Do you often feel like those young savvy-shoppers are outsmarting you? Despite your free giveaways and trendy image, teens and college students refuse to sign on the dotted line, and ensure decades of brand loyalty. Why? Let's take a closer look at traditional means of securing the 'perfect loyal customer.'

There are two key tricks for gaining undying love from your customers. First, give a regularly ordinary product an identity that inspires loyalty and passion. Granted, depending on your product/service, this may be an easy or difficult task. (I have yet to hear someone speak passionately of a toilet bowl cleaner). However, McDonald's Golden Arches, and Nike's swooshing success provide the perfect models. A clearer example may be found in the phenomenon of Sony's Walkman. Initially marketers attempted to sell the gadget under different names, like the Soundabout in the U.S. and the Freestyle in Sweden. However, once the name Walkman was solidified across the globe, Sony, already a formidable brand, found itself with an icon on its hands. Secondly, a customer's decision to be loyal or to defect depends on the sum of many small encounters with the company/product. Customers need to feel that their satisfaction was not merely a fluke occurrence.

It's not that these traditional means are obsolete, but rather that the rigorous standards that teens apply to these factors have set companies struggling to make the grade. What exactly is a brand identity that incites passion and loyalty? A cool logo, risqué advertising campaign, or the visage of a funky little underground operation are no longer tricks that work to capture youth consumer spending. Youths are not looking for the latest trends. Rather, they seek products and services that can help them in the long run. Most appropriately, this buying behaviour has been termed 'pragmatic consumerism.'

The most successful brand identities are those that exude a quality of being 'genuine.' To help explain this statement, let's consider the recent attempt of Adidas to launch an "alternative" sports lifestyle brand called DAS, as a means to compete with the alternative athletic-comfort wear of brands like Modrobes. We all know that's not Adidas - a brand traditionally associated with athletics, not alternative lifestyle wear. Young consumers are intelligent about purchases and services. Much like a game of investigative reporting, teens are more than aware of the source of spin-off pretender brands. In order to gain youth loyalty, companies should attempt to assert strong, but true brand identities. For instance, many college girls are devoutly loyal to Body Shop products.

One reason for their continued support is the company's consistent product offering shampoos and lotions not tested on animals, natural scents, relatively affordable prices, and the promotion of positive social messages. Marketing to the youth market is no longer a surface-oriented activity, but requires delving into deeper concerns and issues. A brand must stand for durability, quality consumer support, and multi-purpose utility.

The name of a product/service must have behind it an actual product/service worthy of passion and loyalty. Be assured, teens and students are willing to do their homework before dishing out the dollars. Therefore, the importance of continual quality customer service and satisfaction cannot be over-stressed.

Furthermore, companies should be aware that the lure of free products is not a sure-proof way of gaining loyalty. How many times have we seen free promotional products passed through the college bar, or a frosh-parade? There is one unchanging human truth: if you give it away, they will take it. However, while students will grab anything that is free and possibly recognize your brand, they won't develop brand preferences. Remember, it is the 'Free Factor' and not the name that has lodged itself in the young mind.

Trends are time sensitive, and the great product of September 2000 will surely be shipped out by the Spring of 2001. The promiscuity of teenage shoppers is guaranteed so long as the appeal of your product/service depends on the crutch-effect of the latest trend. If you can provide a strong brand identity and flawless repeat customer service, it is well within your capacity to harness the immense power of the youth consumer market.

Perhaps the best example of this consumer behaviour is the purchasing of wireless devices. Teenagers have noted that if the price and functionality of plans are the same, companies have a slight advantage over competitors if they are perceived to have good reception, wide coverage and have stores with knowledgeable staff in convenient locations. However, youth have no qualms about upgrading to new phones as new functionality emerges or changing service suppliers as they find better plans. The greatest tip for acquiring teen loyalty is the creation of consistently innovative and dependable products that meet the market's every need.

Article by Joanna Erdman.