What Marketing Can Teach Us About Youth Culture.

Much of my daily activity is centred about youth culture and market research – it’s indefineably valuable to my work and my ministry, especially over the last 3 years. I find that when you line up the increasingly available research and ideas on adolescent development with the emerging research into youth culture and marketing strategy, there are some unique insights that when applied to your specific community can really help you identify key aspects of success as well as methods/insights to simply help us talk better to young people. For example, the following articles/studies have been really stirring my brain activity just recently.

Youth No Longer Defined By Age

“Contemporary youth should now be defined as ‘the absence of functional and/or emotional maturity,’ reflecting the fact that accepting traditional responsibilities such as mortgages, children and developing a strong sense of self-identity/perspective is occurring later and later in life.”

“The study identified three distinct stages of youth: “Discovery” (16-19 years old), “Experimentation” (20-24 years old) and “Golden” (25-34 years old), and found that the youth market has grown to include all three as the differentiation between traditional demographic groups has become blurred through lifestyle choice and spending power.”

Questions:
What are the implications of these changing sectors for our youth and young adult ministries?

In fact, it could be said that these studies support by inference, my hypothesis that life-stage ministry to the young adult sector is misplaced, that in fact it could nurture stasis & stagnation rather than helping transition young people through the extending corridor of youth to adulthood.

What can we identify as key issues for this market from our ministry perspective considering the conflict between ‘common sense’/social expectation and actual desire?

Tool:
We are not in it alone : there is a wide pool of sociological, communication, psychological and human behaviour theory available from reputable sources in practical, digestable form. Think about how to apply the information, patterns and understanding gleaned from these resources, alongside our theological, communal and hermeneutical practices. The pool of knowledge is wide, enjoy it, don’t limit the resources that may provide helpful lenses and unique insight.. instead apply discernment liberally and grace generously.

27 is the ideal age to buy a house (25 in the UK, 33 in Japan).
22 is the ideal age to buy a car (20 in the US and UK, and 29 in China).
26 is the ideal age for love (25 in Saudi Arabia and 28 in Mexico).
23 is the ideal age to get a credit card (20 in the US)
19 is the ideal age to travel without parents (25 in Saudi Arabia).
27 is the ideal age to be a parent.
20 is the ideal age to lose your virginity (no differences by region).
22 is the ideal age to move out on your own.
26 is the ideal age to start saving for retirement

Youth Trust – How To Lose And Abuse It is a another great piece of brand wisdom that has great implications and insight for working with communities and groups of young people.

Brands lose it with young people when they:

* (1) Value inconsistency:
* (2) Saying not doing:
* (3) Took consumers for granted:
* (4) Failed to control: (the market – brand is overrun by affliates) – ??
* (5) You got lazy:
* (6) Your marketing was merely a sweet topping on an unpalatable dish.

Sunday Night Thoughts.

I’m at home on one of those nights where I wish it would rain so I could hear it on my tin roof and let it soothe me a little. I’m devouring media – both listening to iTunes (currently playing You Are My Sanity by Tim Reynolds, from the recording Live at Radio City)… I’m also watching TV in silence, flicking between news reports, the Sunday movie and generic dramas. I’m intermittently catching up on blogs, facebooking and youtubing all at once.

Here’s my list of contemplations.. none of which I have processed any great thoughts on yet, just stuff i’m thinking about…

List (In No Particular Order)
1.
Can two people really have one heart split between two bodies?
(inspired by Dave Matthews track ‘Sister’ and the Buddhist saying that a true friend is one soul in two bodies).

“sister when you cry i feel your tears running down my face, sister sister you keep me”
“i hope you always know it’s true i would never make it through cos you could make the sun go dark just by walking away”
“i feel you beating in my chest”

2.
The beauty of a friend who is far away and a love that leaps over years to unite one who is old with one who is young, and how I am the younger and the older in more of these friendships that i should deserve… i am blessed and cursed by my age, for i love more and less than i ought so many that i have… dearest.

i am an old woman
as old as the sea, battering the coast into submission
her shattering shoreline falling into soft, buttery pieces
foamy and chaotic

i am an old woman
as long and wrung out as old cotton
in danger of yellowing and wrinkling in the light
stiff and harsh

i am an old woman
laughter and frowning written in the same lines
my face framed by unruliness i no longer care to tame
wild and ruthless

i am an old woman
my youth vanished from my womb and skin and eyes
mirth replaced with wisdom of children that never arrived
lost in transition

i am an old woman
standing still with the shock of it realising
i have arrived at the moment of farewelling life for what it never was
bed empty, full heart

i am an old woman
who loved with the heat of one thousand suns
loved and loved and loved without pretense and knew your every heart
beating and whole

i am an old woman
who grew so waiting on you
who i so loved when i was young

3.
Reconciliation – the ministry of the deep heart, where one must fully accept and be accepted into whole relationship with another.

