Youth marketing is the practice of gearing ad campaigns to target children, teenagers, and young adults. The industry is designed to target individuals in this age bracket in order to win a part of the large amount of money spent by this group every year. It relies heavily on peer influence and a strong online presence to reach the target audience.
The strategies of youth marketing involve making products appealing to a young age bracket of consumers. Virtually any type of product or company can run this type of campaign. Young people not only make up a large portion of the buying market, but they are also likely to continue buying products through adulthood that they purchased in youth.
Technology-driven teens and young adults can be reached through various online outlets. Advertisements on college sites and social networking Web sites can reach a large number of youth consumers at low cost. In addition to being seen by a large number of young consumers, online advertisements can also be easily monitored for results simply by keeping track of the number of people who click on ads. Use of social media can also give advertisers and marketers a feel for how the brand is being received in order to further guide projects in youth marketing campaigns.
College campuses are a virtual goldmine for those gearing up for a youth marketing campaign. Companies sponsor events, get logos and names of products on banners and signs, and perhaps most importantly, get the product into the hands of young adults who are not only earning and spending money but who are also establishing their own identities. Some companies even go so far as to organize their own series of events to get their brand name on campus and in the mouths of students.
One on one, face to face communication still remains one of the most popular and efficient ways to spread the word about a product or service. Some marketing agencies go so far as to recruit students from colleges or high schools and give them a crash course in why they should buy and promote a certain product. These students are then hired to go out among their peers and share the information in an attempt to get their friends and classmates to buy the product. Some types of youth marketing rely on the ability of individuals to very quickly spread the popularity of a product or service simply by word of mouth.