A marketer's guide to Hong Kong's Rubberband Generation

BRAIN BITESDDB Group Hong KongWhite Paper SeriesIssue 2November 2014

BRAIN BITESIssue 2November 2014 “The men who are going to be in

business tomorrow are the men who understand that the future, as always, belongs to the brave.”

- Bill Bernbach

This issue of Brain Bites aims at getting a deeper understanding of what makes Hong Kong youth tick. From July to September 2014, two consecutive waves of research have been conducted by Benjamin Aryanto, Eden Boulanger, Eibhlin Catherine Crowley & Lingyun Li from the University of Melbourne and Mic Chan & Stephanie Lin.

Based on a total of 26 in-depth interviews and 273 online surveys with Hong Kong youth aged between 15 and 25, we provide implications for how marketers best can connect with young Hong Kongers.

The analysis and conclusions drawn in this paper have also greatly benefited from inputs by Georgy Strakhov and Kenny Wong.

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179, 000, 000; that’s the number of Google search results you get when looking for the keyword combination ‘Marketing + Youth’. Every month, hundreds – most probably thousands of studies, articles, infographics and opinion pieces are published in an attempt to unlock the secret to successfully communicating with young consumer groups. It seems fair to say that the marketing and advertising industry is obsessed with Millennials, Generation Y, Homelanders, the Post-Generation, or whatever other names have been given to the post-Baby Boomer consumer segments and sub-segments.

Like everyone else, we at DDB Group Hong Kong recognise the potential of young people and want to identify effective and efficient ways to connect with the consumers who will drive the economy in the decades ahead. Like everyone else, we want to find an answer to the question: “What can brands do in order to truly matter to youth?”

Unlike everyone else, we did not turn to professional researchers or traditional methodologies to uncover an answer to this question. We instead applied a participatory approach that involved experts who actually live the topic of interest – youth themselves.

From uninvolved research to involved solutions

Youth participatory research has been implemented across various disciplines, especially by policy-makers and youth-serving organisations. However, within a marketing context, such methodology is relatively unexplored. This seems rather odd as involving those closest to the issue in the formulation of research questions, as well as the strategies to answer them, can only improve the overall quality of the investigation by generating more reliable data and improving data interpretation – as Powers & Tiffany from Cornell University explain.

So, in order to get a deeper and more meaningful understanding of youth, who we defined as 15-25 year olds, we recruited University students from Hong Kong as well as from overseas, not to collect data for what we believed the

project should look like, but to design and shape what they believed the final output of the process should accomplish.

Thus, as first step in our investigation process, we needed to change the brief, from ‘what can brands do in order to truly matter to youth’ to ‘what can brands do in order to truly matter to YOU’.

HK youth’s aspirations

As marketers, we aim at inspiring behaviours, which is only possible when you’re equipped with insights into your audience’s aspirations - because ultimately, it’s people’s aspirations and desires that drive their actions and interactions.

Based on a review of existing research on Hong Kong youth, a combination of qualitative interviews and two waves of online surveys, our youth research & consultant teams have identified 8 major aspirations that drive Hong Kong youth behaviour.

1. Family Harmony: the desire for mutual respect and emotional connectivity amongst family members

2. Meaningful Friendships: the desire for sincere and non-superficial relationships with peers

3. Financial Stability: the desire for not having to worry about money issues

4. Emotional Independence: the desire to be free from parent’s pressure and expectations

5. Cultural Identity: the desire for cultural belonging

6. Social Impact: the desire to be able to affect positive social change

7. Self-Actualisation: the desire to find a profession not just for monetary but also emotional reward

8. Competitive Edge: the desire for high individual achievements that improve one’s competitiveness

A marketer’s guide to Hong Kong’s Rubberband Generation


by Andreas Krasser, Timothy Wong & Ronald Lee

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BRAIN BITESIssue 2November 2014

We applied a participatory research approach that involved experts who actually live the topic of interest – youth themselves.

Coining a new term: the Rubberband Generation

Our contribution to what Spark’s Scott Hess calls the generational naming derby is ‘The Rubberband Generation’. After having identified HK youth’s key aspirations, it became obvious to us that many of them represent conflicting values and interests. And not only amongst, but also within the key aspirations, we saw diverse sets of tensions arise. This implies that young people in Hong Kong are quite often experiencing inner struggles, being stretched like a rubber band between opposing believes and motivations.

Here is a more detailed look at the three main tensions we have identified.

