Citation
Miller, A.R. (1998), "Wise up to Teens: : Insights into Marketing and Advertising to Teenagers", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 200-201. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.1998.15.1.200.3
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Teenagers are important consumers because of their discretionary income, because they spend family money and influence their parents’ spending. Teenagers are also trend setters. In the future there will be more teenagers and teenagers will spend money. Having established the importance of teenagers, the author provides the reader with important information and data. The data were obtained from his company, Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), a company that researches teenagers.
The book is divided into 11 chapters as follows:
- 1
Why Teens are Important Consumers.
- 2
Teens, Products and Brands.
- 3
Teens and Media.
- 4
Teen Activities and Interests.
- 5
Teen Trends and Social Hierarchy.
- 6
Teens and Music.
- 7
Choosing the Right Celebrity.
- 8
Teen Values.
- 9
The Essence of Being Teen.
- 10
Teen Social Concerns.
- 11
Advertising to Teens.
Each chapter covers many topics, e.g. the chapter on teens and media includes teen‐recommended media, favorite radio formats of teens, top 15 magazines read by teens, teens’ favorite cable networks, teens’ favorite newspaper sections, and teens and alternative media. Each section presents an analysis of the issue discussed complete with supporting tables. In the section on teen influence on durable purchases, the author presents data on products for which at least half of teens think they influence family purchase decisions such as the make of the car their parents purchase, when the same question was asked of parents, there was much less recognition of teens’ influence. Teens influence 8 percent of family vacations and travel and only around 50 percent of televisions and VCR purchases. Regarding consumables, teens influence 65 percent of fast‐food restaurant decisions and only 28 percent of the brand of tortilia chip purchases.
This comprehensive book is useful to marketing planners and academics. The author does not state the details of how the data were obtained; however, the findings appear to be valid.