Youth a Segment, or Lead Indicator?

Marketers often recommend segmentation of potential customer bases, for logical reasons. There nearly always are distinct preferences among generations, age and other "groups."

Beyond that, one might argue that technology behaviors now color traditional segmentation in new ways that make "youth" something more than an age segment.

"Young people have a pattern of discovering new methods, after which older generations later catch on and outnumber them," says Graham Brown, cofounder and partner of research firm Mobile Youth.

In that sense, "youth" segments simply are the "lead adopters" of new behaviors enabled by technology, that nevertheless become "typical" behaviors for people in every age demographic. Seen in that light, one might argue it is important to know technology-enabled behavior in the "youth" segment because it will spread, often quickly, to all the other age segments rather quickly.

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