The Teen Market (Solomon,2010)

With a spending capacity of more than 61 billion euros per year, the European youth market of teens is a powerful demographic and an important culture to understand intimately for businesses looking to grow and maintain relevancy in the future.


Teenagers in every culture grapple with fundamental developmental issues as they make the transition from childhood to adult. According to research by Saatchi & Saatchi, there are four themes of conflict common to all teens:


a) Autonomy vs. belonging



b) Rebellion vs. conformity




c) Idealism vs. pragmatism




d) Narcissism vs. intimacy




Teenagers throughout history have had to cope with insecurity, parental authority and peer pressure. At the start of the new millennium, however, these issues are compounded by concerns about the environment, racism, AIDS and other pressing social problems.




A study among 500 young opinion leaders aged 14–20 across 16 European countries suggests that this age group’s credo should be: 

‘don’t define us – we’ll define ourselves’.  

  (Solomon,2010)