MR. MALCOLM HANLON Creating Trends and excitement: Catching the young consumers fancy

MR. MALCOLM HANLON Creating Trends and excitement: Catching the young consumers fancy

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We'll just get Julian back for a very brief round of questions on his fascinating brand and you'll notice the ideal way to double your brand share is to make sure everyone wears two watches - so you can go for 1000 - 2000 so we'll take quantities. There's a lady there. Give her a mike or something good. 

Hi there everyone what we did not mention was the reason why Phil was not here with us today. Phil is actually making a contribution himself in another way because yesterday Phil's wife had a baby, so, Phil has made a rather large contribution to the youth across the world. I am sure my contribution will not be as significant as his, but all the same. O.K. so obviously Nokia mobile phones & Pepsi are two very different products, a 50-cent can of soft drink versus a 400 - 500 U.S. dollars mobile phone. Obviously appeals to a very different market segment. 

Nokia is a tighter market and how do we to find the youth target market for Nokia. We do a simple equation, fairly scientific, now we do this across the Asian Region we take the total population of 50 to 24s in a country, then we define the urban 15 to 24 population. So we look at the vast no. of people across the Asian Region but we then take the people out who live in key cities because obviously tele-communication infra structure is primarily found in the key cities across Asia.

Within that group of youth who live in the key cities we know that a lot, in fact a majority of them cannot afford to buy mobile phones certainly in markets like China and India. 

So, we take the youth population then we put another filter which is the affluent youth and we look at them by socio economic information etc. and then from that we call our bull's eye target the hot potentials and they represent the key youth in Asia that we want to focus our communication to and that we believe will be very quick to adopt mobile phones.

So, how many are there? Where they live? These are some of the demographic information we need to know before we go after the youth market you know as serious marketing exercise. So what we find is you know, in terms of sheer numbers obviously China is very very strong with millions and millions of youth living in the key cities.

In India the numbers are not as high as quite a lot are living in rural areas. As far as telecommunication infrastructure goes it really tends to be focused to key cities.

Also markets like South Korea are very very high in terms of sheer numbers in youth potential. But it is quite interesting because while the sheer numbers give us some indication, if we look into percentages it becomes different again. We might say that there is sixteen million youth in China who are hot potentials for Nokia. What we find is that if we look at that as the potential of the population, then China is there in light green it is really very very small in the scheme of things.

And markets such as Singapore, Australia, South Korea, Indonesia as well as markets like Taiwan and Honk Kong they become much more important to us in terms of our regional youth marketing approach. 

We can not do a lot of work in terms of finding where they are, what countries they exist in and how many countries are there, which countries we need to spend money in, which countries we need to spend a lot in, which countries we need to spend less in. 

So that is sort of the starting point for captivating youth in the Asian region. Then secondly you know the next stage is actually getting to understand them and with regards to understanding them that helps us to then develop all the marketing communications to impact and motivate this target audience.

So, apart from conventional methods what does Nokia do to bring the target to life? There's lots of conventional methods that most marketers undertake - things like focus groups, things like quantitative and qualitative research, playing the numbers game etc. etc. We have a couple of other interesting things that we do - they are not incredibly unique to Nokia but we do encompass them in all the activities that we do in terms of research around the region. 

And the first one series of Vox Pops that we do on a three to six month basis in key countries around Asia and we try and cover all of Asia in a space of a year. So, do some countries one quarter and other countries in next quarter. It gives us a deeper understanding of the Youth market and feel for their attitude, style etc. etc. 

A real you know much better understanding than just numbers etc. We recently launched Nokia 3210 across the region last year and this is an example which I am going to show you of a Vox pop which was done in India, China, Australia, Singapore and Indonesia. So we can just play that.

So, what we do, we go all around the region, we get out and about down to the street level, we talk to the hot potentials, we find out what they like; you know what they want to do - as much about them as possible. 

We use all these material as stimulus when we talk to the agency and develop obviously all the creative for marketing communication material. That was just very much a snap shot just to give you an idea of the sort of things we do - there is lot more data, lot more footage we use throughout the marketing process. 

Another thing we do and we do this all around the region is we have a diary system and was these are very hard to see from where you are, they are small little book-lets we send out to you know a number of hot potentials in the key cities and they have write down for us information about where they live, what they like to do, obviously all their demographic information, but a lot of attitude information like where they like to go in their capital city you know their favourite possession, what makes something a favourite possession of theirs, key brands they like, advertisements they like, what they want to do when they grow up, what cars they want, work away, etc, etc, 

So, we go out and we send these diaries around and then we go back after a month or two collect them all up and then compare the results to really start to get some unique insights into their actual life style and most importantly how they view the world. So, lot of work is done in early stages because the key thing with the advertising to the youth market is very easy to make mistakes and very hard to get right. 

