Look out Chuppies... here come the Genies! (Latest lifestyle research) 23rd July 1997 Back to Asia Pacific Management News Menu | Asia Business News Portal | Asia Business News Feeds | Asia Pacific Management Forum Join the APMF email list Monthly updates on new content

First there were "baby boomers", then there were "yuppies", now the "Genies" are here to torment us. The advertising agencies try to convince us that they are different and you have to yet again change your marketing strategy to accomodate them. All WE know is that they are a pain in the posterior. The Chinese Yuppies (Chuppies) in particular became renowned for having the poorest taste of the bunch....(and that's saying a lot). The combination of chuppiedom, the concept of face, and the dubious taste of new money served up a startling brew in Asia as chuppies did their best to increase export/import disparities by developing a taste for imported brand names and conspicuous consumption that put their Western cousins to shame. Heady times indeed for the owners of those overpriced yuppie bars and retail European boutiques that have flourished all over Asia. According to Pravit Rojanaphruk of the Bangkok Post, Ogilvy and Mather have just completed their latest research surveying 7,000 individuals and 27 well known "trend gurus" throughout Asia (excepting Japan) and identified the "Genie".. (GENeration who Independently Engage in society). Here's the speil according to Rojanaphruk and O&M execs... Aged about 20 to 29 years old, working primarily in white-collar occupations and reasonably affluent. .. their lives are a delicate balancing act between two opposing forces: a search for individual expression balanced by a willing acceptance of social norms. Genies are less materialistic than the 30 and up generation.. (reformed yuppies? ...Eds.), they are more reasonable in their spending and more family oriented. 72% of genies against 66% of their parents disagreed that politics should be left to the government 41% of genies as against 30% of their parents said they preferred to stand out from the crowd There is a gradual opening up towards committed partners enjoying the fruits of their love before marriage. (We will leave it up to you to translate this typically modest Thai prose! ..Eds.) 52% of Asian genies agreed that young people should never dare to challenge their parent's authority. For Thai genies it was a high 82%. Lifestyle research, reaching predominance in the US in the early 1970's, perhaps as a way of employing out of work psychologists, is a branch of psychographic research, and in turn, market research, that assumes that lifestyle factors can discriminate effectively between practically targettable market segments. But Rojanaphruk questions whether genies are significantly different from their yuppie predecessors. We tend to agree.. if anything the best news is a lessening of the attention to conspicuous and wasteful consumption, and a (even if just slightly) higher social responsibility. Still awaited in vain is a successor to the genie, who we trust will finally cut their apron string belief that Western is better. In the meantime, our female associates tell us, while the Chuppie and Yuppie may be dead, the LOMBARD is still very much in evidence, whether in Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, New York or Sydney, and regardless of ethnicity.... .....(LOts of Money But A Real Dickhead)...

© Asia Pacific Management Forum 1997
The views expressed here may not necessarily reflect those of Orient Pacific Century or partners

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