How great is the brand-loyalty of adolescents? This is a crucial question of brand advertising and marketing strategies directed towards young people. In this study, carried out in 1984 data on brand-use and brand-preference was collected for 1970 when todays respondents were 16 years of age, and for 1984 at an age of 30 years. The findings of the study make the following clear: contrary to the often heard prejudice regarding young consumers viewing them as volatile, unstable, not consumption-oriented and mainly interested in themselves, in average 52% of the 30 year olds admitted being loyal today to the brands they used in 1970 and more than a third of the sample considers the same brands their main brands in 1984 as in 1970.
Systematic children research can show discrepancies regarding the children's world of spare time and play. In part, children want something quite different in their spare time from what they may do and what they really do in adaptation-to the conditions they live in. Thus one may not automatically think that the way children act is what they feel their needs are. As far as the real spare time situation as well as the actual needs of children are concerned ,it is necessary for researchers, society, and industry, with the target group of children in mind, to reorient their way of thinking.