Gen Y - Turning from Cars and Cash, and Print too?

I am in the middle of teaching one of my favorite classes, Product Design and Development. My students are typically post-MBA candidates who are taking this normally as their final course as part of a marketing specialty), and I enjoy taking them through classic topics around marketing research, strategy, and implementing the 4Ps. I also share some of my hands-on experiences recalled from my years in this area. And of course, current examples of products and services under development or recently launched provide great discussion fodder as well.


One opportunity this time through has been some recent discussion in the media on "Generation Y" or Millennial trends and preferences, and the potential impact/opportunity for marketers. We have had some great discussions on both changes in driving habits (cars and driving just are not as popular as they were with previous generations, it seems), and in paying habits (cash getting less and less popular as medium of choice).

Like with my students, these changes come as no surprise to me. Of course, I not a directly part of Generation Y (born between the early 1980 to the early 2000s), but are related to quite a few! And as we look at evidence of plummeting popularity of print and hard copy, maybe it should come as no surprise, given these other major generational changes.

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