Navigating at the helm of this dizzying consumer dynamic, today’s teens are moving power from institutions to individuals. Moreover, teens are turning the marketing hierarchy upside-down; they are the major force influencing communications. The ubiquitous access to information, empowered by broadband, portability and open standards -- DVRs, RSS, blogging, moblogging, WIKIs and pod-casting -- bring teens the power of customization, critique, comparison and community. According to Teen Research Unlimited (TRU), they are expected to have spent about $158 billion in 2005, or about $83 per week. Owning the cyber-universe more than any generation, today’s teens are steadfastly in control. While technology is not the whole story, “we must realize that the virtual world is no longer virtual, it’s real,” remarks Belle Frank, EVP, director of brand planning at Y&R.

They have control -- they are creating their own world

While what’s different about today’s teens is the way they connect to each other, your brand, and the world, there remain certain unchanging internal teen truths that withstand time and trends. Teens are teens -- they go through fundamental, developmental, human experiences that are all about realizing one’s role within the social context and one’s mastery over it. In varying degrees, all teens from every era share certain transitional values such as living for the moment and rejection of parental authority as they move toward adulthood. What particularly explains how this generation of teens differs are their core values: creativity, global citizenship and responsibility, and control. It’s these values that will endure and continue to affect marketing as they grow up. 

For teens, it’s all about self-discovering, self-defining, self-expressing -- they’re searching for their own voice. And they want their voice to be heard, to matter -- especially with big corporations. But while it’s about ME and who I am, it’s in a WE context; TRU refers to these themes of individuality and affiliation as “indi-filiation.” While teens readily create their own worlds, these worlds mean nothing if not existing within a community. Therefore, the teen consumer context is very much a social one. From Myspace to Xanga to Cyworld, teens create their profiles and are able to be who they want to be and change that as often as they like. As they struggle along the self-group continuum, teens especially thrive on whatever sense of connection, creativity and control they can get. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 57 percent of all active online teenagers are creating digital content: they’re mashing up music, making videos, building webpages, sharing original artwork -- sharing themselves. From customizing their own Nike sneakers to designing their own Burger King ads, teens seek out brands that give them the power to create.

What this means for your brand and communications 

It’s no longer just about capturing teens’ attention; it’s about having a relationship with them. While the word “authenticity” is painstakingly over-buzzed, that’s what it’s all about. Savvy and pragmatic, these young consumers require your offerings and communications to be real-deal. But they’re not seeking authenticity for its own sake. Their high BS meter is a result of formal operational thinking and their social development. As they’re struggling to figure it all out, and experimenting with new experiences, teens just need your brand to be straight-up. 

Y&R’s Brand Asset Valuator, the world’s largest brand database, quantifies a brand’s momentum in the marketplace and illustrates how strongly it resonates with teens. To keep up with this demographic, BAV tells us that beyond awareness, brands need to be in motion, consistently gaining momentum in order to drive pricing power, loyalty and usage. According to the energy model, there are seven ways to make impact with teens:

1. Let your brand be a direction, not a place: Teens admire brands that evolve and keep up with them.
2. Attract, don't capture teens: Engage them in conversation, ask for their opinions, market with them, not to them.
3. Tactics are strategy and strategies are tactics: Enlist them as your co-advocates and make it easy for them to pass on the word online.
4. Focus on where you’re going, not where you’ve been: Teens are especially fickle and you need to earn their attention and respect with constant, worthwhile innovation.
5. Strive for energy, not fame. Don't play it safe: Fame often takes the courage out of brands. Brands that successfully engage teens are those that take risks. Think Google opening up its proprietary functionality.
6. Enable teen agendas, not your own:  Don’t try to control; enhance and extend. Let them personalize, customize and create.
7. Commit beyond communications: Appeal to their sense of global citizenship. They’re very passionate and not the least bit resigned. What you care about matters.

Today’s teens are more sophisticated than ever -- don’t let age fool you. In fact, in a shifting market environment, they are THE consumer to watch. So help them express, help them connect, help them create; let them use you as a channel to do it on their own. Give them the control to help your brand thrive; do it together. 

Stella Grizont is a strategic brand planner for Y&R, New York. A curious, consumer-knower and eternal student of culture and brands, Grizont brings passion and strategy to all her clients and new business projects. Currently working on the Dannon Yogurt account, Grizont has also worked on Chunky Campbell’s Soup, Weight Watchers, Colgate-Palmolive and Accenture. During the weekends, she is a leader for Ladies Who Launch, a national organization that fosters creativity and entrepreneurism among women. She loves to travel, dance salsa, roam her East Village neighborhood and drink fine coffee. She holds a degree in Economics from Barnard College, Columbia University, where she graduated with honors.