A quarter of the world consists of young people between the ages of 10-14 years.

Of these 86 percent, live in developing countries. Pakistan currently has the largest cohort of young people in its history (25 million aged 15-24) and subsequent cohorts are projected to be even larger.

Djuice The most successful youth brand of Pakistan

Djuice was first introduced in Bangladesh and then to Pakistan. It has since grown to become one of the largest Youth mobile brands in Pakistan. Since Pakistan has more than 50% population between the ages of 12 to 20, the youth market is very important for telecom sector. This is the reason why Telenor and its competitors Mobilink, Ufone and Warid have their own youth targeted brands like Jazz Octane, Warid GLOW and Ufone Youth Package. Pakistans 50% of the population is youth and Djuice has the highest number of shares in that population compared to its competitors and in order to maintain those shares it has to come up with defensive strategies in order to maintain the current market share as well as strategies to attract more consumers in order to increase the market shares.

Marketing Strategy Over the last decade the telecom sector has matured and become very competitive. That is why even market leaders like Telenor can not adopt defensive strategies against its competitors. Recently Djuice has has dropped to second place after Ufone launched its Youth Brand. Now Telenor has a marketing strategy based on customized service provision. This is because the youth market is much more rationale in making decisions and since the target market is so wide a tailor made service is better than a more rigid offer. Understanding its consumers, Djuice aggressively markets its GPRS and SMS bundles. All the recent campaigns emphasize fun. Even Djuices tag line goes like Djuice its fun to be young. Djuice has always tried to grab the attention of the young generation through coming up with surprisingly cheap and innovative offers.

Role Models of Young Consumers (Ages 16-24)

Source: Euromonitor International Consumer Survey Global Youth Based on results from the Euromonitor International Global Youth Survey of young consumers conducted last autumn, this group of consumers tends to look up to their parents and significant others as role models as well rather than celebrities, teachers and politicians. Celebrities as role models Celebrities can be actors, sports personalities, politicians, or pop icons. Their fame and success allow them to inspire and influence consumers.

Three Stages of Youth

Though those between 25 and 34 remain youthful, there are some important differences among them and their younger and older counterparts. The study identified three distinct stages of youth:

Discovery (16-19 years old), Experimentation (20-24 years old) and Golden (25-34
years old), and found that the youth market has grown to include all three as the differentiation between traditional demographic groups has become blurred through lifestyle choice and spending power.

Golden Youth are happier, and more confident/secure and gravitate toward premium, understated
and often luxurious brands and experiences to affirm their identity. In contrast, teenagers are highly focused on material gain and employ brands to define their identity.

Youth trends On the other end of the youth marketing spectrum, you[who?] could say that the traditional definition of youth doesnt really exist. This assumption was based upon consumer behavior in a study done by Viacom Brand Solutions International called the Golden Age of Youth. This case study was designed to focus on adults from 18 to 34 years old who primarily delayed their adult responsibilities in favor of staying younger in all aspects of life. According to this study, 16- to 19-year-olds are considered to be going through the discovery period. As people grow older they usually phase out of the discovery period and into the experimentation period, when they hit the age range of 20 to 24 years old. Usually those that dont fit into the groups above are part of the golden category, which consists of anyone 24 to 34. Some of the key results that were produced from this case study were that 24 34-year-olds usually dont respond to the same marketing techniques as teens and those that think so are being fooled, whereas in reality only 8% in the study were actually true teenagers. It also showed that the golden youth were the happiest out of all the categories and drawn towards expensive brands compared to teens. Based on the categories provided by Viacom and the results of the case study, it goes to show that over 52% of adults from 25 to 34 still have a lot of growing up to do.[2] Youth trends are part of an environment pertaining to information that we[who?] know as youth marketing and is rapidly evolving and is interconnected with the evolution of transmission systems and content quality.[citation needed] It is easy to give very little weight to these new trends that are evolving in this information environment, but these changes should not be taken lightly[says who?] because it will affect how youth communicate and absorb this information. These changes can easily be shown through various media such as smart phones or social networking sites like Facebook, allowing youth marketing to occur on a sensory level.[3]

Youth consumer behavior The Internet has ushered in a new digital media culture that allows different forms of media to converge. What once used to be multiple separate devices such as a telephone, television, or computer are now able to converge as one form of technology. Smart phones are the perfect example[says who?] of this hybrid technology that the new digital media culture has ushered in. As early adopters of new technologies, the youth in many ways are the defining users of the digital media that are embracing this new culture. "The burgeoning digital marketplace has spawned a new generation of market research companies which are introducing an entire lexicon of marketing concepts (e.g., viral marketing, discovery marketing) to describe some of the unorthodox methods for influencing brand loyalty and purchasing decisions." The research that is done on youth marketing quickly becomes outdated by the time it's published as a result of the growth of digital media as educators and health professionals continue to get a grasp on the situation. Youth advertising is an important determinant of consumer behavior; it has been shown to have an influence on a youths' product preference and purchase requests. There are some scientists[who?] that believe studying youth consumer behavior is a negative thing because it impacts their beliefs, values, and moral judgments. They argue this because they believe that youth are more influenced by advertising messages than adults are. Advertising impacts usually are conducted by focusing on three specific effects: cognitive, behavioral, and affective. Usually cognitive effect studies are more focused on children's abilities to distinguish commercials from reality and their ability to understand the difference between the two. When cognitive studies are being done they will follow Piaget's theory to track the concrete development of children. Piagets theory is divided into stages; these stages are known as the pre-operational stage, and concrete operational stage. The first stage focuses on the age group of 2- to 7-year-olds whereas the second focuses on 7- to 12-year-olds. On the other hand, there are some scientists[who?] that believe youth marketing is a good thing because it helps to define who they are as a consumer. On that note, it has been proven that requests by youth for advertised products decrease as they mature (1,14,24,26). Youth-oriented audiences tend to become more critical about their purchases and less susceptible to media advertising as they grow up. Gender also tends to have a role in a youth's thought process when requesting an advertised product. In most cases, boys are more persistent in their requests than girls. Other factors that may co-determine childrens consumer behavior include socioeconomic level of the family, frequency and kind of parent child interaction, and involvement with peer groups. These are just a few of the issues regarding youth consumer behavior and it is not going on in just our country[clarification needed] but in other countries as well such as the Netherlands. The Netherlands is a perfect example[says who?] to show how youth marketing is viewed in another country. In the Netherlands youth advertising may not mislead about characteristics or the price of the product in addition to this products aimed at children cannot have too much authority or trust amongst children. But there are loopholes in the way the Netherlands protects children from direct youth marketing. These loopholes usually question concepts such as misleading, authority, and trust.[5]

Reaching the youth market

Youth marketing strategies commonly include television advertising, magazine advertising and online marketing. Today young people expect to be able to learn about, interact and be entertained with brands or services targeting them online. Other common youth marketing tactics include entertainment marketing, music marketing, sports marketing, event marketing, viral marketing, school and college programs, product sampling and influencer marketing. Examples of brands embraced by youth and used as examples in marketing cases are: Vans Footwear, it used youth marketing tactics to grow from a niche sneaker brand to a successful international business and Mountain Dew, a well known soft drink brand that expanded market share through youth marketing tactics in the 1990s.

College Age Youth Go Online

According to data from Harris Interactive. College age youth (18-24) show more fondness for online brands than their younger counterparts. Google and Facebook rank first and second, respectively, while online music provider iTunes comes in eighth.

iPod comes in third and Apple seventh, showing a growing interest in technology as youth enter early adulthood. However, snack and fast food brands such as Gatorade, Subway, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Oreos show the continued importance of quick, tasty food to young adults.