Rebellion not happening

Youth used to be rebellious - now rebellion is a minor facet of Youth in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and the UK. One of the major trends in Youth over the last 15 or so years is the decline in the desire to rebel..serious rebel.

In our recent research at INSIDE STORY with youth the desire to rebel just isn't there.

There is a more confident and comfortable feel to Youth than there used to be.

In China there are however, signs of real rebellion with post punk and post grunge bands delivering exciting sounds. In Japan too there is a different sort of desire for change that creates an exciting vibrant Youth sub-culture.

Our work with somatic metaphors and somatic identity shows that there is a segment of the Youth market - the Still Waters who do have the some potential for this true rebellious spirit. This would appear to be a cross cultural phenomenon. Once activated, Still Waters can be the agents of change and the trend makers.

The sharmans and the great artistics of society emerge from the Still Waters type. These are the people that have the potential to drive society forward if they can trigger out of the down cycles they are locked into and commence their journey upwards. See more about somatic metaphors and somatic identity at www.somaticmetaphors.blogspot.com.

They have the necessary inner pain (aggression and anger) to produce the excitement and passion necessary for much artistic expression.

Cool to be Emo

In Sydney and Singapore it’s becoming more cool to be depressed.

Depression is sweeping teens and now is aspirational – for some at least. Middle class well off kids find imperfections in their lives and make a melodrama out of each episode of rejection. All this is played out to Emo music too.

Male and females are derided by many but still persist in their misery. Recognise them by their dark clothes, right sweat shirts, scarfs in summer.

Not just sensitive new age guys but a subculture that thrive on the mantra

‘no one understands’.

Emos fit perfectly into INSIDE STORY’s ‘Still Waters’ segment a segment not as much targeted by marketers but showing increasing interest more recently. We are now seeing a lot of fashion spreads in magazines like Frankie and Russh..see the May Russh fashion spread – ‘back in the USSR…go underground this summer’. Rip Curl experimented with the depressed and even played very subtly with the death wish for a while in their shop window in Sydney - though this seems to have disappeared.

The dark mood is reflected in a lot of the top designer ads for Prada and others who use the greyed out tones for their fashion shoots only highlighting the product in colour. Seemingly a smart way to maximise product impact but also a subtext which is a bulls eye to the emerging emo target. Poses are almost always reclining – metaphorically symbolic of DOWN, PASSIVE, BACK. Many of the top designers featured reclining models in their depressed states in windows in Orchard Road in April.

Youth - Day in the life

Marketers already know about the importance of online for Youth but please also take note of lifestyle focus around cinema going and coffee shops – getting your product and ‘postcards’and collateral into places like The Coffee Bean in Singapore or in any Mamak Restaurant in Malaysia is a sure shot way of reaching this audience.

In Australia individually owned coffee places are also meeting places for Youth especially females where it's a great place to spend hours together though perhaps not as big as in Asia.

It’s surprising how 20 to 24s are so similar in Singapore, Malaysia and in Australia in all sorts of ways. Here are the sorts of things we are finding about what Singaporean 20 – 24s females and males do from day to day:

 Typical to be online every night – at least one hour
 MSN Messenger chats with friends
 Also cooperate on work and research projects with others
 Minority of females play games on-line, some interest in role play games – online games very strong with males (Warcraft, DOTA)
 TV still playing a role – soaps/dramas, Singapore idol
 Action movies, Sci Fi, Scary movies, Fantasy (eg Lord of Rings)
 Still lots of single sex activity - meet girlfriends at The Coffee Bean for hours chatting/gossiping
 Niche segments into Anime – not that well liked. Stronger among males. Manga not really on radar
 Likely to still be students, lots of study – love sleep, more sleep
 Outdoors life key to Singaporean lifestyle – active: swimming, gym, wakeboarding
 Beach and sun tanning popular
 Not generally yet too concerned about weight
 Shopping for most females - on line too, now starting to buy and sell
 Mango highest profile, Zara – (younger age groups – surf brands)
 Clubbing though not for everyone
 Liquor and increasingly wine, champagne still special
 Smoking common
 Want to enjoy life and have fun while they can - before life's responsibilities kick in
 Mostly widely acceptable music - - R&B
 Music downloads huge
 Magazines –Cleo mainly, My World, Hello, Star
 Typically wear very casual clothes during day – don’t want to be overdressed.. T shirt + jeans – thongs
 T shirt with messages (slightly provocative) cool
 Graphic Tees still happening

As far as fads go....

