Have card, will spend

Have card, will spend

Young people, in transition from adolescence to adulthood are caught with a foot in both worlds. They tend to have two tastes at the same time. One responds to quality enshrined in international branded products, like Reebok, Nike and Benetton. The other pays homage to the whacky, the “cool”, the kitschy poster, grunge music, chatpata tastebud teasers, shock value!

It is important for a teenager to surge towards adulthood, wear grown-up make–up, shave at least once a week and be up-to-date on things like the price of Mercedes Benz cars and Mont Blanc pens-things that they are clearly not in the league of. At the same time, it is equally important for them to leap into parental laps with their coltish bodies, complaining they are not hugged enough anymore.

The young person is a seething mass of awareness and retrogression, a whirling manifestation of the chrysalis to butterfly syndrome. They pose a great challenge to the creative art of marketers who target their seemingly shallow pockets. It is no easy job to attract, let alone keep their interest. The pitch has to be one part teddy bear, one part Schwarzenegger and one part Sharon Stone. The kitsch can be Indianised of course, but woe betide any prosaic soul that plays fast and loose with the ingredients!

The spending power of youth is demonstrated by the size and opulence of the music and entertainment industries. In India, it is surging towards adulthood, crossing over from fillum music to techno-bhangra, pop, rock and back, like a hyperactive gymnast. The underbelly of booze, drugs and sex may not be of epidemic proportions, but certainly has a role in drawing the flies to the honey pot.

On the wider canvas of clothes, computers, cars, cosmetics, sports things, myriad gadgetry, the youth are a well-informed set of influencers. Besides, the traditional divide between earning and spending has become blurred in the age of plastic credit. This applies to their parents, bless their dependent card providing hearts. Pocket money is a dinosaur. Impulse buying is in. Have card, will spend.

Marketing to youth has to be a responsible activity. You cannot sell blood and guts revolution. You can sell environment and AIDS awareness. Young people are allergic to companies jumping on the bandwagon, intrusively pushing their messages as they piggyback on a promo. They are equally resistant to blatant product advertising, responding much more gamely to a pitch that seems to encourage them to make their own choices. The language is important. It makes the difference between inclusion and alienation. AR Rehman has scored this 50th year with Vande Mataram but only because he understands the pulse of the young.

Sports and the lure of the body beautiful is a ‘90s phenomenon. Still, the important thing is to pitch the endorsement of the sports celebrity right. Imagination is everything. It is life enhancing. Rationality is boring. Between these extremes lies the challenge, right in the centre of the cleavage. Understanding the mind-set is important. It is international in perspective but has to be rooted in local symbolism. The start line is important and so is the implication. Anybody who takes these near adults for fools will soon encounter the comeuppance to his pride. This is an aspirational and sensitive market, fashion conscious and quality savvy, fun loving and given to hormonal surges. Enter at your own peril if you have no sense of humour…

By contrast, if you happen to be possessed with the missionary zeal of a reformer, the sensitivity of an artist, the idealism of a prophet, or the unbridled imagination of a Spielbergian genius, come, and welcome, to the magic theatre. Your audience is sitting on the edge of its seat, agog, waiting to bless you with gold for your coffers.

(631 words)

By Gautam Mukerji

First published in THE PIONEER www.dailypioneer.com on November 19, 1997 in the Second Opinion column