Executive Summary
12 to 21 year-olds represent not one, but several discrete markets:
school-age children, young earners, young unemployed and students.
All children in the UK attend school until they are 16. During this time, their
incomes are minimal, although many will supplement pocket money with casual
work and they are able to influence parental purchase of a range of goods,
giving them a degree of economic importance. The majority leave school as soon
as they can. While most are successful in getting jobs which give them a high
level of disposable income (especially as they are usually still living with
their parents), a significant minority are unemployed.
Students, while highly aspirational and working hard for the prospect of a good
job, have very low levels of income and are usually heavily in debt by the time
they finish their courses.
For younger teenagers, their limited incomes mean that their most frequent
purchases are pocket money products such as sweets, but as they grow older they
will increasingly buy higher value items such as their own clothes. Teenagers
are a key market for items such as jeans and trainers. Teenagers, both male and
female, are heavy purchasers of fragrances, while girls are beginning to
experiment with colourants and cosmetics. Teenagers are also the key target for
antibacterial face creams.
One of the few unequivocally teen products is electronic games. Although they
appeal most to younger teenagers and boys, girls and older teenagers are also
enthusiastic computer games players.
Teenagers' enthusiasm for computer games reflects their ease with new
technology. They naturally turn to new channels of entertainment like cable and
satellite TV and in music they have deserted vinyl for the technological
superiority of CD.
School children are likely to take part in some regular sporting activity, but
there is a rapid fall-off in sports participation once young people leave
school.
Cinema is popular, although as an occasional treat rather than a regular habit.
Today's teenager is more likely to have a few friends round to watch a video.
The highlight of the year will be the summer holiday. Even younger teenagers
with limited incomes will save for the summer and for older teenagers it is a
crucial 2 weeks, ideally spent with a group of friends of the same age at a
beach resort in Spain.
Illegal drugs are taking over from alcohol as the favoured recreational
narcotics of the young, criminal behaviour has risen dramatically and the
number of pregnancies among the under-16s has been rising for over a decade,
yet in many ways today's teenagers are reassuringly conventional. Membership of
the Boys' Brigade, the Girls' Brigade, the Scouts and the Guides is beginning
to pick up after years of decline and around one teenager in 20 claims to be a
regular churchgoer. Young people remain idealistic with a commitment to
environmental causes, even if a lifetime of one-party rule has made them
cynical about politics. Their goals remain a good job, a nice home and
marriage.
The number of teenagers will continue to rise until well into the next century,
although they will never have the same demographic and economic importance that
they had in the mid-1980s -- let alone the 1960. In fact, far from being a
golden generation they are already generating concern about levels of youth
unemployment.
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