Advertisers have long looked to America’s teenagers when it comes to clothing and chewing gum.
   What they may not know is that teens also exert a surprising influence over their families’ big-ticket purchases. Advertisers of cars, vacations and electronics might do well to cater to teenagers as well as their parents.
   According to a recent report released by Interep Research Division, over half of parents with teenage children say their kids influence the family’s major purchases.
   In a given week, more than half of the teens have some say over which brands the family buys, particularly among staple items like shampoo, deodorant and soft drinks.
   "With the growth of the dual-income family, this demo is going to become even more important. They’ll have a much bigger say in brand selection with both parents working," says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and director of research at Horizon Media.
   Indeed, Interep’s study finds that despite all the talk about the disintegration of the nuclear family, two-thirds of teens live with both parents. About 70 percent live with a working mother.
   So marketing adult items to teens as well might be a "backdoor" method of influencing the parents’ buying decisions.
   "I don’t know if General Motors is going to start marketing to teens on MTV, but building some brand awareness among teens without rearranging the whole ad campaign might be useful," says Adgate.
    "There are still some shows out there with good co-viewership of parents and teens, or teen shows with some adult spillover."
    According to Interep’s study, one of the best ways to reach teens is radio.
    When asked what medium they recommend to best reach them, the teens themselves gave their votes to radio. Radio reaches 93 percent of teens, with a majority of teens tuned in during nearly every daypart, including the primetime TV-viewing hours.
    Teens’ favorite formats are Contemporary Hits Radio, Urban Contemporary and Alternative. After television, listening to the radio is the most popular leisure activity for teenagers.
    Moreover, six of the top ten personalities teens admire are musicians, making radio prime territory for positive brand association.
    "Each medium has its strong demo, and radio tends to have a younger, male skew," says Rob Frydlewicz, vice president and research director at FCB.
    "There’s no equal to television—MTV or some of the teen shows on the WB, for instance. But television in general is so broad, that it tends to give radio more of an advantage."
    Television and radio combine for a 91 percent share of teens’ media consumption
    The internet’s share is, of course, on the rise. A whopping 83 percent of teens had access to the internet in 2000, a number only projected to increase.
    Teens access the internet in a variety of places, with a high proportion using the web outside the home. According to MRI Twelve Plus 2000, just 46 percent of survey respondents said they accessed the web at home in the past 30 days, with 44 percent going online at school or in the library.
    Browsing the web is the most popular online activity among teens, with 54 percent responding that they did so in the last 30 days. Using email and studying/researching were next with 51 percent each.
    Gathering product information and making purchases was the least popular online activity among teens surveyed, with just 19 percent having shopped online in the past month. The likely explanation is that most teens do not have credit cards, which are still required for the vast majority of online purchases.
   Teens tend to spend cash, of which they have plenty.
   Teen spending increased 9 percent from 1998 to 1999, up to about $153 billion. Moreover, nearly all of that money is discretionary.
    Much of teens’ spending money comes from their own paychecks, and teen income is on the rise. By 2001, teens will earn $136 billion, according to Packaged Goods Research. Already, 30 percent of older teens earn over $100 a week.
    Teens’ favorite categories are clothing/jewelry, food/snacks, entertainment and personal care. Females heavily outspend males on items like film, shoes and clothing, while males have an edge in stereo equipment, software and video games.
    Not only are teens consuming more media and spending more money than ever, there are also more of them.
    Thanks to the fertile Baby Boomers, the United States now has its largest group of teenagers ever, prompting some to herald the "Baby Boomlet."
    America’s 31 million teens are distributed fairly evenly throughout the country, with slight bulges in the Southwest and major cities like the New York metropolitan area, where 5.6 percent of all American teens reside.
    Teens are also the most ethnically diverse of all demos, with a full third made up of African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans and other minorities.
    Interep wraps up its report with a few tips from Packaged Facts for marketing to teens. They include: "Get their attention right away," "Address their lifestyle, not current trends," "Put an irreverent spin on traditional values" and "Don’t be sexist, racist—or politically correct, either."

April 19, 2001 © 2001 Media Life

-Gabriel Spitzer is a staff writer for Media Life.

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