Teens are a huge market to sell products to. They purchases all the latest gadgets, are frivolous with their parents money and follow trends. When a product is deemed “hot” by the high school socialites everyone else within a 200 mile radius goes and purchases the product as well. The teen market is hug and lucrative. Any business who knows how to sell to this group might make a pretty penny. According to Business Wire there are around 26 million teens in the U.S. between 12 and 17 years old. They have a combined income of somewhere around $80 billion dollars. Parents also spend another $110 billion dollars on their teens as well making the total to around 190 billion dollars.
Teen money usually falls into a number of categories. These include entertainment, clothing, electronics, cars and restaurants. Most of us can remember when we were younger taking our dates to the movies, to get some fast food and then driving them around in our cars. Not much has changed since then as teens became defined by the habits of the baby boomers.
Teens are much more likely to purchase products on the internet than their parents. The parents grew up in a time when computers were relatively new and were not a common household product. Thus they don’t feel as comfortable with these products and their children do. The purchasing of products through credit and debit cards doesn’t require them to go into the store anymore even though many teens still do.
As study of teen spending habits in a New York high school showed that teens are spending less of their money on clothing and more of their money on gas and eating out. That doesn’t mean that teens are not purchasing products like clothing, cosmetics, hair cuts and the latest gadget but that they are engaging in lots of different activities.
Since teens from middle class neighborhoods are becoming busier they are changing their spending habits to reflect that behavior. For example, if a teen is getting off of school, running to part-time job and then off to baseball practice they aren’t likely to care as much about their clothing as they did when they wore these clothes all day long.
Thus many teens are beginning to enjoy spending their little spare time relaxing. They relax by driving to their friend’s house, watching movies and eating out. These teens are slowly moving away from the overly faddish clothing industry to something that is more useful and beneficial to them. Therefore, marketing should be more focused on their busy lifestyle and the products they need than on the silly, goofy or insane.
Murad Ali, a two-time published author, writes articles and offers advertisement space for businesses. Visit http://www.thenewbusinessworld.blogspot.com
