Why aren’t teens more excited about driving?

A car just isn’t what it used to be. Or rather, a car doesn’t mean what it used to mean - at least not for teens. Despite the sunroofs and Bluetooths and Bose systems and on-board navigation of 21st-century automobiles, Generation Yers aren’t revving their engines waiting to turn 16 and get their first taste of freedom and adulthood, according to a June 7, 2010, article in Automotive News titled, “Kids on cars: Who cares?”
Fewer teens and young adults are driving, and those who are driving are doing less of it. In 1978, nearly half of U.S. 16-year-olds and three-quarters of 17-year-olds had driver’s licenses, according to the Department of Transportation. By 2008, only 31 percent of 16-year-olds and 49 percent of 17-year-olds had licenses. The downward trend also holds true for 18- and 19-year-olds, as well and those in their 20s. Additionally, the share of miles driven by Americans ages 21-30 fell to 13.7 percent in 2009 from 18.3 percent in 2001 and from 20.8 percent in 1995, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

The real question is why more teens and young adults are content to wait out their licenses or perhaps not drive at all. Certainly the cost of buying, insuring and maintaining a car - not to mention fueling it, which costs as much as a gallon of gas did when Boomers were 16 years old - are deterrents, but there may be something bigger in play.

“I don’t think the car symbolizes freedom to Generation Y to the extent it did Baby Boomers or, to a lesser extent, Generation Xers,” said Sheryl Connelly, cultural trends tracker for Ford Motor Co. For Boomers, a car meant staying connected with the youth subculture, but these days the Internet and smartphones do the cultural connecting.

Another explanation could be the worker-bee mentality of a tight economy - and a long commute. When time is a limited resource, some would-be drivers might need the time spent commuting on a train to work, which is something that can’t be done when driving a car.

Social Mavens - profiling social-networking Boomers

Baby Boomers and social networking. It’s hard to tell if the hype around the pairing is anything more than just that, but research from San Francisco research company Continuum Crew suggests that the social networking-savvy Boomer - the unicorn of all things Web 2.0 - exists and can be reached. To be fair, 47 percent of older Boomers and 45 percent of younger Boomers are still not participating in any form of social media (with older Boomers behaving more like seniors/the silent generation and younger Boomers behaving more like Generation X), but the number of Boomers who are open to social media - and therefore reachable - is still in the 35-40-million range, according to a May 31, 2010, article in MediaPost written by Lori Bitter, president of Continuum Crew.

While social media isn’t catching on with Boomers at the lightning-fast pace it did with their younger counterparts, the time Boomers spend online has grown 62 percent in the past three years while they reported actually spending less time volunteering, reading magazines, reading newspapers, reading for pleasure, exercising, listening to the radio, spending time with a spouse and watching TV. Clearly, Boomer leisure activity is shifting toward online activities, but marketers have struggled to solidify the relationship between Boomers and social media.

To help companies engage the Boomer who is online and in social networks, Continuum Crew identified a segment of users called Social Mavens: Boomers who are connected, exploring and expanding networks daily. A marketer’s in with the Boomer generation lies with these Social Mavens who have significantly more frequent contact with individuals across all types of groups within their social sphere. This includes family members; political organizations; hobby or interest groups; religious organizations; social groups; neighbors; co-workers and former co-workers; and business contacts.

The Social Maven is most likely to be a younger Boomer (aged 45-54) and equally male and female, which is a surprise to many who think of women as the voracious social media consumers. Mavens are huge consumers of all types of media and also use more traditional media than the other segments, indicating a greater need for integration of online and offline engagement for companies who want to reach this segment.

Bland just won’t do - stronger flavors rev up Americans’ taste buds

Who wants jalapeno when you can have habanero? Recent flavor extensions to some American classics have shown that Americans’ palates are evolving to accommodate - and demand - spicier and more intense flavors. And food and beverage companies are turning to consumer taste tests as well as their labs to ensure that their new products and line extensions are aligned with adrenaline-chasing taste buds, according to Miriam Gottfried’s May 26, 2010, article, “A Taste for Hotter, Mintier, Fruitier: The Increased Craving for Intense Flavors Suggests That the American Palate is Changing,” in The Wall Street Journal. Most companies care about getting it right. When Dr Pepper Snapple developed its Dr Pepper Cherry soda, it tested 30 different cherry profiles with consumers, who judged the flavors on a nine-point scale and issued JAR (“just about right”) scores. Dr Pepper Snapple also added fruit punch and mango flavors to its line of Venom energy drinks, and Wrigley rolled out its Orbit gum in tropical flavors like Maui melon mint and mango surf to cater to this fruity trend. However, as people crave intensity in flavor, some traditionalists wonder if diners will become desensitized to natural flavors. Regular mangoes may taste bland when eaten next to mango-flavored gum or a mango energy drink.

The current flavor boom may seem like a major departure from the mashed potatoes, chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese and other unadventurous fare that have long been the mainstays of American cuisine, but the flavor profiles now on U.S. shelves are bolder than those of the rest of the world. For example, Wrigley gum is actually sweeter and more minty in the U.S. than it is in China.
Intense flavor is being injected into meals prepared at home as well. Americans now keep an average of 40 different spices on-hand at home - a figure that has grown roughly twice as fast in the past two decades as it did in the previous 30 years. McCormick now counts sea-salt, smoked paprika, roasted garlic and dried lemongrass among the flavors in its typical grocery-store offerings. Asian and Caribbean spices, blends and marinades have been the focus of recent rollouts, and the company is predicting strong Indian spices will become more popular within the next five years.