Segment the Teen Market by World View

Your teen consumers might be viewed as segmented by purchase prompts.

• Thrills and chills having fun and spending freely. Offer these teens adventure and luxury. 
• Quiet achievers courting approval from adults. Give them reasons for purchase they can take home with them. 
• Bootstrappers rehearsing for their future as adults. Before closing the sale, educate about the product category. 
• Upholders supporting traditional cultural values. If selling innovative items, describe the ways in which the new is a logical extension of the old. 
• World savers wanting to share what they have with others. They’ll respond well to promotions in which a portion of the purchase price is donated to a favorite charity. 
• Resigners, limiting their expectations from products they buy. Place more emphasis on protecting against losses than on enriching their current situation. 

     Your teenage retail shoppers will surely include a mix of the six segments and six motivation themes. In addition, few individual teens will be purely one of the six. Still, you’re likely to find a different mix in certain cultures than in others.
     Know what sells to teens. Compared to adults, they offer advantages as a market:

• Typically, their housing, food, and medical expenses are covered, so they’ve more discretion in spending what money they have. 
• Historically, parents will trim their own expenditures before cutting back on what’s spent on their children. 
• Teens have somewhat greater tribe mentalities and greater use of social media. They’re highly concerned with what their peers think of them, but at the same time, want to have a distinctive group of peers with whom they’re in constant contact. Buying merchandise and then spreading the word on the intenet come naturally. 

     One retailing tip does apply across all six categories of teens: Illinois and Minnesota researchers discovered that when teenagers are praised for their legitimate accomplishments, those teenagers become less likely to make foolish retail purchases.
     Retailers who come to know their teenage customers and then learn about their academic, sports, and other large and small victories can help create repeat shoppers for the long term by giving justified praise. The teens are bound to blush and stammer when praised, but they'll buy more wisely. Their families, and eventually the teens themselves, will end up appreciating you for this.

Click below for more: 
Profit from Resurgent Teen Market 
Build Self-Esteem of Your Teen Customers