Let’s pick things up where we left off in the last column.
We prefer to call them ‘Identity Builders’. They may be teenagers, young adults, or young people. They are somewhere between puberty and finishing education, or starting work. They are young and restless, and full of dreams, hopes, hormones, passions, beliefs, and confusion. There are a whole lot of things going on here, but it’s all really about a simple question: “Who am I?” And this has nothing to do with being born in a certain year or, in our opinion, being unwisely labelled as Gen X, Y, Z, or being called a Boomer. Yes! Boomers, too, were just the same.
It’s that life stage we have all passed through – the life stage that was really introduced to mankind a little over a hundred years ago. Sure, there have always been people who were 15, 19, and 20 years old. And there have always been some who, at that age, were not already playing fully adult roles in all societies. But it was really only with the establishment of broader middle classes, education for all, and expectations of getting qualified in the industrial world of the early 20th century that we saw the ‘teenage’ become normal.
‘Identity Builders’ are people in that stage in life when they are no longer children, but are not yet living an adult life – maybe teens and very early 20s – at school, college, probably still living at home, almost certainly still supported at least in part by parents. It’s an age and life stage where you are young, energetic, exploring what you can do, trying to be noticed by peers, wanting to be individual while still fitting in with the group, building an identity through fashion, music, culture, and also sometimes by talking loudly to be noticed.
Throughout the last 80-odd years, pop music has provided the anthems that told Identity Builders what they needed to know: how to fit in, how to find the girl/boy, how to be cool, how to feel – and also to illustrate their frustrations. No song summed it up better than the Rolling Stones’ ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’, because, as smart marketers have known for decades, understanding Identity Builders was to understand that they thought no one else understood them, and that they just wanted satisfaction on their own terms.
Marketers have understood that whether it was the 1950s or 70s (when Dave was an Identity Builder), or the 90s (when Faiyaz was one), or 2025, what Identity Builders want does not really change. Fashion changes, the style of music changes, the issues change… a little. Social justice, the environment, not being happy with restrictions, wanting the chance to stand out – sound familiar? No matter your age as you read this, those were important things when you were 18 and are important to an 18-year-old today. It is all a matter of understanding how to express how you can help in a style that is contemporary.
Brands are all about what matters to people and making themselves relevant. For Identity Builders, what matters is building their own identity while also building a connection – being an individual while being in the group. Brands that aim to succeed get that. In the early 1960s, Pepsi really understood that. Struggling to stay relevant next to Coca-Cola, the brand created what was to turn out to be one of the textbook ad campaigns: The Pepsi Generation. If you’re planning to attract Identity Builders, this is the text.
The idea was simple: create advertising that said to young America (and later the young world) that they were special – they were the only ones who ‘got it’. Got what it meant to be young, cool, different from ‘the others’. As the tagline said, “Come alive! You’re the Pepsi Generation,” and that it was the brand that was theirs. It worked, and to this day, Pepsi sells the same strategy. Because the ‘generation’ was not about a specific time or demographic generation. It was right for every generation and person who felt they were young and cool and different.
Of course, brands still use that insight. In Bangladesh, Coke Studio Bangla is all about telling today’s Identity Builders that they are cool and can develop their own style. They can be different, but within their own realm of recognition. North End Coffee provides a ‘place’ – somewhere that ‘gets’ what today’s young people see as fashionable, accepting, and acceptable. Somewhere to hang out. Pathao makes it easy for young Bangladeshis to live life by being “here with you” – an old strategy to say to Identity Builders that they have someone helping them get that satisfaction.
Of course, as we get older, we think Identity Builders of the new generation are different. Don’t be fooled. They are not, really. You just need to find the language to help them get satisfied.
