Marketing Iron to a Fountain of Youth

Ask any parent to describe what's going on in the mind of a teenager (besides one ever-constant thing), and he'll likely scratch his head. Ditto for the marketing corps of the major automakers. Probing the psyche of first-time car buyers has become a daunting quest of late, as marketers worry that their brands may be losing a certain youthful appeal.

We perused the Power Information Network's buyer data and assembled a sampling of vehicles purported by their manufacturers to have said youthful appeal. We included one of the new Scions Toyota is wooing Gen-Ys with and grabbed a Honda Element, which American Honda Vice President of Corporate Planning and Logistics Dan Bonawitz says, "targets the 22-year-old male."

Then the lunch bell rang and all hell broke loose. When the smoke cleared and the last kid was pried out of his dream ride to go to Algebra 102, we took stock of the situation.

If there's anything we came away with out of this, it's don't type-cast kids. Sure, many were drawn to the sport-compact coupes, sedans, and hot-hatches Hollywood and Madison Avenue are telling us they should like. But there was a surprisingly diverse response to the question, "Which one here do you like best?"

Some students went straight to the Honda Civic, hopped in, laid the driver's seat back into gangsta-rollin' position, and looked no further. They like Hondas, their buddies drive Hondas, and there really isn't any other car that comes close. There were other brand devotees, too. "I'm a Chevy man, and the best car here is the Cavalier," enthused one student. Quite a few gravitated to the Jeep Wrangler and Nissan Frontier. SUVs and pickups ranked high in desirability, as did vintage musclecars. But while the boxy Scion xB and Honda Element got thumbs up for many of their features, they lost points, well, because of their boxiness.

This So-Cal group expressed a lot of car savvy, too: "How come you didn't bring an Evo?" "Which VTEC does that Honda have in it?" "Do you prefer Ferrari's F1 transmission or the standard six-speed?" "I just bought a WRX."

Some students were comfortable continuing the path their parents blazed. "My dad bought a Jeep Cherokee when he first came to this country, then got a Grand Cherokee, which is what I'd like to drive." So much for youthful rebellion. Keep in mind that a young buyer's first set of wheels is such a liberating proposition that just about any car that looks good, is reliable, and has a crankin' sound system will do just fine, thank you.

In the enthusiasm of the moment, when asked which car they liked best, a few students simply responded, "The yellow one." We're thinking the marketing geeks at the major car companies need to keep sharpening their pencils.