Want vs need. Does your teen know the difference?

We're exposed. Constantly.

Advertisers have access to our phone numbers, email ids, and some of the most desirable real estate in the world: Our phone screens. With brands launching more products and inventive ways to make you think life is incomplete if you don't own them, you can be forgiven for falling into the impulse purchase trap.

But the truth is, it's even worse for teens. Every brand wants to hook in new customers at a young age so their marketing dollars get them a customer who’ll stay with them longer. They know exactly what attracts a teen into spending money on them.

Combine constant exposure with peer pressure and the chance your teen will blow up hard-earned savings on branded shoes goes up exponentially.

So what can you do?

Help them clearly differentiate between a need and a want.

Marketing campaigns are designed to make us want things. It's important to help your teen understand whether they actually need it. That fancy new backpack has a cool LED trick, but does that mean your current backpack is obsolete? Before buying a pair of Air Jordans, are you stopping to think if your current shoes no longer serve a purpose? The big question is: How do you tell them that?

Cracking the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ can not only help them make wise purchases but also bring about a paradigm shift in values!

The Big No-No: Directly telling your teen what they ought to need and/or want will likely backfire. In doing that, you’re just competing with marketers, and they’re good.

To find that delicate balance, here’s what you can do:

Understand Your Teen First

The last thing a teenager wants is to be told is who they are and how they should be. As they’re trying to figure themselves out, what they expect the most from their parents is understanding, not enforcement. Show them the direction and empower them to make the right choice on their own.

As teens enter their 15th year, they feel less close to their parents, here’s what you can do to bridge that gap and get to know your unique child.

1. Take interest in their interests, this will give you a fair idea of what they want
2. Spend quality time with them and attempt to avoid arguments
3. Genuinely listen to their feelings and thoughts.

Once the groundwork has been established, these are some things you can teach them:

Understanding Jobs To Be Done

Jobs To Be Done is a framework that says we all 'hire' products and services to accomplish a task for us. When purchasing a pair of headphones, you're 'hiring' them to do a job - play great audio while delivering excellent battery life while cancelling background noise, for example.

So before your teen decides they need those new Airpods Max, ask them to reflect on what the 'job' is, how do they do them better than the current solution, and is the price worth it?

This exercise can cause a critical shift in thinking about how your teen perceives wants and needs.

Defer the payment

Marketers are smart people. They lure you in with scarcity, or limited-time discounts, trying to make the impulsive side of your brain purchase before the slow, rational side can catch up and protect you. Teach your teen to recognise and avoid this trap. Before making any purchase, ask them to sleep on it and re-evaluate whether they need it the next day (you can even offer to pitch in whatever 'loss' they may face by not purchasing at the offer price). Oftentimes, we realise we want something based on impulse, and deferring the purchase even by a few hours can make the impulse fade.

Bonus tip: the 'cost per day' breakdown

This last one is an extremely effective tactic in valuing a purchase. When faced with arbitrary numbers like $400 shoes, our brains struggle with understanding if the purchase is worth it because there is no scale of reference. An effective counter to this problem.is to break down ownership cost/day.

Most of us understand daily expenses better. We know how much we are comfortable spending on coffee in a day, for example. Take the price of the product, estimate how long you'll likely use it, and divide it by the number of days in that period. That's how much you pay per day for the comfort/convenience that product offers you.

Important: It is not bad to ‘want’ things, where would we all be if we didn’t want to be somewhere? But when we get carried away, it is the ‘needs’ that will bring us back!

If your teen can still rationally want to buy something after all these filters, let them. They're on the right track.

Help your teen gain the power of financial independence by signing up with the Yodaa app today!