Arianne Caryl is not concerned with what Buffy and Puffy are wearing.
The 17-year-old has purple hair, heavy black eyeliner and a sparkling stud in her nose. She lives in New York and buys her clothes at an East Village boutique called Religious Sex. She thinks teen fashion maverick Tommy Hilfiger and his ilk are vile.
In her mind, the frenzied fashion marketing toward Generation Y -- the group that made "Titanic" a box-office legend, deifies actress Jennifer Love Hewitt and turned up its nose ring at Levi's -- is "really nauseating. It's exploiting the whole teen generation."
Caryl might be even more bitter if she knew that she's been officially categorized as an "Edge" teen by researchers who help manufacturers find their way into the wallets of her fertile, fragmented and fickle demographic.
There are nearly 30 million Gen Y-ers currently in their teens, making them the biggest group since the baby boomers. (Gen Y encompasses 5- to-22-year-olds.)
These Hilfiger Heads have more money than their adolescent predecessors. And they're spending it. In 1998, they dished out $105.1 billion, according to the Rand Youth Poll, an opinion research firm.
"The baton is being passed between boomers and youth," says Irma Zandl of the Zandl Group, a company that provides trend analysis for businesses including the Coca-Cola Co. and the Gap.
But trying to get inside the mind of these ultra-informed adolescents can be a complex thing. Consider all that can influence purchases today -- from their affinity for style-shaping celebrities to their cyber savvy to their own senses of individuality.
The Internet has certainly made Gen Y more sophisticated consumers. They can buy, browse and even find what people all over the world are wearing.
"Word of mouth now is not just a telephone. Word of mouth is online," says Jesse H. Jackson, associate publisher/marketing for Teen People magazine.
At the top of Gen-Y fashion are names like Hilfiger, Polo and Abercrombie and Fitch. Then there are hip-hop-inspired fashions like Fubu, Phat Farm and Mecca; Levi's replacements such as LEI, JNCO and Mudd; and such hot, affordable standbys as Gap, Old Navy and Adidas.
"In fashion, you obviously have to give them what they want," Zandl says. "Levi's didn't get into that baggy thing when they should have. There was certainly a lot of time to get on the bandwagon."
How do you hold teens' often short, brand-hopping attention spans? One way is to first divvy the demographic into specific groups the way Teenage Research Unlimited, an Illinois-based research firm, does.
The "Edge" are alternative, rebellious teens into offbeat styles, including thrift store and vintage. The "Influencers" are mostly urban, and largely into hip-hop fashions. The brand-conscious "Conformers" are the most mainstream. They tend to rely on safeties such as Gap and Old Navy, and try to emulate the Edge and the Influencers. Then you have the "Passives." Not nearly as concerned with fashion as the other three, these supposedly shy outcast-types are far from cutting-edge in their Lees and Levi's.
But no kid likes to be labeled. Marqueet Jackson, 15, is walking proof. Rummaging through CDs at Mondawmin Mall, where hundreds of kids have come to congregate after school, he's clad in Gap, Polo and Nike. "I just go with my own vision," says the Frederick Douglass High School student. "I'm loyal to my own style."
Yet, he looks suspiciously like his buddies, likewise dressed in Gap, with hints of South Pole, Hilfiger and Mecca.
In the food court at White Marsh Mall, a group of Old Navy-clad girls carry a rainbow of Motorola pagers. They look like walking polar fleece billboards with braces.
How do they explain their nearly identical attire?
"Everyone else is wearing it," says Jo-El Karatzakislis, 14, a Kenwood High School student. "Some of the clothes aren't even comfortable."
Brand-conscious? Yes. "If they think it builds their image among their peers, they'll go there," Teen People's Jackson says.
And few things bolster image better than high-end labels previously out of their reach. Ralph Lauren is introducing Ralph, a line with price-tags around $50. Todd Oldham is aiming at Gen Y with a new line of jeans priced around $48. And Donna Karan and others are edging in as well.