4.
Morrie Schwartz – A Teacher To The Last, a lesson in the value of social psychology and sociological practice.

“The little things, I can obey. But the big things – how we think, what we value – those you must choose yourself. You can’t let anyone – or any society – determine those for you.”

“Learn how to live, and you’ll know how to die; learn how to die, and you’ll learn how to live.”

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”

My New Album, Finally Hitting The Streets.

My New Album, Finally Hitting The Streets.

Album Name: And A Good Digestion
Band Name: Guglielmo Ratcliff

Hahaha, ok, the album actually isn’t out yet – but that was today’s meme from Marko.

You can play along like this….
here are the rules:

1. Band Name: Random Wikipeda Link
2. Album Title: Random quote generator (take the last four words from the first quote on the page)
3. Album Art: Flickr Interesting Photo (pick one)

Put yours in the comments section.. and I tag Sam Harvey, Rich Johnson, Etno and Danielle. Have fun!

Updates
A few been and seen basics – having been in Wellington last week, I have the final version of the message I shared to post, as well as a few other rambling thoughts. Mostly this week has been about work .. oh, yeah, and a birthday. I’m now officially getting ancient. Watched the movie “An Accidental Husband” on dvd this week – it was cute even though I don’t really like Uma in anything but Kill Bill.

Birthday Celebrations
Some great friends put together a cool day of european picnics, italian food, party games and then surprise drinks with a gathering of nearest and dearest at the beloved Corner Store. A great day.

Thoughts On Birthdays
This time last year I was in San Diego with the beloved O’s, Freeses and Co. We had mexican food and played Freestreicher volleyball. This year I celebrated at home, sharing lots of food and drink with family and friends, and loads of Facebook messages. I revised my New Years list (it runs from January 1 to November 6 every year) and I don’t feel I’ve done too bad. Everything but one is accomplished. I like the little respite of November and December to come up with the list for the coming year… suggestions are welcome!

Praying In Big Spaces.

I was thinking in an email today, that I’ve been more lonely just recently, housesitting in a friends large home. When they are home and the kids are there, it’s full of life and goodness. When I am at home, in my little cottage, my loneliness doesn’t feel uncontrollable or out of sorts. But when I am alone, in their big home.. my loneliness is magnified in a strange way. As if the space housing my loneliness somehow allows it to echo more than it usually does. Maybe my love of my small house is partly because it deafens the silence of large, empty spaces.

Similarly, I have always loved the image of the prayer closet, because it seems that the smaller the room, the less distance your words have to travel to God. I am finding it hard to share communion with God at the moment, in large spaces.

Struggling To Pray Myself..
So typically – I’m running for shelter and companionship in the prayer room – first with the words of the others, the wise, the kindred, the dear… and with the flesh and blood love of dear friends.

“Prayer is in many ways the criterion of Christian life. Prayer requires that we stand in God’s presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. This is difficult in a climate where the predominant counsel is ‘Do your best and God will do the rest.’ When life is divided into ‘our best’ and ‘God’s rest,’ we have turned prayer into a last resort to be used only when all our own resources are depleted. Then even the Lord has become the victim of our impatience. Discipleship does not mean to use God when we can no longer function ourselves. On the contrary, it means to recognize that we can do nothing at all, but that God can do everything through us. As disciples, we find not some but all of our strength, hope, courage, and confidence in God. Therefore, prayer must be our first concern.”
–Henri Nouwen, Compassion

Prayers….
Snow can never emit flame.
Water can never issue fire.
A thorn bush can never produce a fig.
Just so, your heart can never be free
from oppressive thoughts, words, and actions
until it has purified itself internally.

Be eager to walk this path.
Watch your heart always.
Constantly say the prayer
“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”
Be humble.
Set your soul in quietness.

The more the rain falls on the earth,
the softer it makes it;
similarly, Christ’s holy name
gladdens the earth of our heart
the more we call upon it.
— Hesychius of Sinai

“Fathers and teachers, I ponder, What is hell?
I maintain that hell is the suffering of being unable to love.”
– Dostoyevsky