'You've got one life, live it up'

MUMBAI: There was a time when being ''cool'' was all about the clothes you wore and the people you knew. Today, being cool is a more multi-faceted idea involving everything from the spikes under your shoes to the icons on your mobile phone screen. It''s all about ''experiential cool'', to use the marketer''s jargon.
And marketers should know. As Suresh Williams, a Mumbai-based brand consultant puts it, "Every marketer today should be trained in youth marketing.It is the 18 to 24 year olds who form the core of every trend. There''s a lot of money to be made here."
On cue are young Mumbaikars, who are more than happy to spend. Take 21-year-old modelling aspirant Nargis Baghera, who''ll be attending the forthcoming Cannes film festival. "When the occasion demands it, I put no limits to my spending. For a 12-day festival, I need a new wardrobe of at least 30 sets of clothes, shoes and accessories, including western and Indian formals, nightwear and daywear. I''m going in for florals and sequins, cobwebs and honeywebs. The costs, although I''ll design them myself, will be high."
Then there''s Siddharth Shah, a 19-year-old commerce student, who says with a shrug, "I don''t spend much on clothes here, I prefer to shop at Marks & Spencer, London." In Mumbai, his expenditure is mainly on food and beverages at ''hang-outs'' like Olive and Rain on weekdays, and Enigma or Insomnia on weekends.
"Youngsters spend on denims — brands like Pepe, Lee, Levi''s. For shoes, Red Tape and Lee Cooper are the favourite brands," says Krish Iyer, CEO of Crossroads mall. "High-end watches, costing Rs 2-5 lakh are also popular with them." Behind every youngster shelling out hard cash, there are the parents who form soft targets for a market-driven society.
"Eighty per cent of my clientele in the customised cars segment are the youth, although their parents pick up the tab," says Dilip Chhabria, specialist car designer. "Twenty-year-olds want their cars redesigned for exclusivity. The current trend is cars that reflect muscle, with bulging fenders and wide wheels. There are parents who spend Rs 20 lakh to get their kids'' cars redesigned."
Chhabria himself is the father of a youngster, Boney, who believes "you have one life, live it up". Boney drives a BMW and speaks on a cellphone costing Rs 3 lakh. "We parents are responsible for the current spending mania among youth today," Chhabria admits. "Parents don''t say ''No'' because they don''t want their child to be singled out, in a society where every other kid has every fancy stuff available in the market."