One in eight youngsters in a survey say Samsung is the coolest brand, even as nearly 40% of the youth are ready to ditch their favourite brand for hefty discounts from rival brands

Samsung’s marketing strategy targetting the youth seems to be paying off. A survey by market research firm Abacus Absolute reveals that one in eight young people identify the Korean brand as the coolest brand in the Indian market. The youth in India also see Samsung as the second most iconic brand even as the Tata brand name takes the cake as the most iconic brand in the Indian market. But when it comes to choosing the coolest brand slogan, it is that of rival telecom brand Nokia ? Connecting People ? which wins hands down.

Riding on the success of its mobile phones, especially its affordable smartphones, Samsung has beaten brands such as Nokia at second place and BlackBerry at 15 to come up tops in this survey of the coolest youth brands. Among the top five coolest brands, are two footwear brands ? Reebok at number three and Adidas at number five. Levi’s is at fourth place. After that come auto brand Maruti, two-wheeler brand Bajaj, watch and accessories brand Fastrack, Two -wheeler brand Hero and apparel brand Spykar.

Coming to brand slogans, the second hippest is chocolate brand Cadbury’s Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye. Airtel’s Har Ek Friend Jaroori Hota Hai is at third place. Surprisingly, erstwhile Hero Honda’s tagline Dhak Dhak Go at fourth place makes the Indian youth’s heart skip a beat even after the two partners of the two-wheeler brand have gone their separate ways. Insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India’s brand promise encapsulated in its tagline Zindagi Ke Saath Bhi, Zindagi Ke Baad Bhi takes fifth place.

Among brands that qualify to be labelled as iconic in the Indian market, Reliance is at third place, Maruti Suzuki at fourth place and Airtel at fifth place.

The Abacus Absolute survey was conducted in July 2012 and covered 300 respondents in the 18-30 years age group, three-quarters of whom were male. With the Indian youth the core target audience for every second brand in the country, understanding the likes and dislikes of the youth is certainly imperative. And many of the findings of the survey came as a surprise, indicating that today’s youth is anything but predictable.

Take, for example, their views on deo ads, a category which has been labelled sexually suggestive by media watchers. While 30% of the respondents said the Axe ads were their favourite, 7.1% of the respondents voted for the ads of Wildstone deo, another brand which is known for its sexually suggestive advertising. At the same time, 80% of the respondents did agree that these ads were sexually offensive and tasteless.

With the internet being seen as the lifeline of the youth, many a brand has hopped onto online advertising to catch their attention. But when it came to clicking on an ad link on their Gmail or Facebook account, 7 out of 10 youngsters in the survey said they have not clicked on an ad link in the last 30 days.

And while more than half of the youth respondents claim they are brand loyalists, nearly four in 10 youngsters would ditch their favourite brand because a rival brand is offering great discounts.

When it comes to choosing their favourite brand ambassadors, these youngsters are again unpredictable. Among male brand ambassadors, septuagenarian Amitabh Bachchan is their favourite . Bollywood actor Aamir Khan takes second place while cricketer Sachin Tendulkar is at number three. Two more Bollywood stars ? Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan ? are at number four and number five, respectively. Bollywood actresses rule the roost when it comes to favourite female brand ambassadors. Katrina Kaif gets the highest number of votes followed by Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor and Deepika Padukone.