Millennials have been accused of killing so many products and industries - taxis, landlines, snail mail - that it's become a media trope. But millennials are old news. Today, businesses and marketers are desperately anticipating the murderous whims of Gen Z, the demographic born after 1996. Gen Z makes up more than one-fifth of the US population and members are true digital natives who report being online "almost constantly", according to a 2018 study by Pew Research Center. (Psychologists have said their technology use has produced a national mental health crisis in the US.) More than 70% of Gen Zers influence their family's spending, according to a 2017 report from IBM and the US National Retail Federation. With that kind of sway and billions of dollars in spending power, they have businesses scrambling to understand their desires. The generation wields a deadly combination of economic power and social media clout. A disparaging tweet from Kylie Jenner this year about Snapchat wip...
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