Matt Haig
One thing to have survived the dot.com slump intact is the obsession for e-business acronyms, and B2T, referring to the business-to-teenage online market, is the latest.
As teenagers are typically receptive to new technologies, companies targeting this market are being advised to use the Internet not only as a medium to communicate their message to teens, but also to hear back from them.
The primary reason most teenagers log on is to communicate with people of their age group. Throughout Europe, chat and e-mail services, such as MSN Messenger in the United Kingdom and Caramail.com in France, feature among the most popular online destinations.
The huge marketing potential of this critical consumer segment has not been overlooked by global companies such as Procter & Gamble and Kodak, which now obtain customised marketing research from Bolt, a universal communications platform for teenagers. According to Bolt’s Dan Pelson, the global youth market is more connected than ever.
“Young adults play an important role in the adoption of the latest technologies and have set a precedent in the conventions of communication media,” he says. “They can now control how, when and where they entertain and inform themselves, and interact with others.”
Of course, the growing interest in the ways in which teenagers use the Internet has a commercial motivation. By generating an online teen buzz around a product, companies can not only fuel their short-term marketing campaigns but also help to build long-term brand loyalty. However, the online activity of the 12 to 18 age group is also being carefully monitored by the major Internet research companies to help them spot future trends. According to Noah Yasskin, European research director for Jupiter, “much of today’s teen behaviour will be mainstream tomorrow”.
Text messaging, or SMS, is one of the most obvious examples of a teen technology gaining widespread appeal. “Having initially appealed as a cheap and handy communication tool for youngsters, it is now being rapidly adopted by the adult community,” confirms Paul Collins, a senior adviser at management consulting firm and new media specialist AT Kearney.
However, SMS is not the only communications medium to have been pioneered by teens. “Teens are showing the potential uses of the Internet beyond e-mail and visiting websites with a browser,” says Jupiter’s Noah Yasskin. “They flocked to Napster and are heavy users of communication applications, sending their peers music files and other digital content.”
Researchers have also drawn attention to the amount of time teens spend on retail sites. Despite the fact that they don’t have credit cards, teens spend more time on retail sites than their adult counterparts. Jupiter predicts that as experienced users, these teens will become online shoppers when they acquire credit cards and increase their spending power. In fact, as more teens use their own online debit cards such as the Splash Plastic card, they are spending an increasing amount on the Web.
However, while e-commerce companies can undoubtedly benefit in numerous ways from “teenage clicks”, targeting teens online remains as difficult as it does offline. According to a September 2001 Datamonitor report on the B2T market: “Teens are likely to switch loyalties as newer products enter the market and become ‘cool’ and cutting edge. It is only if something is seen as ‘cool’ that teens are likely to pass on the word.”