Marketing to teens

Personal Care Product Marketers Reach for a Teeny Edge
http://kellerfay.com/?page_id=143
Extracts: “If you can hook teens when they’re young, you have a customer for a lifetime,” said Matt Britton, chief of brand development at Mr. Youth, a marketing firm.

About two-thirds of teens are loyal to brands they like, according to Harris Interactive, a market research firm. Forrester Research has found that more than 60% of teens ages 15 to 17 will remain with their bank after they graduate from high school and recommend it to friends.
Nearly half of teens talk about personal care and beauty products, compared with just 29% of the general public, according to a study by research firm Keller Fay Group.

Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble Co.’s strategy to get free samples into the hands of cheerleader Jessica appears to have had its intended effect. “I used Dove [deodorant] once, but ever since I got the little Secret ones, I use those,” she said.

Giving away products can backfire when people have a bad experience with them. Brooke Morgan, 13, said she received a sample of Suave deodorant but wasn’t happy with it. And bad word gets out: Keller Fay found that teens are slightly more likely than the general public to dis a product if they don’t like it.