So, some of the things we learn from all the work we do in the region in terms of finding about them, we learn that they are extremely technologically aware, more so than the previous generation, in fact more so than any generation before hand. The thirst for information, quest for discovery, is paramount in the youth of today. They are experiencing the transient life stage of adolescence in self reliance at a time when society as a whole is in transition away from traditional values and we are seeing it more and more in places like in India and China where a lot of Western values are becoming very very important to these young people certainly more so than the generation of ten or twenty years ago. They want to be recognized as individuals by the comfortable belonging to the generation. Lot of the generation of youth before, they could not wait to grow up and go to University and settle down. 

These youth today having such a buzz of a time as youth they really don't want to grow up they are quite happy to stay there. And you know they really understand marketing. They've had marketing rammed down their throats. Basically from the day they were born. 

And they understand marketing and are highly literate with regards to marketing. But the key thing, for brand a brand like Nokia is the impact of the technological awareness. It cannot be underestimated with the youth.

Twenty years ago, it was television but today it is the Internet that is driving global diversity among generation 'Y'. And the Internet is the most important thing that has happened in the last five years in terms of targeting this group.

Technology is encouraging a new era in creativity and individuality. They do not fear advances in technology, they are not nervous - they are excited about what is coming out next. 

You know the next MP3 player that is available as a next hand phone that comes out into the market etc. they are the ones who get out there, they are out in the shopping malls, they are buying these products with hard earned cash and quite often what ever money they have, they'll put behind buying technology products. 

Inter activity promotes the more inquisitive and out spoken generation, who consider themselves active participators rather than receivers of information. They do not just wait until they are told something; they actively go out and seek it. 

For the first time in history kids are the authority in technology and innovations in households. I do not have kids but I'm sure everyone out there who has got kids, their kids probably given them regular updates on what is happening with technology and it is surprising how much they really know. 

The world will be shrinking faster than yours. Globalization, huge population growths around the world, the internet, changes exposure to different cultures and attitudes. So, you know in thirty seconds, an 18 -24 year old can be surfing a site from the U.S., Japan, Australia, wherever. It is matter of seconds away to be anywhere else in the world. Some one sitting in Delhi will be talking to some one in Finland.etc. As internet expands around the region and more and more websites come on line they have access to products that were never around twenty years ago and its millions and millions of opportunities to access different products 

Fifty percent of global internet users are young, however, they would demand highly customized products and services as they moved closer into consumerism. They are not an easy market to target or to advertise to - they are very very complex.

So how do you talk to them? They don't like to be told things; they do not like information to be rammed down their throats. They like to go out and find the information themselves. They want to feel as though they have made the decision themselves when they purchase products. They want to make informed decisions rather than rely on advice. Everything is about the 'Y' generation, being about the 'Me' generation. It is true they want to do themselves and make all the decisions themselves. It's all about do not tell them but let them find out and that is one of the things we do with all our Nokia youth focused advertising. 

With the role of media, we have to do what the current media opportunities allow. Many marketers make the mistake of trading youth as passive receivers of information, however the Internet has created a generation of seekers and active participants.

The whole thing with the medium of the Internet is it's all something people have to go and extract themselves. Whatever information they need must be extracted like television, like newspapers, like magazines. Today's youth marketeers must be able to brand worlds that tends to seek out and discover, "I wanted to enter rather than simply impose" their brands upon them in a passive way. 

Are you speaking their language? Well they are speaking yours. Asia's youth are born into a consumer society. Education and access information has given them the ability to view advertising on a strategic level. They don't just like pretty pictures and nice jingles and advertising that lacks substance. Everything they want must have substance to it, must be very informative and must give them a sense of empowerment against corporations. They are quick to take action if corporations challenge their values.

So the key is to understand their values first. Marketeers must not insult or undermine their intelligence, but must be convincing to their set of values and young people will, I guess this isn't something unique to this generation but young people are smart and they like being treated so.

It is all about offering truth and substance rather than hype. They hate being myriad you know, the second you tell a 19 to 24 year old that your product is hip, groovy, fashionable, funky or any of those descriptives that is the minute they will throw your brand out of the window. 

They hate being myriad. Inspire them, don't impersonate them. They dislike being categorized, they are individuals, we can't just say all youth are the same. We have to do different things for different sub segments within the youth. They quickly reject fads that are extremely fickle, you know, again little gimmicky things in advertising and marketing do not have much of an impact on youth of today. 

And very importantly they are seekers of information. Where to connect with them is as important as what to say. We must challenge, involve them, and get them to interact with the brand. They aspire to be at least two years older than where they are. So if you want to target 15 year olds who have got to do advertising that features 18 or 20 year olds. That sort of scenario. 

