In February 2008, PepsiCo India launched a new advertising
campaign dubbed `Youngistaan' featuring Ranbir Kapoor and
Deepika Padukone along with superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The
insiders at PepsiCo referred to the campaign as yet another
attempt at showcasing the `GenNext' attitude. "The
Youngistaan idea captures the energy, excitement and irreverence
of the young, confident India", observed Punita Lal,
Executive Director, Marketing, at PepsiCo India. Over the
years, PepsiCo has constantly wooed the youth with witty,
humorous and entertaining advertisements with catchy slogans
and has thus strongly established itself as a durable youth
brand globally.
In India, while there have been some brands like MTV, Hero
Honda, Café Coffee Day and with PepsiCo that have
targeted the youth right from day one of their operations,
there have been some like Titan, Motorola and Pantaloons
that have customized their offerings and communication strategies
in order to appeal to the youth. These latter brands underwent
significant repositioning so that their identities were
acceptable to the Indian youth. But why are brands (both
Indian and global) so particular about targeting the Indian
youth? Effective marketing to the youth has been found to
not just ensure sustainability for a brand but also lead
to exponential growth in terms of equity and brand value.
PepsiCo is one example that can be cited in this context.
Therefore, we first take a look at one of the most potential
segments in the Indian marketing arena, i.e., the youth.
India has a huge youth population with 11 crore people
in the age group of 15-19 years. There are another 10 crore
who are in the age bracket of 20-24 years. Around 72% of
the country's population is below the age of 35. The statistics
thus show the sheer potential of the youth segment and the
business that it can offer to any marketer if it is targeted
effectively. There is a distinct difference between the
youth brigade of today and that of the 1970s and the 1980s.
At that point of time, the youth population was more or
less homogenous in terms of attitudes and sentiments. But
as far as the present youth population is concerned, there
are several sub-types of youths, which makes the task of
targeting the youth a challenging one for any marketer.
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