Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Table of Contents
updated June 2009
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mobileYouth 2009
What is mobileYouth?
mobileYouth is both a study of the universe of young people and a guide to better develop and market
products for these consumers. It’s all too easy to get lost in the technology, the non‐sensical self‐talk of
the internet, mobile and media industries when sometimes the smallest things create the biggest
leverage in customers satisfaction.
Building dialogue and trust with young consumers through internal change
Points of change typically revolve around:
• Building proactive dialogue with consumers rather than “listening”
• Change through adopting new internal language and semantics (e.g. dumping useless terms such
as “killer applications”, “value chains”, “end users” etc in favor of “services”, “value networks”,
“consumers”)
• Integrating the product development and marketing processes
• Creating consumer advocacy through establishing the company within the peer group
• Experimenting with youth as brand stakeholders
• Measuring internal performance and KPI through “lifetime customer value” rather than “net
adds”
From Apple to Zain
We’ve been covering nearly 60 countries now since the project’s inception and it continues to grow,
bringing on board new and exciting clients who we have the privilege of working with and learning from
for the first time ‐ from McDonald’s to Adidas to Apple to the European Commission. It doesn’t really get
much better than that in terms of scope and scale for consumer insight.
Some of our clients
3. Adidas. Adobe. AKQA. AOL. Avea. Avery Dennison. BBC. BBDO. BBH. Belgacom. BSkyB. BT. Carat.
Channel 4. Comverse. Disney Mobile. EA. EMI Music. Ericsson. Hasbro. Hutchison Whampoa. Intel. Isobar.
ITV. KPN. Kyocera. Leo Burnett. LG. Mediacom. Mobilink. Microsoft. Motorola. MTN. MTV Networks.
NEC. Nokia. Telefonica O2. Orange. Plantronics. Proctor & Gamble. Publicis. Rogers Wireless. RTL.
Samsung. Sony Electronics. Sony PlayStation. Sprint Nextel. Sun Microsystems. Telenor. TeliaSonera. TIM.
TIM Hellas. T‐Mobile. Turkcell. Verizon Wireless. Virgin Mobile. Vodafone. Walt Disney Internet Group.
Walt Disney Television. WPP. WIND . Zain
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mobileYouth 2009
Screenshots from the 2009 reports
www.mobileYouth.org
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mobileYouth 2009
Report 1. Insights into Youth Mobile Trends and
Mobile Behavior (Delivered Feb 09)
Title 1
Graham Brown Quote 2
How to Use this Report 3
Change 4
Emerging Youth Trends: Trouble Ahead? 5
ARPU Ceiling 6
The Slice and the Pie 7
Conditions place premium on Trust 8
Youth Show the Way 9
Integrated Use Up, Spending Down 10
The Trust Gap: has mobile left the backdoor open? 11
Industry’s Future lost at Grass Roots Level 12
How Mobile can Regain Mindshare 13
Stuck in the 20th Century 14
Industrial or Social? 15
DNA cannot be undone by tactics 16
Attention is Your Biggest Cost: Are you Interrupting or Connecting? 17
Attention is your biggest cost 18
Pipelines ignore filters 19
DNA = Metrics =Marketing = Failure 20
The True Cost of Marketing 21
Reliance on Nomadics 22
The True Cost of Churn 23
When Marketing Serves the Company 24
Insights 25
Ethnography – the key to unlocking the emotional appeal 26
Moving beyond the Observable 27
Blank 28
Gen Y Myths 29
Changing How we Gather Insight 30
When Consumer Insight Gets it Wrong 31
Moving towards Ethnography 32
Platform Marketing: Campaign to Legacy 33
Establish Permission First 34
Moving from Serial to Cyclical 35
Selling Barriers to Exit 36
Social Currency: why they buy 37
Blank 38
Selling a Lifestyle 39
Social Fabric that Connects 40
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2 Key Drivers of Consumer Behaviour 41
Replacing Symbols of Social Currency 42
Targeting 43
Beachheads: from mass to niche 44
Blank 45
Sell to the Beachhead not the Mass market 46
Insight is Competitive Advantage 47
Clarity is Power 48
Profiling 49
Teens: The Quest of Shared Experience 50
272 million mobile teens 51
Where are they? 52
Mobile teen Market growth 53
Overview of Teen Consumers (13‐17yrs) 54
The Consumer Psychology of Teens 55
Teens and marketing 56
Teens and media 57
Teens and sharing 58
Teens and mobile internet 59
Teens and content 60
Teens and Handsets 61
Teens and Social Media 62
Students: An Alternative Mainstream 63
341 million mobile students ‐ Where are they? 64
Overview of Student Age Consumers (18‐22yrs) 65
The Consumer Psychology of Students 66
Students and media 67
Students and Marketing 68
Students and content 69
Students and handsets 70
Students and Social Media 71
Young Adults: Economic Significance, Display and Status Emerge 72
387 million young adults Where are they? 73
Overview of Young Adult Consumers (23‐27yrs) 74
The Consumer Psychology of Young Adults 75
Young Adults and Media 76
Young Adults and Marketing 77
Young Adults and Content 78
Young Adults and Handsets 79
Young Adults and Social Media 80
Boys Display Girls Connect 81
Gender and Media 82
Gender and Mobile Content 83
Gender and Mobile Handsets 84
