Young Asians vote for world peace: Synovate study

Young Asians are consumption-crazy, full of aspirations, and a driven generation. They are focused on money, yet moral. School is important and success is everything. They favour fast food and soft drinks, and their preferred birthday gift is a mobile phone.

These are among the principal findings of a recent study released on Wednesday by leading global market research company, Synovate. The study was conducted across eight Asian countries including Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and India.

Synovate, for the uninitiated, is the market research arm of Aegis Group plc. The research outfit generates consumer insights across 46 countries driving competitive marketing solutions.

The study titled ‘Young Asians’ reveals that today’s young Asian is a multi-tasking, interactive, digital-driven consumer.

Synovate’s director of media research - APAC, Steve Garton, said the survey, a first for the region, threw the door wide open on the lives of young Asians aged 8-24 years, exposing their spending habits, favourite brands, dreams and aspirations.

“Conducted in conjunction with MSN, MTV and Yahoo!, our comprehensive study has been conducted across eight markets that reveals the hearts and minds of Asia’s connected youth,” he said.

The study found that while young Asians start off wanting to be doctors, by the time they reach 15, the desire for money develops and the career of choice becomes a business owner.

Their preferred sports to play are badminton and basketball/netball; while basketball and soccer are the sports of choice for watching or reading.

Garton said that pester power was alive and strong with eight in ten young Asians influencing family shopping for soft drinks and snacks, 75 per cent influencing the family visit for fast food, and six in ten influencing the TV channel watched when sharing the viewing.

Young Asians, the study says, also worry about the future ahead and what being an adult may hold for them. A secure job is the number one concern about growing up for 19 per cent of young Asians, while 16 per cent worry about being financially stable, and 9 per cent worry about adult responsibilities.

There’s a sense of excitement about adult life though, with 16% looking forward to the prospect of having a family, 15% ready to be independent and influential and 9% eager to enjoy adult activities like drinking, traveling and having sex.

Some 18% young Asians voted world peace as the number one change they would make to the world. A further 16% are aspiring activists, wanting to change social problems like drugs and corruption, while 15% named ‘themselves’ as the one thing they would change about the world, wanting to be more popular, better looking, or simply famous,” he said.

The Internet and digital technology is fundamental to young Asian lives, fuelling their desire to stay connected and central to their interaction with peers. Sixty-two per cent have their own mobile phones, 45% have their own desktop computer and half of 12 to 24 years olds name the Internet as the most helpful medium for product and service information over TV (32%) and newspapers (10%).

While listening to their MP3 players (owned by 23% of respondents) young Asians search the web for information, emailing, downloading entertainment and interacting with their friends, and games, online. And, this trend is expected to grow, with one third of young Asians indicating that they expect to be spending more time on the Internet next year compared to this year.

The study identified MTV as the channel attracting the highest viewership by the Asian youth.

The study included a segment of Asian youth with the highest household incomes across the region that could be linked with the Synovate PAX study of affluent Asian adults. © 2005 agencyfaqs!