The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Storm

Chapter 24. Marketing to Generation Y

I stopped my Volvo wagon at the top of our drive, got out to retrieve the mail, and got back in the car.

We get a lot of mail. My two daughters, ages thirteen and sixteen, chorused “Anything for me?” I thumbed through the stack, determined that they both had received letters with coupons from their favorite clothing retailer, and passed the envelopes to the backseat, where they were ripped open.

Then begins the drill: “Dad, can you take us to Bob’s?” This is not a real question, because they know I’m trapped. How else will we save all the money reflected in the coupons? I am very familiar with the process because the retailer keeps these snail-mail incentives coming with train-schedule regularity.

There ...