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mobileYouth 2009
Gender and Social Media 85
Ethnics: Passionate Beachheads 86
Young Ethnics and Media 87
Young Ethnics and Mobile 88
iPhone Owners: Early Adopter Bubbles 89
Young iPphone Owners 90
Demand for Apps 91
Gamers: All Ages but differing styles 92
Young Gamers 93
Young Gamers 94
Mobile Music: Male and Ethnics 95
Marketing and Cross Selling Opportunities 96
Young Mobile Music Consumers 97
Mobile Internet: Teens when it’s free 98
Young Mobile Internet Consumers 99
Mobile Mail: So far, a substitute rather than a de‐facto 100
Young Mobile Mail Consumers 101
Mobile Photo Sharing: Teen Sharers and Young Adult Displayers 102
Young Photo Sharing Consumers 103
Mobile Video: Online Female, Mobile Male. Young
Adults and Ethnics dominate 104
Young Video Consumers 105
Young Mobile Video Consumers 106
Social Media: All ages, all genders, all ethnicities but roles vary 107
Young Social Media Consumers 108
Contact 111
Come meet mobileYouth® on our world tour 2009 112
The Youth Marketing Workout 2009 113
mobileYouth Lead Author 114
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mobileYouth 2009
2. Mobile youth product preference and development
Product choice
• What do they want from handsets?
• What do they want from operators? E.g. service, package
• What do youth think of discount & free operators such as Blyk, Helio, Boost Mobile, Heyah!, Virgin,
Fonic and Congstar?
• What do youth think of premium handsets such as iPhone, Storm, G1, Nokia Tube?
• What do youth think of mobile advertising?
Pricing
• How relevant is pricing to young consumers?
• Do youth want everything for free or are we missing the point in what really drives their consumer
behaviour?
• What is “Displacement” and how does this impact youth choice in product?
Product Development
• What role should youth play in our own product development?
• What is the business benefit of “crowdsourcing” product ideas from youth?
• How can operators engage youth as part of the product development process?
• What role do youth have in developing your mobile advertising revenue streams?
• Should we use mobile content to enhance youth revenues, loyalty, advertising revenues or
marketing?
3. Mobile youth branding
Brand preferences
• How do youth assess brands?
• What role does trust, relevance have in youth brand?
• How does brand impact loyalty, uptake of new services, word of mouth?
• How do mobile brands compare with others in terms of youth preference?
• How important are social values in youth branding?
• How important is “Authenticity” in youth branding?
• How should mobile brands brand themselves for young consumers without impacting the wider
business?
• Do youth prefer localized or global brands and how does this vary by market?
• Which brands do youth rate the highest and why?
• Is the concept of "brand" relevant to youth in a "smart pipe" strategy?
• How do youth weigh the needs of wanting control of the brand versus brand leadership?
Brand impact
• How does brand impact word of mouth, uptake of new services and customer loyalty?
• How do we build our relevance to youth?
• How can we achieve youth brand clarity?
• How do we position our youth service to our customers?
• How can we measure youth brand performance?
• What are our social values and why are they important in building a dialogue with youth?
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• What is youth brand clarity and are mobile operators achieving it?
• Should we adopt “open house branding” strategies or should we demonstrate leadership?
• How important is “Building the Backstory” in marketing effectiveness?
Marketing to mobile youth
Measurement
• Why is a reliance on ARPU and market share potentially damaging to youth relationships long term?
• What role should the profit‐related metrics net promoter score, churn, lifetime value play in
developing and measuring youth strategy?
Communication
• Which 3 communications tactics are youth most responsive to?
• How do we build the bridges to facilitate dialogue and enable youth to better communicate with
mobile operators?
• Are call centres, focus groups and feedback forms effective?
• What are the most common and avoidable mistakes in marketing to youth?
• What role should customer service have in your youth marketing strategy?
• How can operators use Social Media, Twitter, Blogs and Video to engage youth?
• How can operators monitor, take part in and enhance youth conversation relevant to our brand?
Partnership
• What is the business case for youth focused partnerships?
• What should be the operator's key selling point to attract the right industry partners?
• How should you position our brand in the music category?
• Why is music sponsorship increasingly ineffective?
• How should operators approach music events as a core marketing strategy with youth?
• Who do you need to partner with to make mobile advertising happen?
Marketing
• Why should mobile operators focus youth marketing on legacy building as opposed to campaigns?
• What is the youth marketing “Meatball Sundae” and how do we avoid it?
• What are “Immersion” and “Partnership” marketing and who is successfully implementing these
strategies?