So how has Nokia applied this thinking? I've got some case studies of work that we've done for Nokia all around the region which show you all those things that I mentioned before and clearly indicate how we getting the youth to interact with the brand, rather than just throwing advertising at them. 

So, just some examples of some of the things we have done this one specifically for India when we launched the 3210 product last year. Lat year we did a joint promotion with Sony music so tying two key brands together, that have a high profile amongst the youth and then we added another dimension to it and we added an interactive element to it where we did a deal with some key bands such as Savage Garden, such as another band called Toy Box and then we developed marketing material such as booklets where we asked the youth market to compose their own ring tones. Using their Nokia mobile phones.

Another interesting thing that you all have seen is MTV ipop, this is something that was done all around the region and is a consistent approach to the youth across markets in Asia. It stands Interactive Pop Up Device, basically it's a branded Nokia mobile phone and it gave the youth across the regions a chance to interact with Nokia and for Nokia to give them information that they could then go and seek out. I've just got an example of how that looks on air if we could just run that. You can see the idea behind that. It was very much a total regional approach to youth marketing and we went everywhere from markets like India, through to Taiwan, South East Asia markets. As you can see with Indian video clips we put Indian relevant artists and artist material and in Taiwan we did the same sort of thing. So it's very much tailored to the youth markets in Asia and you can see it's something far in excess of straightforward marketing communications. It is inter active, unique and it is different. It is all the things that we have to do to focus on the youth market other than just create straight advertising. 

One of the other things we have done, in fact we have done it globally, Nokia sponsored The World Cup in key European and U.S. markets.

You know we understand from how research into youth that lots of different things excite them and they are motivated by them and extreme sports is very much one of them and snowboards specifically are very strong amongst youth.

We took this one step forward not only did we do the global sponsorship of snow boarding but we ran it in key youth medium across the region but also used it as spring board to launch a specific youth focused phone in Japan called Joy phone.

The youth of today are highly creative, one or other things we have done around the region in the last 12 months is we have developed the Nokia A peg youth awards. All about nurturing creativity amongst the youth. We ran them regionally, one of the key things we do is create synergy all around the region with as many things as possible. We asked the youth of Asia to share their vision of their future through their art. This was resounding success through out the region. Basically it allowed the youth to interact with Nokia in a very expressive and personal way and we had thousands of entries through out Asia Pacific. 

Another thing we do in many markets are, this is Singapore, example, we hold Nokia concerts and the way to get into these concerts is to be a Nokia mobile owner. So, it's all about getting used to being loyal to Nokia. 

We have done them in Taiwan, we also have some interesting things in we do in certain markets such as, entry into funky hip night spots in key cities, the only was you can enter on a certain night is to be a Nokia hand phone owner. Or if you are Nokia hand phone owner you get in without paying the cover charge. So, all about creating this club feel to people who own Nokia mobile phones. In keeping with this we delivered concerts that showed that we really understood the youth and there were concerts were the latest bands at the particular time. And probably the most exciting thing we did through out 1999 and into the first part of this year was launch a flagship model of Nokia 8210. We spent many many months developing this strategy for this project, developing the tag line and developing advertising that really communicates to the youth, in a way that is fashionable however, you know shows understanding of what makes the products fashionable. 

So, we did not just say the product was fashionable, we showed it through our understanding of what fashion is. You could not simply state it was fashionable; you had to give the product a fashionable attitude. I just present now with the Live with passion campaign. 

The way Nokia work in Asia is that they have a centralized marketing approach. So all the work you've seen is developed in a center of excellence which happens to be Singapore and then it comes out around the region for one of the key things for Nokia to be established, is certainly a global brand equity but also very much starting point i.e. original brand equity. So, we want people who live in India, if they travel to Australia they want to have the same feeling about what the Nokia brand means. 

So, we create these advertisements in Singapore, in the center of excellence and all the marketing communication tools and then what we do is we tailor them for local markets only at the level of the local talent in execution. There is some degree of local marketing as well for some campaigns. But very much the key criteria for Nokia is to have a synergistic brand no matter where you go all around the region. So, in terms of the impact and success of Nokia's used strategy and success captivating the youth, users of Nokia phone are highly brand loyal.

So, marketing is key and is a fundamental element of the all the activities we do in this part of the world. The key is we have to capture them for life. If you are a Nokia owner once, chances are you will continue owning Nokia into the future.

Had a great year and it's been a terrific success over the last three years with Nokia becoming the number one most preferred brand in 12 Asian. Very much the strongest preference as a brand. We won an award of MTV's most visible brand in a survey last year and also with other accolades around the region, such as super brands. So you know, with our youth strategy we feel we are going in right direction and Nokia hand phone is to Asian youth their most treasured possession as not everyone has one yet or their most inspirational item.