A. Family vs. Self Thinking of young people in general, one would assume that the influence of friends outweighs the influence of family – but to our surprise, we found that the opposite is true for young people in Hong Kong. In our first wave of online surveys, we found that 60% of the respondents regarded family opinions as ‘extremely important’, while only 44% rated friends’ opinion to such a degree. We discovered additional proof of how important family is to this generation through our second wave of online questionnaires when we asked respondents following question: “If both

family and friends invite you for dinner at the same time, who would you choose?” More than 43% would choose family first, while only 26% would go eat dinner with their friends.

Yet, the dilemma Hong Kong youth find themselves in isn’t centred on whether to choose between family and friends, but whether to choose between family and themselves. The reason being, the ideal future parents have envisioned for their kids often stands in extreme contrast to the youth’s own dreams. While for their parents’ generation success is still defined in monetary terms, the Rubberband Generation acknowledges the need for financial stability but puts far more emphasis on finding a profession that they enjoy doing. Through our second wave of online surveys, we learned that 39% of the respondents ranked ‘personal interest’ as the most important factor in a job, followed by ‘stable income’ at only 19%.

In an attempt to avoid discrepancies between them and their families, many young people create dual personas; they basically end up projecting a different self when they are in front of their parents, which places a strong psychological burden on them.

B. Together vs. Together Alone According to We Are Social, Hong Kong’s

The Rubberband Generation acknowledges the importance of financial stability but puts far more emphasis on finding a profession they enjoy doing.

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Source: DDB Group Hong Kong Millennials Project, 2014


social media penetration lies at 71% and its smartphone penetration reaches 63%, with people spending an average of 128 minutes per day using mobile internet. 80% of our respondents think that their lives are inseparable from digital technology. Based on these numbers, you could argue that we’re far beyond the point discussing whether digital is an integral part of HK youth’s lives or not. It is only when you accept this fact that you start to realise a far more interesting truth: In our in-depth interviews, we uncovered that for young Hong Kongers, meaningful & non-superficial relationships with friends have a significant impact on overall happiness. Yet, a face-to-face conversation, the most obvious choice of communication aiming at deepening relationships, was perceived as being too confrontational at times. As a matter of fact, more than 40% of our survey respondents admitted to regularly communicating with someone via messenger services who is in the same room with them.

Now, much research has been conducted showing that our wired society is actually becoming more disconnected and as a result of that many advertising campaigns over the last couple of years have tried to change our behaviour for the “better”. Coke’s ‘Social Media Guard’ and Durex’s ‘Turn off to Turn on’ campaigns are just a few recent examples of this ‘disconnect to connect’ trend in advertising. However, the far more interesting question coming out of our research is ‘how can brands utilise digital and social in order to help young people deepen their relationships with each other?’ and not ‘how can we get young people to put down their phones?‘ If you’ve ever taken the MTR in HK, you know that this is an impossible thing to achieve.

C. Idealism vs. Pragmatism Idealism and Pragmatism are by definition two opposing principles. When it comes to Hong Kong’s Rubberband Generation however, the lines are blurrier than one might think.

In light of Hong Kong’s most recent pro-democracy movement, it became very obvious to the whole world how important it is to the city’s young people to affect positive social change. Also, as Inglehart

explains, the more developed a culture is in economic terms, the more its society will focus on post-materialistic ideals such as social welfare, human rights & the environment. Apart from generational differences in opinions and the resulting arguments between Hong Kong youth and their parents, such a set of liberal values also creates internal tensions: While strongly believing in their ideals, the Rubberband Generation at the same time pragmatically accepts certain realities related to financial stability and the workplace. 76% of our second wave respondents for example, developed the habit of saving money to be prepared for more rainy days. During our in-depth interviews we also found that many of the interviewees highly stress the importance of acquiring certain knowledge and skills in order to be able to live an independent life. As one of the respondents put it: “It’s Hong Kong! Of course you gotta be competitive!’

What does this mean for brands?

We all know how interesting it can be for brands to resolve cultural tensions, big names like Apple and Nike have repeatedly shown us why. Now, we could just tell brands that want to connect with Hong Kong youth to simply try to resolve the tensions identified above, but that wouldn’t really help anyone. Knowing your audiences’ struggles and inner conflicts does not yet give a brand the right to come to the rescue. After all, people only

“It’s Hong Kong! Of course you gotta be competitive!”

- Interview respondent

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accept help and support from someone they trust. And trust isn’t easy to come by - it needs to be earned over time.

So rather than giving rushed implications from a marketer’s perspective, we wanted to provide brands with a set of strategic recommendations on how to earn young people’s trust that come directly from the source. The following strategies were therefore developed by our youth researchers and consultants and are formulated as first-person demands.