• Which brands are successfully building marketing legacies and what are the business benefits?
• How can operators prepare internally for moving from marketing "to" to marketing "with" youth?
Influence
• What is the business case for positive youth customer advocacy?
• Who should be the focus on the customer advocacy strategy?
• How do we engage employees as brand ambassadors?
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Tel: +44(0) 207 386 3635
mobileYouth 2009
4. Strategy for mobile youth
Key business case questions
• What are the 3 key internal justifications for a mobile youth strategy?
• What is the business case for youth and where should youth fit within the overall operator strategy?
• What should operator youth strategy be and what are the key mistakes that can be avoided?
• What is the “Harley Affect” and how does this make youth relevant to non‐demographic specific
brands?
• What are the business implications of getting your youth strategy wrong?
• How can operators make an effective internal youth strategy a key cost‐cutting measure?
• What are the internal challenges preventing an effective youth strategy and how do we address
them?
Key strategy questions
• What are the 3 strategic priorities we need to be focusing on for 2009?
• Are discount and free operators a threat or a distraction?
• How can a mass market brand be relevant to youth?
• What are the long term youth ARPU trends and are these indicative of future patterns in the mass
market?
• What is “Channel ARPU” and what are the strategic implications for our youth strategy?
• How do Nokia, Apple, Google, Red Bull and Starbucks present a competitive threat to operators and
what should operators do about it?
• What role should operator assets play in youth marketing (eg brand, billing, partnerships, portal, and
handset portfolio)?
Statistical mobile youth trends
• What are the 3 most important statistical mobile youth trends and what is their implication for mobile
providers?
• What are the current ARPU trends and how do they differ by age and market?
• What are the current data trends and how do they differ by age and market?
• Typical customer profiles explained statistically
• How do youth trends vary from emerging to mature markets?
• How is youth spending on mobile changing?
• What are the current subscriber trends and how do they differ by age and market?
• What are the current churn and loyalty trends and how do they differ by age and market?
www.mobileYouth.org
www.mobileYouthNet.com
Tel: +44(0) 207 386 3635
mobileYouth 2009
Screenshots from previous reports
The Author
Born in the UK, Graham Brown has spent his life living and working in both London and Tokyo. A keen
psychology graduate, Graham has focused his marketing career on understanding what influences
consumer behavior.
Graham established mobileYouth in 2001 with Josh Dhaliwal at a time when the blanket industry
response to youth was “we don’t do kids”. Needless to say, things have changed a little since then and
Graham’s role in the organization has evolved from knocking on the doors of operators to maintaining
the research momentum and deepening our understanding of what the consumer wants.
As well as speaking at industry conferences on the subject of young consumers, Graham has appeared on
CNBC, Sky, CNN and BBC TV regarding youth marketing issues as well as in print with the FT, Guardian,
WSJ and the Sunday Times.
www.mobileYouth.org
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mobileYouth 2009
Pricing and Ordering Information
Please call +44(0) 207 386 3635 or email us on josh.dhaliwal@mobileyouth.org
www.mobileYouth.org
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mobileYouth 2009
mobileYouth 2009 Methodology
The annual mobileYouth reports are a combination of quantitative and qualitative research.
mobileYouth provides in‐depth analysis of issues facing companies engaging with young consumers worldwide.
Each report covers a single strategic subject area‐‐subjects deemed worthy of detailed analysis by our clients,
major industry players who use our studies in their strategic planning.
Each report sets up the issues and market conditions, describes the players, cites the market factors, and
projects marketplace trends. Written clearly and concisely, each report makes full use of charts and graphs to
present market data and projections. It is important for us that our information is as reusable as possible and
where required charts, tables and graphs are presented in a format which can be easily extracted and re‐used
in presentations and reports.
First launched in 2001, mobileYouth is an ongoing study of the behavioural and consumption trends of young
people worldwide hence there is no project start or end date – all research work is ongoing and we are
increasing the use of video interviews so that our clients can hear directly from what young people are telling
them.
Our research approach is the same for each study, a typical report begins with a scan of our internal databases
and secondary sources‐‐the fastest way for an analyst to review current market conditions. Next, analysts
conduct primary interviews in the marketplace to cross‐check secondary sources and gather additional data
for a preliminary market assessment.
We then compile the baseline information and use it to build a tentative market model. We size the market,
determine upside/downside market potential, and look for factors that could alter future market
conditions. At this stage, we often feed discrete findings back to knowledgeable industry players to test
assumptions.
We then test the markets assumptions against what young consumers are telling us in our qualitative research.
Each year we interview thousands of young people and in some cases their parents across 20 countries
including UK, USA, Germany, Japan, China, India, Singapore, South Africa etc. In 2008 we added Ukraine,
Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Brazil and Malaysia due to meet client needs.
Finally, the findings go through an internal review, where senior staff members probe and challenge
assumptions. Only upon a satisfactory conclusion of this review is the study deemed ready for our thorough
editorial process and final publication.
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