Better branding will attract young to services, says Mori

Victoria Mitton, senior researcher at Ipsos Mori's social research institute, said almost half of young people are dissatisfied with youth clubs.

"Young people are massively sophisticated consumers. They view the world as consumers rather than citizens," she told an Association of Principal Youth & Community Officers conference last week.

"The more we can use branding images with youth services and sell ourselves, the better. We need to speak to young people, give them a voice and listen to them. We run the risk of cutting them out completely."

But Pete Marsh, strategic manager for youth and community at Hampshire County Council, criticised the idea. "There seems to be an equation being built up where empowerment relates to consumerism. I have anxiety about the sort of approach that suggests that what young people want, young people get," he said.