Trendsurfing: UK Tribes (The Times)
By David Rowan
Are you a Grunger or an Indie Scenester? In your lifestyle choices and cultural tastes, where do you fit between Blinger and Bhangra Muffin? In an ever more fragmented youth culture, advertisers are struggling to keep up with the fast-shifting boundaries of social identity. In the days when there were simply teenagers - and later mods, rockers and punks - savvy marketers could neatly segment younger consumers in terms of a few broadly agreed musical and fashion styles. But how can they hope to reach the kids in any numbers now that the net and the iPod have encouraged contemporary youth identity to be expressed in a potentially infinite number of subcultures?
It is a challenge that has provoked particular concern in television, where it is proving tougher than ever to deliver advertisers a definable 14- to 25-year-old demographic. With the youth market breaking up into dozens of mutually exclusive "tribes", how could any brand manager hope to build committed consumer relationships?
Now Channel 4 is attempting to provide some answers. On the assumption that most young people will identify with a particular cultural tribe, the broadcaster has commissioned Ramp Industry to conduct research that would cast light upon these diverse tribes' preferences. Using online forums, group discussions, e-mail and SMS interviews, and the deposition of lifestyle journalists to find "street-level input", the agency's UK Tribes project offers a remarkably detailed glimpse into youth attitudes and trends. Its password-protected multimedia website, at uktribes.com, is not intended for public consumption. But - shh - Trendsurfing has been quietly peeking around to see what we can discover.
Some of the 23 tribes identified will be familiar: the Goths and Chavs, for instance. But what about the Nathan Barleys, the self-conscious trendsetters who favour original Eighties Sony Walkmans over iPods to show that they are ahead of the pack? Named after the channel's Hoxton-based comedy character, they are currently wearing "first-edition Jordan 5 trainers in a limited-edition Japanese colourway, paired with some Levi's 501XX 'big E' jeans and a John Smedley knit -though, chances are, by the time you've clicked to the next tribe this may have changed to a country-style tweed three-piece."
Then there are the Blingers, the celebrity-influenced materialist careerists who watch MTV Cribs and listen to Trevor Nelson on Radio 1. Note that Blingers contrast markedly with the Get Paid Crew, a Thatcher-inspired hip-hop-loving tribe inspired by self generated music successes such as MC Sway, and who typically come from disadvantaged backgrounds and seek to better themselves entrepreneurially.
There's an ulterior motive to this research, of course -to sell Channel 4 as the "social glue" whose programming "triggers conversation and crosses tribal boundaries". But by monitoring streets and skateparks, and with the resources to document its findings in video and audio interviews, the UK Tribes project is of interest to more than marketers. In the next year, it predicts, environmental worries will boost a tribe called the Activists, anti-consumerism will favour the Freeganists, and Olympic fever will prompt the rise of the Sports Obsessives. And if they're proved right, you read it here first.
(The Times Magazine, June 3 2006)
Are you a Grunger or an Indie Scenester? In your lifestyle choices and cultural tastes, where do you fit between Blinger and Bhangra Muffin? In an ever more fragmented youth culture, advertisers are struggling to keep up with the fast-shifting boundaries of social identity. In the days when there were simply teenagers - and later mods, rockers and punks - savvy marketers could neatly segment younger consumers in terms of a few broadly agreed musical and fashion styles. But how can they hope to reach the kids in any numbers now that the net and the iPod have encouraged contemporary youth identity to be expressed in a potentially infinite number of subcultures?
It is a challenge that has provoked particular concern in television, where it is proving tougher than ever to deliver advertisers a definable 14- to 25-year-old demographic. With the youth market breaking up into dozens of mutually exclusive "tribes", how could any brand manager hope to build committed consumer relationships?
Now Channel 4 is attempting to provide some answers. On the assumption that most young people will identify with a particular cultural tribe, the broadcaster has commissioned Ramp Industry to conduct research that would cast light upon these diverse tribes' preferences. Using online forums, group discussions, e-mail and SMS interviews, and the deposition of lifestyle journalists to find "street-level input", the agency's UK Tribes project offers a remarkably detailed glimpse into youth attitudes and trends. Its password-protected multimedia website, at uktribes.com, is not intended for public consumption. But - shh - Trendsurfing has been quietly peeking around to see what we can discover.
Some of the 23 tribes identified will be familiar: the Goths and Chavs, for instance. But what about the Nathan Barleys, the self-conscious trendsetters who favour original Eighties Sony Walkmans over iPods to show that they are ahead of the pack? Named after the channel's Hoxton-based comedy character, they are currently wearing "first-edition Jordan 5 trainers in a limited-edition Japanese colourway, paired with some Levi's 501XX 'big E' jeans and a John Smedley knit -though, chances are, by the time you've clicked to the next tribe this may have changed to a country-style tweed three-piece."
Then there are the Blingers, the celebrity-influenced materialist careerists who watch MTV Cribs and listen to Trevor Nelson on Radio 1. Note that Blingers contrast markedly with the Get Paid Crew, a Thatcher-inspired hip-hop-loving tribe inspired by self generated music successes such as MC Sway, and who typically come from disadvantaged backgrounds and seek to better themselves entrepreneurially.
There's an ulterior motive to this research, of course -to sell Channel 4 as the "social glue" whose programming "triggers conversation and crosses tribal boundaries". But by monitoring streets and skateparks, and with the resources to document its findings in video and audio interviews, the UK Tribes project is of interest to more than marketers. In the next year, it predicts, environmental worries will boost a tribe called the Activists, anti-consumerism will favour the Freeganists, and Olympic fever will prompt the rise of the Sports Obsessives. And if they're proved right, you read it here first.
(The Times Magazine, June 3 2006)
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