| 1 | 1 | | Hanging out, that great American pastime, is no idle pursuit for Irma Zandl. From a |
| 2 | | pavement café in Greenwich Village, New York, she watches the nine-to-fivers on their |
| 3 | | way to work. Lunchtimes, she lingers over spaghetti in an Italian restaurant, noting fashion |
| 4 | | and food crazes. Most afternoons, when the streets are filling up with teenagers out of high |
| 5 | | school, she is out there too, sipping an espresso, just [id:43392]. |
| 2 | 6 | | Dressed head to foot in black, with bleached hair, blood red lips and pale |
| 7 | | complexion, she could pass for any young Madonna clone. But Zandl is a youthful 40, and |
| 8 | | [id:43393] is her livelihood. A monitor of teenage culture, she runs her own successful |
| 9 | | business as a style forecaster. Call it sociology, anthropology or just plain observation, it |
| 10 | | earns her up to $2,000 a day. 'These streets are my [id:43394],' she says. 'I talk to the kids. I |
| 11 | | look. I listen. I like them.' |
| 3 | 12 | | Outside a Broadway record shop, two young women, in black leggings with short |
| 13 | | tulle skirts on top, stroll by. 'I saw that look coming two years ago,' she says with some |
| 14 | | [id:43395]. |
| 4 | 15 | | Such accurate [id:43396] has ensured that companies such as Pepsi Cola, Johnson & |
| 16 | | Johnson and McDonald's employ her as a trend consultant. What she calls 'her early |
| 17 | | warning intelligence' influences how they market their products to teenagers. |
| 5 | 18 | | Zandl's company, Xtreme Inc, is one of a handful of marketing consultancies |
| 19 | | specialising in the [id:43397] factor. What sets her apart, according to her clients, is her |
| 20 | | ability to immerse herself in the teen culture. 'Most consultants study the market from a |
| 21 | | distance,' says Aaron Kennedy, associate marketing manager for Pepsi Cola, 'but |
| 22 | | [id:43398] lives, breathes and eats it.' |
| 6 | 23 | | A former Revlon marketing executive, Zandl moved to a more senior job in a |
| 24 | | smaller cosmetics company. There her [id:43399] spotting new directions (she introduced |
| 25 | | Day-Glow nail varnish for example) gave her enough confidence to set up her own |
| 26 | | business. |
| 7 | 27 | | The Day-Glow nail varnish was instinct alone. Now, five years on, she has a more |
| 28 | | scientific base - a panel of 1,400 young people aged between eight and 24 - from which to |
| 29 | | draw her conclusions. Each month she holds discussion groups throughout the US. In |
| 30 | | groups of eight or more, young people talk about their 'feelings' about everything from |
| 31 | | hair gel to Mikhail Gorbachev or the future of the planet. |
| 8 | 32 | | Zandl's findings may come as a shock to anyone who believes that youth is |
| 33 | | synonymous with acne, anger and angst. What young people want, she believes, is clean |
| 34 | | living on a clean planet. 'There is a real reaction ahead against the liberal attitudes |
| 35 | | fostered by the Sixties, such as free love and role reversal. [id:43400], girls tell me they want |
| 36 | | to stay at home with the children again. Both sexes see that all the free love didn't |
| 37 | | necessarily bring happiness. And boys think that the New Man who originated from the |
| 38 | | Sixties - the sensitive type - is [id:43401].' |
| 9 | 39 | | Apart from the return to traditional roles, materialism looks like surviving the |
| 40 | | Nineties, [ id:43402] teenagers are first-time buyers, so acquiring things is a thrill. Zandl is |
| 41 | | also sure that the environmental and spiritual concerns of the so-called New Age are not |
| 42 | | just temporary. 'It looks as though the [id:43403] of the Nineties will be conservation and |
| 43 | | conservatism.' |
| 10 | 44 | | But there is still one crucial question which remains unanswered. When will |
| 45 | | everyone stop wearing black? 'Colour is definitely coming back into the wardrobe,' says |
| 46 | | Zandl. Then, perhaps thinking of the new conservatism, she adds: 'But not quite yet.' |
| | | |
| | | from 'The Sunday Times', October 14, 1990 |
