Major urban youth trends, explained.

When it comes to youth-trends, a lot of people just can’t seem to get it right. The main misconception is that these trends are controlled and dictated by people/higher-ups/parent corporations, when the simple reality is that trends are something that youths develop themselves, as a means of communicating with one another. Keeping this key piece of information in mind, anyone interested in studying youth trends should understand that it’s more of a matter of honest conversation, and listening to honest opinions that cannot be bought. Let’s delve into three major urban youth trends and issues (banking, mobile, and education), and take them apart one by one.

Firstly, let’s talk about youth-banking, or youth-finance. Getting right down to the point, when it comes to youth and banking, 90 % of youths have no idea what banking is all about. That’s the cold, hard truth. The most common answer given when asked about youth banking is: “I don’t know, I just know that my bank can cash cheques, and a lot of their ATMs are available in a lot of places”. Youths have no idea what banks can do for them, the potential of growing their money, and so on and so forth. However, this “trend”, being ignorant about the benefits of healthy banking is not the fault of the youth of today. The fault lies with the banks, the suits and ties that have deemed the youth as “too young” to be concerned with any serious banking/finance issues. For instance, it is not uncommon for youths to be completely turned off when the receptionist offers them information on a “savings account”, or a “fixed deposit account”.

See, the thing about the “information” that young people are being offered by banks every day is that it’s completely old-fashioned. In today’s universe, information must be simple, relayed quickly, and most of all, it must relate to the youth in one way or another, in order to capture some attention. This means that the very system that has been used needs to be altered. This is no longer the age of 1’s and 0’s. To engage the youth, you must first and foremost speak the youth’s language. Instead of explaining rates and what not, it’s time to try explaining the benefits that affect them. For example, tell them how by banking with you, they will be able to afford their own car in three years. Or that how banking with you, they can achieve their target of affording the mortgage on their house eight years from now. See, it’s all about relating the benefits you offer to them, in a manner that they can understand. When they see that you’re actually trying to help them, they will be more open to suggestions.

The most important thing that banks don’t seem to get about young people is that, these young people aren’t going to be young forever. They are the future millionaires, and for that very fact alone, banks need to win their hearts over very quick. It’s a myth that youths have a mindset of not giving a damn about what banks have to offer, except for cheque-cashing, and ATMs. This has to be changed, because the banks’ future potential business hangs in the balance. Taking the time to

listen to what youths want, and helping to accommodate those needs is what’s going to win the game at the end of the day. Don’t assume that youths are not interested in banking. Hey, it’s money. Everyone’s interested in money. Instead, look for options/efforts that you can make to spread the education. (For more info on youth-banking, visit http://www.slideshare.net/trendstrackerasia)

Secondly, let’s take a look at the topic that’s currently hot on everyone’s tongues: Youth Mobile. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no expert on mobile. In fact, far from it. But I AM a youth, and I can speak for the millions of us that live in Malaysia when I say this: “We need to stay connected to the web, no matter where we are”. It’s true. In fact, perhaps the biggest nightmare of urban youths is to be caught dead without our essential communication tools. Come on, this concept is extremely easy to grasp. We live in the age of facebook and twitter. Everyone needs to be connected with everyone else, it’s not rocket science. A couple of years ago, when mobile broadband hit the scene, colleges all over Malaysia just exploded with broadbands. In fact, it got really annoying at one point, when there were too many broadband users in the same place that the speed would just get really, REALLY slow.

But now, data-provider giants such as MAXIS have ingeniously introduced smartphones with a very cheap start-up rate, which has seen an explosive growth of smartphone users in Malaysia, especially amongst the youth. See, when it comes to trends with youths, like I mentioned before, it’s really simple. If your brand offers to provide us with a connection to other youths, it will become a trend. This doesn’t JUST apply to electronics, either. I might be going a little off-topic here, but remember skinny jeans? Those god-awful jeans allowed millions of youths all over the world to connect with each other, through clothing-styles. The same phenomenon is happening with youth mobile. Blackberries and iPhones nowadays are selling like hotcakes with the youth, because not only do they provide obvious telecommunication and data-plan services, but they also allow youths to connect on a ‘group’ level. It’s easy, if most of your friends use blackberries, then you’d probably be influenced into buying one. The same goes for iPhone. This is why the Blackberry and iPhone are the two top competitors in the youth mobile market, because they bring along a certain “status” with them, which many youths want, in order to connect with the people that they care about.

See, Blackberry and Apple know what they have to do to win over the market, and even when they don’t, a lot of their fans do. The concept is simple. Even though Apple is very, VERY guarded about their software, programming fans of Apple all over the world have jail-broken the iPhone, which allows it to run different apps/software for free. Because of this fact, and not in spite of it, iPhone sales have sky-rocketed in Malaysia. It’s the MICROSOFT WINDOWS effect. According to Bill Gates (forgive me if I’m going off-topic again), after a massive piracy problem in China, he admitted to the fact that “well, if they’re pirating software, I’d rather it was Microsoft”. This is due to the fact that when it’s easily accessible and easily connected, it will catch on as a trend,

which means; above any other “problems” that you think may arise from the situation, immediate and massive recognition, which is worth a lot more than what your money can buy. As the saying goes, one good review from a friend is a hundred times more powerful than whatever your paid public speaker can come up with. See, a good review always comes from the heart, never from the wallet.

