Youthopia and the Generation Game

Kids Grow Old Young or KGOY is a well known concept regarding children, and today’s children certainly seem to be getting older younger.

But the lesser discussed topic is what I call Adults Grow Young Older, or as the Sunday Times more eloquently put it recently “downaging”. This is where age is no longer viewed as a milestone that dictates music, fashion, travel or even lifestyle.

I’m not referring just to the traditional grey market of Mick Jaggers and Helen Mirrens. There’s also evidence that the forty plus age group struggle to accept typical middle age trappings, and are not willing to let go of their thirties’ attitudes lightly. And whilst physiologically puberty is now starting earlier, teenage behaviour is extending beyond the teens as their dependency on the home and parents now continues well into their twenties.

This downaging has serious marketing repercussions:

Firstly, the segments and categories we typically create as marketers need to be seriously overhauled and even then should not be viewed as rigid.

Secondly, the ubiquitous power struggle between parent and child has shifted not only towards power sharing but significantly, also towards brand sharing. Some years back BRANDchild (by Martin Lindstrom and Patricia Sey, Kogan Page Publishing) told of children’s growing influence on adults’ brand purchases, but now the dividing line between brand appeal for adults and children is distinctly blurred.

I have long said children have an important impact on brands, but this segmental shift means the Youth Effect is everywhere. So whilst KGOY is a key emotional driver for the youth market, Youthtopia is an aspiration for all of the other age categories. Marketers, take note.