This paper explores young people's motivations for using mobile phones. Older adolescents' everyday use of traditional and new forms of mediated communication were explored in the context of their everyday lives, with data generated from self-completion questionnaires, diaries and mini focus groups. The findings confirm the universal appeal of mobile phones to a youth audience. Social and entertainment-related motivations dominated, while information and commercially orientated contact were less appealing. While marketers are excited by the reach and possibilities for personalisation offered by mobile phones, young people associated commercial appropriation of this medium with irritation, intrusion and mistrust. In other words, while marketers celebrated mobile phones as a 'brand in the hand' of youth markets, young people themselves valued their mobiles as a 'friend in the hand'. This suggests that the way forward for mobile marketing communications is not seeking or pretending to be young consumers' friend, but rather offering content that helps them maintain or develop the personal friendships that matter to them. About the authorsIan Grant is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Strathclyde. He has recently been researching the differences in how young consumers use traditional and new forms of media, and the implications for marketing practice. This research spans his interests in digital communications, lifestyle and media consumption. As a former advertising planner, Ian has also published on advertising planning, strategy and consumption.

No abstract

This paper uses the metaphor of the movie classic the Wizard of Oz to represent the online experiences of young adults. Just like the twister that turns Dorothy’s world upside, down the Internet has arrived to transform our black and white lives into the Technicolor hyper‐reality of the Land of Oz. What are the consequences for young Dorothies of today when they explore the yellow brick information superhighway? Phenomenologically informed qualitative research was used to explore the Internet experiences of older adolescents and young adults. The findings identify, financial, temporal, social, logistical and emotional barriers and indicate that although the Internet is an intrinsic facet of young adults’ lives, it falls well short of an obsession. The implications are that marketing practitioners need to pay closer attention to the genuine fears and concerns directed at the Internet rather than assuming that young adults’ responses are enthusiastic and positive.

Over 35 years the modus operandi of 'account planning' has changed significantly while the rationale has remained the same: to temper intuition with analysis. The aim of this study was to define those changes, investigate possible causes and predict future developments. Scotland was chosen as the fieldwork location. The findings are based on face-to-face interviews in mid-2001 in 24 large and small advertising agencies. This sample included all but four of the Scottish total. The respondents were individuals who either had a specific account planning remit or were senior managers who considered it to be one of their responsibilities. Analysis of transcripts of the interviews suggested four key factors determining how the principle is converted into practice and four distinct models of the account planner's role in the process. It also found that the expected 'conflict' between creative teams and those responsible for strategic planning was in fact seen as productive 'tension' and that pragmatic collaboration was feasible. However, there was conflict with the parallel discipline of media planning. Two future scenarios are discussed and the conclusion drawn that the discipline needs to pay as much attention to planning survival strategies for itself as it does to planning campaign strategies for its clients. The findings and conclusions of a small-scale study are not necessarily generalizable, even based on a virtual census, but do offer a new perspective on a literature that generally deals with practice among large agencies in a handful of world 'capitals' of the discipline

No abstract