CSLA's Janice Tan suggest that when young Asian singles are not sitting in front of the TV, you'll find them hanging out in cinemas and shopping malls (just like guess who). Retailers have not wasted time in tapping into this trend and have incorporated food courts, cinemas, cafes and trendy restaurants to cater for big spenders from Bangkok to Shanghai.
What's happening is obvious. Easterners are turning into Westerners. As nauseous a concept as this may be (I mean this for the sake of young Asians, not Westerners), it is clear there is a lot of catching up to do – particularly in overpopulated and as yet underdeveloped areas such as China, India and Indonesia. While us Westerners may be beginning to tire of a plastic, bland, homogenous, global marketplace, Young Asia has barely reached square one. There's a whole new world for them to embrace.
Another influential factor is that Young Asia is increasingly urban, and this has a huge influence on lifestyles and attitudes. It is perhaps the parents who have left the farms and moved into the cities, and now the children are appreciating all the excitement and temptation that city living can bring. By 2025, the United Nations predicts a third of the world's population will live in Asia's major cities.
From this flows what older Asians may decry as a breakdown in the traditional Asian extended family unit. Young Asia now has freedom, unshackled from familial responsibility and dependence. CSLA reports that while 37% of survey respondents count family as most important, 38% count their career as most important. Having a family of their own is less important.
Young Asians spend 55% of their time at work, and half the remainder going out. While out, they spend 26% of their income on food, 11% on leisure and entertainment, and 12% on clothing and jewellery. Young Asia is now very brand-aware.
They are not, however, big drinkers of beer. (Give ‘em time). Only 40% admitted to being beer drinkers, many preferring Coke (a-Cola). Tobacco companies will take heart however – one in three young Asians like a puff, and the brand of choice is Marlboro.
Credit cards have not yet made their mark in Young Asia, but this will only come with time. Young Asians would no doubt embrace credit cards with gusto, but at the moment across much of Asia there aren't many businesses which accept plastic. When supermarkets eventually replace outdoor markets, department stores replace mum & dad enterprises, and Irish theme bars replace roadside stands then one presumes they won't leave home without them.
There is another important point to consider in the new age of the billion boomers – women. It took about 25-30 years for Western baby boomers to throw off the apron and become educated, employed, self-funded consumers. For the great part, equality of the sexes already exists in Young Asia. Traditional concepts of marriage and servility are being met with rebellion from the online generation.
CSLA's Karen Buckle notes that demographically, women outlive men. Thus as Asia ages, women will dominate. The Western experience has been that as women have become more and more part of the workforce the patterns of consumption have changed.
Women with less time on their hands have driven a boom in labour-saving devices – everything from washing machines to ready-to-cook meals. Less time to shop has given rise to the supermarket, and its big brother, the everything-you-need-is-right-here shopping mall.
Working women have a more far-reaching influence than simple domestic concerns. Two incomes in the household mean greater spending power, and also means two cars, two pension plans, and two life insurance policies, notes Karen Buckle. The sheer numbers of this new consumer base are thus overwhelming. And don't believe that older Asians are a forgotten demographic. Unlike the concept of the Western baby boom, "new" consumers are emerging in their 30s-50s.
Asia is, however, aging, which means the absolute number of young people is actually dwindling. But as Karen Buckle points out, singles within the ranks of what is still the largest generation in history (615 million 15-24s in Asia in 2000) are still an extremely powerful consumer force.
While the number of young people in Asia overall is falling, the numbers of young singles with high incomes and high levels of discretionary spending is rising. Mastercard's research estimated that across 11 Asian countries, young singles will account for 12% of total population but 47% of total discretionary spending by 2007.
To fuel this spending frenzy, CSLA concludes most (though not all) Asian 20-year-olds are optimistic about macroeconomic and political trends in the coming years. For the economy, unbounded optimism is the watchword in China and India, where youth has witnessed 20 years of tremendous growth already. The expectation is that "this growth will continue throughout my lifetime".
And look out America. CSLA notes young Asians view Asia as the centre of the new world order, with each of their own countries at the front, increasingly influencing global events and balancing US hegemony. Chinese and Indian youngsters believe "in the future, we will be a superpower".
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