At some point, every brand gathers around a table shared doc to develop customer personas… that might be complete bull shit. You know what I’m talking about. “Katie lives in the Hamptons and her favorite color is red. She is drawn to our blanket brand because as a mom, she needs simple pleasures for herself and our red blanket fits that bill + will become her favorite hostess gift to give to her friends”.
^ See. Bull shit.
It’s more art than science, because we’re marketers.
We love data-based decision-making, but we’re not researchers. I’m not. You should see how long ago it was that I took an actual math class.
And, most of us don’t have a dedicated research team. I don’t!
Luckily, TeenVoice just launched and I found out about it. Because I’m going to use it for my research going forward. There are 2 paths with TeenVoice. They’ll conduct your custom research for you – focused on a Gen Z/Gen Alpha audience that they recruit specifically for your brand. Or, you can consume their research on Gen Z / Gen Alpha to inform your marketing more generally.
This matters because the alternative is messy. The alternative = we …do some googling, scan the news, Phone a Friend (and ChatGPT)… assume things about our customers and sometimes put a lot of money behind those assumptions without due diligence.
Yeah, that’s not gonna fly anymore. Or, at least it shouldn’t.
The truth is, we often don’t know what we don’t know. Especially when it comes to teenagers.
I am not a teenager. I’m 31!!!! I haven’t been a teenager in a long while and even when I was a teenager, nobody asked me my opinion.
Luckily, that ends here.
To understand teens, you need to talk to them. You need to study them.
A LOT OF THEM.
And, you need to move FAST, because teens move fast! And staying cool and relevant to them isn’t possible without INFORMATION.
There’s always a new platform, trend, or opinion, and you need data that’s up-to-date.
NOT VIBES. Do teenagers even say vibes???
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Not stereotypes.
Cold, hard, quantitative research, with answers reviewed by someone with a Ph.D., because you’re a marketer and can admit your limitations usually sometimes.
That’s exactly what TeenVoice can do for us. I like TeenVoice because it’s an off-shoot of a nonprofit company that’s been working with and building products specifically for teens for YEARS. In other words, they are the EXPERTS on this kind of specialized market research. And now, for the 1st time, they have turned this expertise into a tool for brands. For people like us. With this access, we can conduct the kind of research that only big companies have been able to do in the past.
TEENVOICE ISN’T LIKE THE OTHER MARKET RESEARCH PLATFORMS.
Most market research providers use panels to answer surveys, and they rely on that information long after it’s become irrelevant.
A panel filled with teens who were recruited 3 years ago is NOT going to help you figure out how teens feel today.
3 years is 20% of a 15-year-old’s life!
The panels most market research providers use can’t get hyper-specific.
They can find teens, but not teens in Nebraska.
Certainly not teens in Nebraska who play soccer.
Definitely not teens in Nebraska who play soccer and love skincare.
But TeenVoice can.
HOW TEENVOICE WORKS
BOUTIQUE SERVICE, AUTHENTIC TEENS, QUICK AND INVALUABLE INSIGHTS, AND IT WON’T EAT UP YOUR MARKETING BUDGET.
TeenVoice is a subsidiary of a nonprofit called American Student Assistance that helps thousands of middle and high schoolers around the U.S. explore their interests and think about their future career through digital activities.
These teens are genuinely interested in sharing their opinions. (Awww.)
They opt-in to TeenVoice, because they actually want to talk to and help shape brands. (Awww.)
They’re NOT completing surveys haphazardly for a quick gift card.
They’re quality-controlled, multi-step-verified human teenagers, not teenAIge bots.
TEENVOICE OFFERS 2 CUSTOM RESEARCH OPTIONS
Option 1: Pulse Check: A do-it-yourself survey that asks 50 teens up to 10 questions, and gives you actionable insights within a few hours.
You read that right.
Insights within HOURS. Not days or weeks. I could have used this in a tremendous way when I was working on a celebrity chocolate brand launch. The audience was under 18 and wouldn’t we have liked to have known what they cared about. What flavors sounded good. What packaging colors were cooler? This name or that name I COULD GO ON!!
This is a super-efficient gut check without advanced segmentation, but you can segment by gender.
Max price: $1K.
Option 2: Custom Research: A more involved survey with all the hyper-targeting your heart brand desires, and actionable insights in 3-20 days.
Starting at $1K.
Whichever TeenVoice option you choose, a dedicated researcher literally with a Ph.D moderates every response and delivers the data in a user-friendly format anyone a marketer can read.
They’re even overrecruiting, so they hand over the best data and weed out any moody teenager keyboard slam responses. In other research offerings (not TeenVoice) people will rush through surveys for gift cards and they don’t even read the questions. That is not possible here because it’s filtered out and monitored by like scientists.
I’m telling you, white glove scientific service.
SMART WAYS TO USE IT
LISTEN TO GEN Z/ GEN ALPHA. THEY KNOW WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT.
TeenVoice Pulse Checks and Surveyssupport all kinds of media, so you can upload videos, static images, audio, and more.
Use TeenVoice to get honest feedback on your brand’s social posts, your next collab. Whatever you’re about to spend a lot of money and time to develop – put it in front of this group for true feedback.
Try split audience testing (Survey option) and expose different groups to different copy, design, and messaging.
Get to know the general behavior and preferences of the teens you’re trying to reach, without calling in favors from the 5 teens your marketing team knows. Your boss’s nephew is likely not your customer.
Ask the important questions.
Have something kinda complicated you’re looking for? Talk to a TeenVoice expert. They like a challenge and will make it look really easy, but be humble about it.
WHAT TO DO NEXT
1 more time because this matters to me.
Custom research is NOT too big of a lift, too expensive, or too time-consuming. Not anymore.
Need to know something about teens?
Ask the experts: REAL TEENS.
(With the help of a professional researcher who has a Ph.D in Legit Information).
