Companies and public institutions may use various marketing and communication strategies to publicize a product, to raise awareness of a particular social cause, or to instruct on proper use in non-coercive ways (i.e., responsible marketing). However, sometimes marketing and communication practices and activities are used with the sole aim of attracting customers without considering the negative consequences for users generated by the products or services they promote (i.e., non-responsible marketing). Both responsible and non-responsible marketing can have significant influence on the behavior of young people in unique ways.
Moreover, young people can influence marketing techniques. Marketing strategies aimed at young people use interactive digital media to build brand relationships. Advertising on social networks and the credibility of influencers facilitate access to information, save time, and increase convenience in decision-making. Novel and personalized advertising formats, often with implicit strategies or suggestive images, seek to attract this audience. The efficacy of these strategies, however, relies on youth engagement with the content.
Adolescents and young people are more likely than other age groups to develop pathological behaviors, partly due to the characteristics of this vital period in which the person is more vulnerable, both biologically and psychologically. Responsible marketing and communication are necessary so that adolescents and youth can act with higher likelihood of personal safety and well-being. This is especially the case in sectors such as food, lifestyle, beauty, and gambling – sectors that can particularly affect the physical or mental health of young consumers. Marketing literacy and educational interventions can improve young people’s critical understanding of marketing and communication strategies.
Youth may also act as appropriators of marketing and communication methods for their own agency. When aware of the fact that they are being sold a product or idea, youth may mimic, mock, or modulate the strategy for their own purposes.
This Collection will help to identify the impact of commercial strategies among adolescents and young people and vice versa and effective responsible (as well as non-responsible) marketing and communication practices. This Article Collection welcomes articles on:
- How marketing strategies influence the behavior of youth and vice versa
- Educational marketing
- Social marketing
- The impact of responsible marketing and communication strategies carried out by companies aimed at adolescents and young people
- Sectorial marketing strategies: shopping, sports, video games, fitness, nutrition, cosmetics, leisure, betting, alcohol, tobacco, etc.
- The impact of influencer marketing on adolescent and youth behaviors
- Vulnerability and/or responses of young people to manipulated content or fake news on the internet
- The effect of communication on young people’s perception of reality
- Communication and gender: how a campaign’s influence may differ by gender
- Privacy and exposure of young people’s personal data in digital advertising
- Digital marketing regulation
