GenDigital

Most Socially Responsible Companies & Brands

Environmental and social responsibility continues to be a focal point for college students. Students are showing a greater commitment towards those brands that are continually improving and contributing to the social issues they care about most. For an increasing number of students, social consciousness plays a part in purchase intent and brand loyalty. While two thirds of students believe it's important for everyone to become more eco-friendly and aware of environmental issues about six in ten students say they're actually interested in purchasing more eco-friendly and sustainable products. Generally speaking, the definition of social responsibility can mean lots of different things to students. With that said, as a follow up to last year's social responsibility Immersion we asked students once again to tell us what social responsibility means to them. Moreover, we also asked students to tell us who they thought the three most socially responsible companies and brands were.

Top Characteristics Of Socially Responsible Behaviors:

Eco-friendly/"green" practices - 84%

Ethical/responsible business practices - 73%

Charitable contributions/philanthropy - 71%

Community outreach - 56%

Hiring/labor practices - 47%

Most Socially Responsible Companies & Brands (First Mention)

1. Ben & Jerry's - 16%

2. Burt's Bees - 12%

3. Coca-Cola - 10%

4. Starbucks - 8%

5. Whole Foods Market - 7%

6. Patagonia - 6%

7. Kashi - 4%

8. Stonyfield Farm - 4%

9. Timberland - 3%

10. Seventh Generation - 3%

Where Did The Youth Vote Go?

There are lot of juicy words that can be used to describe yesterday's mid-term elections. Candidates spent a record amount of money advertising their messages across the air waves while the cable news networks featured non-stop coverage. Moreover, let us not forget about Facebook and the crucial role it played in the '08 elections. Yet, according to our Youth Trends Instant Feedback survey conducted yesterday with 858 college students between the ages of 18 and 23, only about one in ten (8%) said they planned on voting. This is in stark contrast to the 27% who said they voted in the '08 elections. What the heck happened? In two words: "turn-off." The single largest reason given to us by students who said they were not planning on voting yesterday was that they were essentially turned off either by the candidates, or more generally speaking politics in general. Although about four in ten students said they still support the president, about half said they felt he could be doing "a better job." Hmm, where did all that hope, enthusiasm and excitement go? With an ever growing list of supporting voter assets students can turn to via Facebook, foursquare, campus-specific, etc. planned voting still dropped precipitously. Incoming congressmen and governors take note, based on what we've observed, most college students pretty much think you're lame. 

Rogue French Trader Evolves To Cult Hero Status Among French Youth

I can't say it's a regular occurrence that we focus on the investment world. After all, most teens and young adults aren't exactly active traders and most, quite frankly don't really understand or care to understand for that matter, how the capital system works. Ok, all that said, we've been intrigued by communications and feedback from our relatively small, but growing group of proprietary panelists from France with respect to the much publicized reports and activities of a young trader working for the giant French investment bank Societe Generale. His actions have reportedly forced the bank to take a multi-billion dollar loss in the most recent quarter. If you've picked up a copy of the LA Times, NY Times or WSJ lately, you would have seen story after story vilifying him. Honestly, we didn't think much of it, since we really have absolutely nothing to do with the space. It wasn't until Tuesday of this week, that we picked up on a growing chorus from our university-level French panelists seemingly endorsing the trader as a cult hero. At that point, we got a heck a lot more interested by what we reading and hearing, so we dug a little deeper. It turns out in the past week, there have been fan pages created on Facebook that already have thousands of members (the overwhelming majority are French university students) who are essentially broadcasting their discontent with a financial and political system in France that they feel is both elitist and in their words "behind the times of the world's marketplace." Pretty strong feelings and thoughtfully considered words from a bunch of kids who just got their driver license's a couple of years ago? We dug a little deeper. It turns out that France's unemployment rate for recent university graduates is at historically high levels. It seems there was a time that just about every young person in France with a secondary degree was almost guaranteed employment upon graduation. The university students blame the loss of jobs on the surge of immigrants who have migrated to France in recent years seeking a better life. The posts we've received go on an on, but clearly there is a large social trend unfolding among France's youth population. We're both intrigued and concerned at the same time. How this post helps all of you do your jobs better in the world of youth marketing, well, honestly we have no clue at this point. But, at the same time, as international representation of the Youth Trends panel grows, we feel it is important to provide of all of you the occasional "pulse" of individual market segments. It's really fascinating stuff!

2008 Market Trends: The Reality of the "Green" Marketing Themes

Ok so we pretty much all know the environment is the top social concern among the youth market. Over the past year and a half it's hard to think of one blue chip marketer that hasn't introduced some sort spin on "green." It's been the bandwagon of all bandwagons. What many do not realize is that pro-environmental awareness and consciousness takes on multiple meanings for members of the youth market. Here's a dirty little secret: to date, the market has effectively preached a hell of a lot more than they have practiced. For this calendar year among those folks that have a burning desire to employ a youth-targeted "green" approach please keep in mind this very simple but powerful thought--it will do you a world of good to think about the 95% of the audience who strive to be 5% green as opposed to the 5% of the audience who is already 95% green. It sounds simple enough, but frankly speaking, we don't think a lot of companies are following the path of least resistance. Overly "green" is a turn-off for the majority of young people. They view it as superficial and over the top. Plus, those representative of the 5% who are already 95% green most likely live in a tree house, don't watch tv and make their own clothing, so if you think about it, they're probably not the ideal consumer segment for your products and services. Instead, shoot for the 95% with a keen almost indirect reference to green. 

