The Flux Generation

Understanding the cultural influences on tweens, teens and all that falls between.
Aug 1, 2008

Any adult raising an adolescent can tell you it's tough to get a good read sometimes. And with nearly 54 million U.S. children ages 8 to 19, marketers targeting these lucrative consumers have the same problem: How do they attract this tween and teen demographic?

Raging hormones are enough of a challenge to navigate, but today's youth also are immersed in an intense, constantly changing, integrating and upgrading technological society. They have to keep up with a sophisticated, in-your-face pop culture, so it's no wonder today's average kid has a short attention span and, often, a volatile personality.

Global brands and national retail chains spend a lot of money to research what drives the purchase impulse in teens and tweens. And even though custom apparel decorators don't sell directly to these kids via retail, you can bet your bottom dollar that style-focused kids influence what T-shirts and uniforms are ordered by coaches and parents.

So, Impressions has collected some teen and tween market research for you. In the following pages, we present the low-down on teen/tween trends in a visual style your young end-users would recognize.

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