4 strategies to connect with HK’s youth – directly from the source

1. “Sell us memories, not products!” This isn’t new news. In a world where brands are not only competing against other brands within the same category but basically against any sort of content (branded or unbranded) out there, marketers and advertisers cannot always just focus on products, products, products. Young Hong Kongers tend to choose memories and experiences over materialistic belongings. 32% of our survey respondents found experiences such as travel the most worthwhile to spend their money on, followed by education at 15%. Fashion products and luxury items came in at only 3% and 1.2% respectively.

When Volkswagen in Hong Kong, for example, launched the New Polo, they could have simply done so by pushing out messages about the new car and its features. Instead however, Volkswagen decided to give P-Platers in Hong Kong a useful and memorable experience that helped them overcome their fears and gain more confidence in their driving skills. The idea was simple: transform the test drive into the New Polo On-Road Training Program, with the mission to turn probationary drivers into professional ones.

2. “Show us that you stand for something and also act accordingly!” ‘If you stand for something, you will always find some people for and some against you. If you stand for nothing, you will find nobody against you, and nobody for you.’ Bill Bernbach’s words apply to Hong Kong’s Rubberband Generation more than anything else. Hong Kong youth don’t want dull brands that only convey a certain status – they want to identify with brands that have a strong point of view and also put their actions where their mouth is.

A great example for a brand walking the walk is McDonald’s ‘Our Food. Your Questions’ campaign. Consumers were encouraged to use social media to ask any question they wanted about the food, which were then answered in an honest

Young Hong Kongers tend to choose memories and experiences over materialistic belongings.

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and transparent fashion, using text, images and videos. The most provocative questions were amplified through television and also out-of-home, clearly demonstrating that McDonald’s took a stance and was not afraid of the answers.

3. “Help us make our voices heard!” If anything, the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong has shown us that youth here have something to say and are willing to go to any length to have their voice heard by the public. As natural extension, they are also utilising digital technology to form social concern groups and bring public attention to matters of their interest. So the big question is, how can brands play a role in this? What can marketers do to amplify the voice of youth even more?

A benchmark case for utilising technology in order to amplify people’s voices is the ‘Push the pin’ initiative by Tata Tea in India. During the lead-up to India’s 2014 elections, research showed that women were not intending to vote as they felt it would not impact the issues they face on a daily basis. Aiming at identifying and

raising these issues, Tata Tea launched the ‘Push the pin’ mobile and web application, which allowed users to submit details of issues they cared about and drop a pin in the location associated with the issue.

4. “Give us digital experiences that help foster & nurture our relationships! As mentioned above, Hong Kong youth will not turn their backs on digital technology, so brands shouldn't waste their efforts in trying to convince them to do so and practice more face-to-face communication. Whoever finds a solution for how to ‘connect to truly connect’, will be able to play an important role in young people’s daily routines.

Already back in 2010, Cornetto attempted to get people closer via digital, when the brand launched the Date Maker. Through an online game, teens were able to overcome their shyness, send an invitation via Facebook and hit the virtual town on their first date.

Whoever finds a solution for how to ‘connect to truly connect’, will be able to play an important role in young people’s daily routines.

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Sources

DDB Group Hong Kong Millennials Project (2014)

Jane L. Powers & Jennifer S. Tiffany: engaging youth in participatory research and evaluation in Journal for Public Health Management Practice (2006)

Scott Hess: who will succeed the millennials? Let’s call them the Post Generation in: Adweek (2014)

Ronald Inglehart: modernization and postmodernization. Cultural, economic, and political change in 43 societies (1997)

WARC: www.warc.com

We Are Social: Asia Pacific digital overview 2014 on: SlideShare

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http://www.warc.com

DDB Group Hong Kong DDB Group Hong Kong (DDB, Tribal and RAPP) is united behind our founder, Bill Bernbach's belief, that creativity is the most powerful force in business. Today, we use that creativity to develop ideas that people want to play with, participate in, and pass on. We call this social creativity. DDB Group Hong Kong is one of the most awarded agencies in Hong Kong, leading in creativity and effectiveness. We were leaders at Cannes Lions in 2012, and 2013 and the Hong Kong Effies in 2012, 2013 and 2014. At Marketing’s Agency of the Year Awards 2012 we were named Creative Agency of the Year.

DDB Group Asia Pacific DDB Group Asia Pacific is cohesive collaboration of global businesses, including DDB (advertising), Tribal Worldwide (digital) Rapp (data-driven marketing and analytics) Interbrand (brand consultancy), DDB Remedy (healthcare and medical), Mango PR (PR and experiential) and Tracey Locke (shopper marketing). Comprising of 33 offices in 14 countries DDB Group Asia Pacific is part of the DDB Worldwide communications network and Omnicom Group.