Follow Up: Colorado State Editor Gets Admonished, But Keeps Job

After several hours of deliberations last Thursday evening, the independent review board at Colorado State University that has oversight of its campus newspaper, the Rocky Mountain Collegian, decided that although the paper's editor violated ethics policies, he would still be able to keep his job. I mentioned in the initial post that I had no opinion one way or the other with respect to forthcoming decision regarding the editor's fate, I was just happy to see Constitutional debates alive and well again on campuses. That said, I am somewhat disappointed to only see a handful of national media players pick up on this story. I have to imagine that it was a tremendously exciting time over the past week on campus of Colorado State for students and faculty members. To not see more traditional media outlets pick up on Constitutional conflicts like this recent action is really a shame, but I guess people would rather look at Britney going tanning an hour after giving up her kids.

Colorado State Campus Newspaper Editor Spurs National Debate

I am so happy the New York Times picked up on this story today. We first got wind of this controversy last week when a panelist from Colorado State sent us an email giving us a heads up on what was going down on her campus. Here's the deal...In responding to the now infamous "taser incident" that occurred on the campus of the University of Florida during a speech by former presidential candidate John Kerry, the editor of the Colorado State University campus newspaper wrote an expletive laced opinion piece criticizing the president Bush among others. The editorial whose original purpose was to generate some conversation in response to the tasing of University of Florida student Andrew Meyer, has instead lit an out of control blaze over the past week. Very candidly, we are thrilled. It is about time we start seeing students get passionate about macro social issues like free speech and politics in general. We aren't looking for Cal Berkeley of the 60s or 70s but it would be nice for us to see every once a while some student uproar over key issues, such as this one. We are not taking sides in anyway, we are just excited that the story and follow on stories are getting picked up and kids waking up today at Colorado State are talking about more than just last night's episode of Desperate Housewives. Please see for yourself by visiting the online version of the Colorado State campus newspaper, that a good number of these students are both articulate, thoughtful and passionate regardless of their stated opinions, which after covering the antics of Lindsay/Paris/Britney, is wildly refreshing. We will be following the outcome intently. A hearing on the fate of the editor of the paper is scheduled for October 4th. 

15-Year Old New Yorker Steps Into Pro-Environment Lime

A 15-year old New Yorker by the name of Avery Hairston is quickly making a name for himself and his pro-environmental organization, relightNY, by signing on high profile corporate sponsors and picking some nice ink. His organization's mission is simple and to the point: "to educate and inspire people to take action and live in ways that protect the earth's environment for current and future generations. One of Avery's initial objectives is to lower carbon emissions released into the atmosphere. To accomplish this, he proposes using a light bulb that requires less electricity than a regular old incandescent bulb. Through donations and corporate sponsors, relightNY plans to first distribute the energy efficient CFL light bulbs to lower income families in New York City. As the organization gains awareness and additional partners that can provide expertise and value, I would think they would look to repeat the action in other large U.S. cities. This is an incredible illustration of a social trend we've now been tracking for the better part of the year: instead of all lame nicknames bestowed on Gen Y (think the "me" generation, the unwired generation, hey, even our lame tag line, the digital generation) given the overwhelming social, political and economic importance of environmental-related issues, these guys and girls might just end up being most commonly referred to as the Green Generation, which is more than fine by me, because at some point in the not so distant future, someone will have to save our planet and who better than this 15 year old New Yorker to be our steward.

Greater Numbers of Gay Teens Coming Out

At first I thought this was just another "feel good" article in USA Today, and for the most part it is. You have to read the whole thing to actually get some additional perspective. Here's the deal. According to the article, today's generation of young adults are considerably more likely than previous generations to announce their homosexuality to peers and family members at an earlier age. The article points to several youth organizations that have formed supporting gay and lesbian teens. Thanks to the power of the Internet, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to seek one of these groups out if you're a teen from central Iowa as opposed to a major market center. The dissension on all of the openness regarding teen sexual orientation doesn't come in to the end of the article. It appears as if there is a law in the state of Georgia that requires schools to tell parents about the clubs and then allows then to cut of their child's access to the club. Some other southern states like Texas and North Carolina are lobbying to get a similar law passed. Interestingly enough, and we've spoken of the overall accepting attitude displayed by Generation Y, mainly based from their overall cultural diversity to begin with, you'll notice a sidebar in the piece where Gen Y is clearly the most accepting demographic segment nationally when it comes to homosexuality. 

Gen Y: Entrepreneurs in Action, May Be?

In case you didn't notice, the whole idea of entrepreneurship among Gen Y is big, or at least that's what the NY Times wants you to think. The story was fun to read for some comical relief, although, truth be told I am not taking it too seriously. Too many blanket statements are made and the examples used by the writer were, quite frankly, not demographically representative of the overall Gen Y population and thus, way, way off reality. To tell you the truth, I hate this kind of shit, because we'll end up getting a few calls and emails regarding "entrepreneurship and Gen Y" and have to attempt to clarify it and put it into some sort of context. Are there budding tween, teen and college businesses, yes, absolutely. Are you going to tell me that there was no such thing as a business idea launched by a college student twenty or thirty years ago? You've heard of Michael Dell and Bill Gates...right? Oh, and by the way (bad mood today), if you are going to use examples of teen run businesses, for the love of God, don't use the business started by the trust fund baby from Palm Beach who is attending a "New England" boarding school. If you want to get a more accurate depiction of today's college student who has career related stuff on his or her mind, check out what Business Week did.

Little Surprise With Agency's Trend Picks For '07

If you're like me and a little heavy eyed this morning and looking to "ease back into things" my suggestion would be not to start with JWT's 2007 Trend Report. Believe me, you won't miss anything. Their top trend picks for '07 include VoIP, social networking and next generation gaming systems. No offense (remember, still heavy eyed), but one of our 17 year old panelists could come up with that list.