Mediacology

Excuse my Italian, but I am so fed up with the kind of bullshit that marketers obsess about, such as the idea that brands should equal identity. Yes it’s true that teens want to belong to something and fashion provides the necessary codes for that association, but a brand is not a tribe, and anyone who wants to promote this idea should be exiled to a brandless netherworld, like a dark cave and a hand drum for company, so as to be deprogrammed of this silly and useless thought process. Spare us the brain cells, puhleeeze!

The following excerpt is from an article on teen marketing that exemplifies perfectly why this insanity has to stop:

How To Reach Teens? It’s All About the Brand:

“It’s typical,” said Anastasia Goodstein, founder of teen marketing site Ypulse.com, San Francisco. “Teens are going through a stage in their life where they are figuring out who they are. As they change their own identities multiple times, the brands adjust along with that. They can be completely in an Abercrombie phase and they switch to another group of friends, get into Emo music and are shopping at Hot Topic instead.”

Now, I don’t want to harp too badly on Goodstein because I think she has good intentions in terms of helping bridge adults and teens (you can read her book on the subject, Totally Wired). But it is the overall tone of the Brandweek article that makes me angry, especially the title, “What Teens Want? It’s All about the Brand.” As the research in the story points out, one third surveyed said the world would be a better place if there were no brands, yet kids still want their iPods. The article suggests that it’s the brand that is important here, but I disagree. The iPod is a great product: it helps you build and organize a soundtrack for your life. When I was a teen, music is what got me through my darkest moments. The key is not that Apple has successfully branded teens, it’s that teens gravitate towards authenticity, music being one of the few places where that exists in their lives.

So my suggestion is to not get caught up in whether or not brands are what teens care about but to assist them in deepening their life experience. Who gives a shit about Abercrombie or Hot Topic. Give them what they really want: love, respect, authenticity and cool tools to assist in their creative development.

Technorati Tags: brands