 Vintage/retro is huge - Haji Lane in Singapore is full of retro shops - little owner operated places that have imported retro gear and that now sell to the public. Previously importing just for self and friends - these are now viable businesses at least for a while. Youth is moving away from designer labels though not abandoning them - they will where D&G bag, a LV belt and mix up with other retro stuff to create a different more individual look
 Highlights in the hair in Malaysia - probably a trend from Japan
 Gym and exercise
 Pink T-Shirts for males
 Wine consumption increasing
 Travel overseas increasing
 Blogs happening but still at fringes – like the sensational/infamous blog of Xia Xue and the anti Xia Xue blogs, podcasting and podcaste listening not really happening yet
 Body piercing (still strong), tattoos

Fads are quickly adopted ‘must have’ experiences or goods that have currency for those who adopt them. Usually has a limited lifespan a part of the appeal is its currency.

Some can be revived.

A trend is a long term change in sentiment or behaviour that has enduring impact over over several generations.

And now to leave you with a few words from Eminem.....

I'm a trend, I set one every time I'm in/ I go out and just come back full circle again/
You a fad that means you something that we already had/
But once you're gone you don't come back/
Too bad, you're off the map now radar can't even find you.

Eminem

Asian cool outcools

Sitting in coffee shop the other day –a fellow cool watcher/leading media strategist and I decided it: London and Sydney just weren’t that cool anymore – that is, when compared to Asian cool. Everything I have seen since has convinced me the really cool people on the streets and in the clubs are Asian. Watch and see what you think too.


And according to Singaporeans 20 to 24 from the research we have conducted - the most cool Asians (ie Cool with real attitude and impact) are in Japan, Taiwan and Korea. “You just wouldn’t dare wear those clothes in Singapore.” Some put it down to the weather where the layered clothes offer so many more options to costume play. Clearly it’s more than that. Overdressing is a big turn off in Singapore – the look is casual all the way – relaxed. Sydney is like that too with grunge lingering well past its use by date.

Votes are going to Asia for Cool – though there is some dispute about whether black Americans still win out on the cool front. The vote is open, of course unless we can settle this with some sort of poll.

Youth and gaming

An observation is that the computer is becoming an extension of the brain. The internet is blurring the boundaries between the real world and the web and it is becoming harder to discern the difference. This is particularly so for gamers where the game is reality for a time at least.

The research we are doing in Asia and in Australia on Youth identities is revealing a distinct persona that makes them suitable for the emerging gaming environment in Singapore and Australia and, the much more advanced markets of Korea and Malaysia.

There are a number of trends that are driving interest in multiplayer games and affinity communities. Gaming can fill a desire to escape his/her own shaky and unappealing identity into another identity – be it to feel part of “my sports team” or “my band”. Gaming too potentially becomes another means of slothing off the identity imposed by their day to day lives or jobs.

Providing the opportunity to experience different identities in different gaming communities in one single night, meeting people from all over the world online and even adopting a different number of roles using MMORPS has potential appeal to their escapist tendencies.

Gaming offers a safe way of meeting people and interacting – from your own bedroom – enabling them to try out different personas and feel better about themselves. If played out in more aggressive ways, it also potentially provides a degree backlash against societies that stereotype you because you don’t have the best career prospects, best designer clothes and the widest circle of friends.



The female market is the key market for role play games - MMORPGS. Fantasy is clearly better than reality for many – with make-believe now more possible, there is little doubt that this trend will continue to emerge.

For girls in particular, there is also a tendency to sentimentality. The past provides a more comfortable stage of being where there wasn’t the same pressure to be popular and cool – attractive to boys.


Also see my blog on metaphors - www.insidemetaphor.blogspot.com

Youth - Decoding the Psyche

The past two months have been very busy spending time escalating our learning about how Youth’s sense of self or identity relates to their choices of packaging, certain ad appeals and some brands. This has involved many hours interviewing Young people 16 to 24 years.

