Businesses who sell to Gen X and Gen Y may want to check out this sample from the Cassandra Report Vital Stats Issue. The lifestyle study identifies the spending patterns, online behavior and technology adoption of consumers ranging from 14 to 34 years of age based on a survey of 900 respondents that reflect America's ethnic makeup. Here are some Cassandra Report trends that we think may be of particular interest to entrepreneurs:
- In early 2007, 29 percent of respondents purchased a product that donated a portion of profits to a cause.
- The faith-based music genre is expanding as Christian rock and musicians based in other faiths become popular. For example, Jewish-American reggae musician Matisyahu is the second most popular artist among the studies' trendsetters.
- Some of the hottest activities in 2007 include volunteer vacations, social sports clubs, self-publishing and board game leagues.
- Young people are still creating virtual lives on social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, but many maintain them because they fear being left "out of the loop" with friends. Cyber-bullying is also on the rise.
- Machinima, or the creation of movies from video games, is being used effectively in marketing. Last year, Sony collaborated with a broadband provider to create a Machinima ad series to market their God of War video game.--Joanne Yao
Posted by Jennifer Grzeskowiak at 06/18/2007 04:30:52 PM