Brand Un-conscious

Temasek Polytechnic's survey on youth purchase behaviour uncovers the truth about brand vs. functionality. Phyllis Toh reports.

For youths, brand is king... or so we think. It seems marketers have been underestimating youths when it comes to being discerning and perceptive about the myriad of products and services in an increasingly saturated marketplace. In fact, popular belief states that youths tend to not employ rationality or practicality in purchase decisions and fret unnecessarily about the labels they slap on their shoes, gadgets, bags and literally, on their backs.

But the face-to-face survey, which was administered on 2,025 youths between ages 15 and 27, including students from secondary school, junior colleges, polytechnics, ITEs, universities and national servicemen, revealed surprisingly that only 53.4% of respondents agreed brand is most important when it comes to purchase decisions. And although majority (76.5%) follow high-tech and latest trends, 85.9% are quality-conscious and 86.2% study options before purchase - showing that youths do not blindly sought after what's new, hot and branded.

This translates to handphone purchases as well. 54.8% favoured functionality as the most important criterion whereas a mere 5.5% picked brand. Attesting to youths' practical mindset, only 24.8% said it is important for them to have the latest handphone model whereas 47.7% said it is important that their handphone has the latest features and functions. Interestingly, value-added services (VAS) are not perceived to be as important (51% do not use any VAS). The most popular VAS used is MMS (24.6%), followed by roaming (13.7%) and internet surfing (13%).

But while most agree handphone brand is not utmost important, majority of them stay reasonably loyal to their chosen brand with 61.7% saying they will not switch handphone brands easily. Further, 68% said they will tell others about their favourite handphone brand.

"Given the highly competitive environment of the mobile phone market in Singapore, it is a challenge for mobile phone companies to differentiate themselves as these products become increasingly more commoditized. Youths are a highly-informed group. They will balance their emotions with reasoning, especially for high-involvement purchases such as mobile phones. To stay ahead of the competitors, marketers will therefore need to create and promise more value - in this case, value that is relevant to youths - and deliver it beyond these consumers' expectations."  Arnold Tan, course manager for TP's diploma in marketing, said.

It seems the tussle between brand and functionality ends with brand taking the backseat. For now, it's up to marketers to woo young consumers by appealing to them the right way and ultimately get them to accept their marketing proposal.

 

[Box out]

Youths' Top 3 Brands in Singapore

1.   Sports Shoes Category

Nike, Adidas, Puma

2.   Casual Shoes Category

      Converse, Nike, Adidas 

3.   Bag Category

      Adidas, Nike, Crumpler     

4.   Watch Category

      Adidas, Fossil, Swatch

5.   Fast Food Category

      McDonald's, KFC, Long John Silver's

6.   Casual Apparel Category

      Topshop/Topman, Giordano, Zara

7.   Sports Apparel Category

      Adidas, Nike, Puma

8.   Desktop Category

      Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard

9.   Laptop Category

      Apple, Acer, Hewlett-Packard