Blog 5: Visualizing Insights with Infographics

The consumer segment of teens and tweens, ranging from age 12-17, has always been a powerful segment for consumer product companies and retailers. Each year, teens and tweens account for massive amounts of spending on goods, yet a large majority of this segment is too young to drive or even own a credit card. Today's segment of teens and tweens are especially unique due to the environment in which they have grown up in. These teens and tweens are reliant on daily technology, are more connected than ever before, outpace all other age groups in social media use, and have become experts in the art of multi-tasking. The presence of so many technology channels amidst the daily lives of these consumers means that they are exposed to more information than ever before, creating a highly competitive environment for marketers. The infographic I created explores this phenomenon while offering strategic solutions through a multi-platform marketing approach.

There are 4 major sections of my infographic visual:

• "Teens of Today" Left Panel: This section outlines they key characteristics of today's segment of teens. As seen in the visual, multitasking and daily reliance on technology have become the new norm for this group of consumers. This essentially means these consumers are often very distracted because they are exposed to such an immense amount of information and noise on a daily basis. This creates a challenge for marketers to stand out amongst the competition in order to effectively reach this distracted audience. 
• "Motivators" Top Right Panel: This small section outlines the major influencers for teens and tweens when it comes to use of technology and shopping. When shopping for beauty and personal care items, teens and tweens use technology with two main objectives: save money and obtain special offers and deals. This segment is unique because they really value family and enjoy spending time with their family. In fact, 63% of the segment shops with family members. This creates a need for marketers to target not only the teens and tweens themselves, but also their parents who maintain the ultimate purchasing power for this segment. 
• "Multi-Platform Approach" Middle Right Panel: This section outlines teen and tween usage of various technology platforms. Due to the high usage of each of these platforms, marketers can effectively reach teens and tweens by creating integrated marketing communication campaigns that span multiple platforms. 
• "Implications" Bottom Right Panel: Based on the information found in the section above, the Implications section outlines strategic solutions to effectively use each of platforms displayed to reach teens and tweens. The Internet should be used to offer online deals to teens and tweens browsing the Internet to encourage in-store visits and purchases of the advertised products using the offer provided. Social Media should be used to promote the brand's current offers and promotions. Because teens use technology to save money and obtain offers for beauty and personal care products, they are likely to share the promotional social media blasts with their friends. The mobile platform can be leveraged to reach teens and tweens as they shop in stores through text messages since such a vast majority of this segment owns cell phones. Because teens are often too distracted to respond effectively to traditional marketing approaches, strategic product placement should be used with TV in order to reach teens and tweens through the television programs they frequently watch. Many teens and tweens use their peers as an information source for personal care and beauty product information. As a result, sampling would be a great way to create loyal brand advocates amongst the segment who can in turn influence their peers through positive word-of-mouth. 

Today's teens and tweens communicate through more platforms than ever before. To be effective in reaching this segment of technology-dependent multi-taskers, marketers must create marketing campaigns that are rooted in multi-platform approaches.