning the differences between Chinese and American youth. Granted you can’t go into China with the youth marketing strategies that worked back home. ex MTV & currently Friendster Head of Asia Ian Stewart’s interview on Upstart Radio confirms that there is a real misunderstanding of what localization means. Localization means applying localized symbols to a fundamentally universal layer. Like all youth, they want to belong, they want to be significant. Yet, they’ll want to do that through the parameters of Jay Chao, 360 Quan, QQ etc rather than Beckham, Facebook and Twitter.

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