See, this is why companies like Nokia are seriously losing out on the youth market. I can’t speak for the US or Europe, but over here in Malaysia, this is the situation. Nokia, at one time the heavyweight of mobile, can no longer provide the youth with a connection to other youths. It’s sad to see Nokia’s presence within young people dying off, but what’s even sadder is that Nokia has a lot of tools at their disposal to remedy this, but they’re not aware of it. Nokia still has a solid fan-base, I’m talking about those old-school, Nokia fanatics. Instead of focusing on acquiring new consumers, Nokia should concentrate on what they already have on their hands, and work from there. Retention is the new Acquisition. Engage the fans and ask them how they can make the product better. Involve them in the entire process, and you will be rewarded with a final product that actually appeals to the youth of today. This is what Nokia needs to do. Quit the conventional marketing strategies, admit that they’re dead, and move on to try something new.

Get this. Youths always, ALWAYS trust their tight-knit group of friends more than anything else in the world. This means that when trends are set, it is because the consent of a majority of the members of the youth community is given. It doesn’t matter what we see in ad campaigns, it doesn’t matter how many brochures or flyers we’re handed out, it always comes down to the opinion of our peers. This is the key-factor in youth trends. We do what we want to do, because it pleases our peers, which in turn pleases us. If that sounds shallow, then I’m sorry, you’re completely missing the point.

Finally, let’s take a look at Education. Now, being a fresh diploma student out of college, I don’t think I have any authority to speak about education. But chances are, what I think, or what I have to say on this subject is pretty similar to what millions of other youths have to say about it. Why? Because I’m one of them. So here’s the deal. All over Malaysia, millions upon millions of teenagers are given the same warning by their parents. You either do well during your SPM, or I heard Alam Flora’s doing some recruitment next year. Kids have always been studying out of fear, and for the rest of us that gave hope early on, we just floated by during all those classes, hoping to scrape enough to at least go to a respectable University or College. Once we finally graduate from high school, there’s always the dilemma of choosing between diplomas, foundation-programs, A-levels, STPM, so on and so forth. Then we have to choose which University. Then we have to choose the course. And so on and so forth.

See, this is the major, major problem that our country is facing with education. The system splits everyone up into two major streams when we’re 16, science and arts. For some extremely biased reason, the government thinks that kids who score high during PMR are interested in science, while kids who don’t score that high are into arts. Which then begs the issue that science is for smart kids and arts is for dumb kids. Not only is this notion horrendously untrue, it is also a major insult towards artists all over the country. This is at the very core of all the flaws of the current education system. Segregating kids based on who you think is “smart”, and who you think is “not-so-smart” is definitely not the solution to a better economical future for the country.

What a lot of the higher-ups fail to recognize is the fact that a lot of these kids, no matter what they score on their SPM or otherwise, usually have pure, raw talent. Not necessarily in the scientific world, but the talent is definitely there. See, urban, European countries like Germany, they set up the education system so that it works to nurture the students. The system is designed to fit in with the students, not the other way around. At certain ages during the schooling years, the students are asked what they want to learn. From early on in life, they are given the opportunity to choose what they think is interesting, as opposed to what everyone else wants them to study. See, the problem here is, with Malaysia, our very definition of “smart” is wrong. As a youth, I’ve been through the system, not all that long ago. The system is designed to weed out who they believe are “smart”, enroll them in a science-based curriculum, and voila, a Good Samaritan is born. What about the rest of us? The ones who couldn’t prove our talents on eight pieces of paper that would determine the future we would have? It’s not fair that these talents do not get nurtured.

Although it’s not perfect, you can see where the system is pretty simple. After the education system has given out a blueprint on what “smart” youths are, parents also get caught up in the fad. This is where thousands of dollars in tuition fees, extra classes, and home-tutoring come in, to force their children to learn something that hell, they don’t even want to learn. When there’s no interest, there’s no passion. When there’s no passion, there’s no heart. And where there’s no heart, it just won’t work. This is the message that youths everywhere, urban or suburban, are trying to put out. For once, listen to the voice of the youth, because we are the country’s future. The youth of this fine nation is what determines who, where, and what this country will be in 20 years’ time. The higher-ups who designed the system are not “wrong” per se, but it’s just that they’ve been following a system that DID work 30 years ago, but not anymore. The time for change has come, and those who fear change, will just get swept aside by the sands of time.

Now that you see what the current urban youth trends are regarding this topic, hopefully these matters will be looked more deeply into them. Again, it’s not a matter of what you think or what I think; it’s a matter of what we both think. The problem lies in the fact that we listen, and we’ve been listening all our lives, but no one else wants to reciprocate that favor. Just, something to think about.