One in a Billion: China's Youth Yearn for Individuality

Almost from the moment Beijing won the rights to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, China has been in the global spotlight -- and the country's citizens have been bombarded with marketing campaigns, many from non-Chinese companies, focusing on the event and targeting a sense of national pride. The younger Chinese generations are of particular interest in these campaigns, one reason that Bergstrom Trends, a research firm looking to dispel misconceptions and educate marketers, recently conducted its first-ever study of that demographic's lifestyle.

"When we first came to China [about a year and a half ago], I saw the youth and the marketing that was directed towards them," says founder Mary Bergstrom, in an interview with destinationCRM. She describes the mission of her company, which is based in China, as providing insight that would help marketers create better products and messages that might win favor among the country's younger consumers. For the study, entitled "The Birth of Individuality," her company surveyed and interviewed 100 Chinese between the ages of 15 and 25 -- an age range Bergstrom selected, she says, because it comprises the period when Chinese start to exhibit (and have the spending power to act upon) brand preferences.

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