On May 30th and 31st I am conducting an IQPC course in Singapore to the Asian marketing community where I will be also presenting our latest research on Asian Youth. (You can find this course on IQPC course website www.iqpc.com.sg/AS-3317/2020.)

This is a unique research study as it goes deeper into the hidden aspects of how Youth are biologically pre-programmed to respond in different ways to certain packs, ads and some brands – and what makes them tick.

This research covers:

How to connect with 16 – 24s at a deep level by identifying your target as one of a number of somatically defined identities.

How you will know them when you see them – from their different looks, body languages and key words.

How they will know you as one of them when they see and experience your ads, packs and other marketing activities.

This is totally unique research in that is goes into the arena of body language very deeply and how these insights relate to marketing implementation and positioning.

It will help marketers in your choice of talent for ads plus assist in the selection of the shapes, colours, sounds and kinetics of your packaging. Helping to better target your activities and better activate choice through packaging, the brand and product experience.

This study is based on innovative qualitative research techniques eliciting somatic metaphors.

Latest discoveries in neuroscience are showing that our identities (or senses of self) originate in the body and are somatically defined (see Damasio – Somatic Marker Hypothesis). In other words, much of what we experience as humans goes back to the bodily experience – and this can be applied to our experience with packs, products, ads and brands

Our somatic or bodily experiences are not only the building blocks of our senses of self/identity but also of our emotions – and finally our dispositions and choices. All of which are of key relevance to marketers.

In my blog on metaphor (
www.insidemetaphor.blogspot.com ), I discuss more about metaphors and in particular somatic metaphors and their potential relevance to marketing.

Youth and art trend

I believe art has always fascinated Youth from early but for this generation of Youth art is something more to them. This because there is more access to means of artistic expression than ever before and greater possibilities for reach. There is also some new possibilities to innovate and for Youth today to express their own unique identity.

Why is visual art so important to Youth? I believe it is about identity formation, expression and experimentation. Last night for the first time I saw a graffiti artist in action in a nearby park – first time for me as I’ve only ever seen their prolific output in Australian streets. And yes perhaps not surprisingly they were around 17 male - not a grandpa, grandma, baby boomer or Gen X’er.

I am not the first one to say…Youth for the first time has the time and tools to be an artist. Everyone can be a film maker, designer, publisher whereas only a small elite population could be artists in any previous times sponsored by a patron or living in poverty. Then there is the ‘must have’ Carl Zeiss lense Nokia phone that can make everyone a film director.

Our ongoing research project on Youth in Asia and Australia is about Youth identities and one of the identities is a performer at heart – this is all about being able to experiment with and play different characters..

This type of Youth persona can be recognised by the colours they choose to express themselves with, the packaging shapes and styles they likely to choose to identify themselves with.

The colours to watch are Red, Fuscia, Sky Blue, Brown/grey.

The desire to express yourself over objects, take ownership by writing your name or overlaying your designs is a strong one when identity is forming. I recall when I was 14 or so I came to school one day to find all my heavily doodle’d class books and possessions (previously labeled with my name) suddenly with someone else’s name on them. It caused anuproar at the school with the teachers, an unfamiliar pain for me and the identity thief was whisked away from the school for a while.

There are now more and more brands tapping into the major appeal of art for Youth - recognizing how Youth is embracing art. Perhaps more from the point of view that art is cool than from the point of view that art is identity formation though.

In Shanghai Coke has a whole shop that I visited which is dedicated to the ‘Coke is Art, Coke is Innovation’. Here you can see you favourite iconic Coke bottle shape with a myriad of visual designs by young artists.

Nokia has united 10 of the world’s artists to invest in their Connect to Art Project – inviting downloads new technology for free in the exhibition.

Yen magazine is featuring Connies ‘out of respect to the special shoe in your life...teaming up with artists including The People’s Republic of Animation presenting your favourite Connies with their own unique artistic treatments and positioning them as…’Connies have always been more like a best friend than a regular pair of shoes that protect your feet from gritty streets’. (Doesn’t say it’s an advertorial just something nice from Yen magazine to Converse. Wonder who paid for this? Great for both Yen and Converse.)

Giving the power for the consumer to be the artist is the hard one for brands marketers - and making it work.