"Now, everyone wants a piece of their business," says Hayley Hill, fashion director for Teen People. "The teens really have power in the fashion industry."
She noted a Gucci runway show last year featured cargo pants, a phenom originated by kids buying old military clothes at thrift stores. Many designers, including Ralph Lauren and Prada, also picked up on the trend.
Outerwear -- nylon pullovers and puff jackets -- as well as underwear-exposing baggy hip-hop gear also began with teens before climbing into couture.
Their influence is obvious, so discovering new ways to pinpoint their preferences is a must.
One way TRU gets into the teen style psyche is by asking focus groups to describe how they would dress characters on primetime teen soap opera "Dawson's Creek."
As far as advertising goes, Jackson says teens want manufacturers to "Make it simple, make it clear and make it have attitude."
"The biggest mistake you can make is to try to talk to them in their lingo, like hunk or babe-licious," Hill says. They don't appreciate it when manufacturers presume to know them better than they know themselves.
To appeal to teens' sense of individuality, such brands as Steve Madden and Mudd advertise sparingly and creatively with offbeat spreads in teen niche magazines, clever promotions and World Wide Web word of mouth. This type of advertising creates a sense of originality and discovery. Another successful strategy is employing celebrities, given today's adoration of teen-pleasing froth icons from Backstreet Boys to Brandy.
Teens are aspirational and want to identify with their icons. That's marketing speak for: Celebs sell.
Hill was amazed by the results of simply mentioning in Teen People that media empress Jennifer Love Hewitt owns a Roxy watch.
"The company got 1,000 calls within a week," Hill says. "They had to get more phones in. It's insane. It's totally insane."
Tommy Hilfiger is one of many to have figured it out. He's cashed in with commercial cross-promotion for high school horror flick "The Faculty," and with his new campaign featuring teen pop flavor-of-the-month Britney Spears. The Gap spotlights stars from L.L. Cool J to Luscious Jackson in its sleek television promos. The multimedia cuties of "Dawson's Creek" donned J.Crew for a shameless crossover ad campaign.
And Teen People frequently takes the cast of a popular teen show or film ("Sabrina the Teenage Witch" this month) and decks them out in current styles.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is endorsing her own line, while music moguls Puff Daddy and Master P make the most of their ubiquitous appeal with their own signature styles. "If Brandy wore it, I think I'd go buy it," says Caryl, the disillusioned New Yorker.
But as she bursts into sarcastic laughter and adjusts her black velvet skirt, something says she doesn't mean it.
The demographics of a trend
Taking a generation and hacking it down to four target groups may seem a little presumptuous. But how else can manufacturers make cents out of more than 30 million Gen Y teens skulking about the malls?
Teenage Research Unlimited, a market research firm in Northbrook, Ill., has divvied up the demographic as follows:
The Edge
17 percent of teen population
Discretionary income spent per week: $67
Think neo-grunge. This predominantly white subculture is experimental, music-obsessed, anti-mainstream and rebellious. These more-likely-to-be-pierced teens listen to the likes of Tori Amos and Sublime, and favor such brands as Vans, JNCO, Mudd and Doc Martens.
The Influencers
13 percent
Discretionary income spent per week: $77
Popular, confident and racially diverse, Influencers mix their own fashion statements with hip-hop culture. You're likely to find Mase or Master P in their minidisc players and Hilfiger, Nautica, Fubu and Nike in their closets.
The Conformers
49 percent
Discretionary income spent per week: $49
Mainly mainstream, this group often aspires to the hip heights of the Edge and the Influencers. These somewhat insecure trend followers sway to the populist sounds of Savage Garden and Backstreet Boys and swathe themselves in Gap, Guess and Old Navy.
The Passives
21 percent
Discretionary income spent per week: $49
Known as "bookworms," and even "nerds," Passives aren't enamored of the latest and the greatest in music, clothes or any typical teen obsessions. Celine Dion, LeAnn Rimes and Mariah Carey provide the rhythmic innovation they need, and Reebok, Lee and Levi's are Passive wardrobe staples. Pub Date: 3/10/99