Is that being Heartless?
Is being heartless a disqualification?
I don’t want to pass a value judgment about these but let me tell you folks that a large strain of the current youth & young adult crop is just this.
They
Do more; feel less,
Want more; give less,
Lust more; love less,
Night more; day less
This could be attributed to the grooming & and the times that they are living in.
A large number of young boys and girls come from smaller families that pampered them more than any kid in their family tree had ever been in the past. Thus these kids have come out to be more full of self-love and take a lot around them for granted. They have learned to receive but forgotten to give.
Feeling is no more as big a virtue.
Also, these times of rapid change, opportunity & exposure make them less of feelers and more of doers. Smirnoff’s ‘Life is calling where are you.’ captures this rather well, just that the Indian youth might not relate to the nuances as well.
Another aspect of this crop is to do with their love for form over content.
“I don’t like Abhishek Bachhan in Guru – such a sad ‘look’ he has in that film.”
This is 19-year-old girl from Pune commenting on what she thinks of the Junior B ‘today’.
I am not trying to point at that how good or bad the film or the actor in it is.
There is something else in what the girl said that I would like to attract your attention to. There are two important words in her statement viz. ‘look’ & ‘today’. These two words are symbolic of the youth sentiment. This generation is more driven by the look one carries at a given point in time than how the person really looks. This is something that the grooming industry (from colour cosmetics to apparel manufacturers) has understood very well now.
Proliferation of media (Instant messaging over net & text messaging over mobile phones), increased pressures on time (friends, college, tuitions, distances, ambition, dance classes the list is endless) leaves them with precious little time in the day and thus days longer and linger into the night. All this keeps them awake for longer. Are youth marketers gauging the shifting primetime for this generation? There could be novel ways of reaching out to these ‘nocturnal’ boys and girls!
Do it, they won’t wait,
Give it they won’t thank,
Flirt, they are not feeling,
Wake up they are not asleep yet!
8 comments:
Great post. The 'Guru' comment is so true. I overheard the exact same thing being said by a girl here in Abu Dhabi, the first thing after the film. The exact words were 'Such a ghati, he looks like. Chee!'
This Indian obsession with looks was really kickstarted in the year Aishwarya won the Miss World. I tend to think Miss World pageants are decided by the marketing strategies of the biggest 'grooming' companies in the world. If you had to do a quick study on where the Miss Worlds tend to come from, I think you'll see that a lot of them happen to be from emerging markets for global beauty care brands.
Uber actually this is something very similar to which country will do well in soccer World Cup being decided by the footwear brands. Brands (Marketing strategists) generally tend to associate themselves with events which will give them a strong foothold in a particular market. Insightful post Saurabh.
I also believe soccer and other sports event winners are determined by which viewers/consumers are likely to tune in more if a particular team does well/wins.
Speaking of sporting looks, it's going beyond beauty and fashion even i think. The boho phase, the urban geek phase, the chilled out traveller phase... It's about the music you're listening to, the drink you choose, the place you're hanging out with.. ur cell fone and mp3 player is as much of a statement as ur haircut and fash shoes now...
I thought most strategist use a media neutral approach (strategy)when it comes to sportswear marketing.
Though media plays an important role in shaping up a trend based on the fashion/looks of the sports star. Eg. Beckham and Dhoni with their hairstyle (as Fink puts it). For that matter Rahul Bose, Rugby and Toughie Fashion (strip tee, shorts) is quiet popular in India. But true young India is more narcissistic than the previous generation.
you are writing good stuff, Saurabh :)
a good article written u seem to have assesed us youth well...but there r some youths still in india (not only the metros)who care ,who work hard 7 every one has the right to give their opinions so wats wrng if the girl didnt like ab 'jr..in guru?
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