Teen Consumer Culture in America
Teen years are for growing and self-discovery. Many things define your teen years, whether it’s school, your friends, extracurriculars, or the trends of that time. And all teens want to fit in and follow the latest trends. And while you were busy living the “best years” of your life, big American companies profited off your memory-making. Big American businesses continue to profit off the teenage demographic. Teens are impressionable and easy to market too, so as long as the younger generation has their own money to spend the pockets of big corporations will continue to grow. Consumer culture in the United States has been around for decades. But teens weren’t the main focus for businesses and marketers to
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From Facebook to the hugely successful music app TikTok, marketers and businesses can develop a relationship with their teen consumers right on the screens of their phones. “And as it turns out, the best way to successfully engage teens with your message is on their terms and their turf” (Schwartz). One app known as Snapchat has captured American youth's short attention span, with its short video clips and quick chat experience they have widely become one of the most used apps in the United States. Snapchat has also capitalized on its teenage audience, with its paid advertisement abilities. With 293 million users, companies can capture the attention of every teenager in America on their phone screens. “Throw in the fact that nearly 69% of teens use Snapchat daily”(Schwartz). This allows teens to easily buy and access products shown to them on their phones and it allows advertisers to reach an expansive audience in a split …show more content…
It is the most downloaded app in the world and has a huge audience of young adults. TikTok has a highly addictive concept with neverending short videos and a “For You” page that fits the user's personal preferences when looking at videos. TikTok grew in popularity over the quarantine period during the COVID-19 pandemic and grossed 1 billion active users. Users can spend hours and hours of endless scrolling on the app. This concept is perfect for marketers, with an audience of young adults in the US and in different countries, businesses can instantly connect with this certain demographic. A perfect example of a business using the TikTok app to connect with potential consumers is “Chipotle”. The southwestern food brand has a staggering 1.3 million followers on their page and has over 20.7 million likes in total on its videos. “Chipotle” has also used hashtags called “#LidFilpChallenge” and “#GuacDance” users can post videos using these hashtags. This promotes engagement with the company and brand awareness. However, TikTok also has its faults as well. Being very addictive as it is. Teens spend the majority of their time on the app. A high school called “Bishop Noll Institute” did interviews with their students and the downsides of the TikTok app. Other than spending most of their time on the app, students have said that they are easily influenced into buying new products. Freshman student Danielle