THEY are cynical, entrepreneurial, individualistic, want constant change and generation Z could be the reason your favourite brands are about to disappear.

Generation Z, born in the mid 1990s comes of age this year and their can-do attitude, distrust of big corporations and need for constant stimulation is about to affect us all.

Marketers who try to cater to a generation that is addicted to change are going to have to produce new niche products faster and cheaper because they are only likely to remain on the market for a short time.

And the rest of us will be left in their wake sipping weird drinks flavoured with herbs like camomile or eating foods that surprise with cold or heat.

Blaze Research a team of anthropologists, psychologists and statisticians who help big brands understand consumer attitudes has conducted a new analysis of this emerging generation.

“Cynical, overstimulated individuals in search of meaningful experiences,” is how Sara Garcia, principal of Blaze described today’s 17 and 18 year olds.

She says they are born street smart, learned their cynicism from their parents and distrust the big corporations that made their parents redundant.

Their childhoods have been punctuated by the September 11 terrorist attacks, the global financial crisis and huge advances in social media and technology.

Their ability to use the internet as a resource and to connect mean they will be able to design their lives as they see fit.

“They know they can’t know everything but have been taught they can find anything on the internet and are very connected and resourceful and can find the people they need using social media,” she says.

This generation has been on the internet since birth and research has found it has rewired their brains, made them impatient, hyperstimulated and multitaskers, she says.

“They get bored easily, they’ll want change, it will be a constant in their lives and they will be addicted to it,” she says.

At the same time there will be periods when this generation will want some peace, want to indulge in the joy of missing out and they will be looking for meaning and integrity.

Older brands that want to survive will have to behave ethically, lose any sense of pretension and appear honest, not stuffy, the research reveals.

This is a generation that has a strong self-belief, unlike generation Y it does not need the reinforcement of following the herd.

One of the positive social outcomes of this is that generation Z are less likely to be habitual drinkers.

While binge drinking won’t disappear “there will be less and less stigma around not drinking … it will not be a habitual focus of Saturday night,” she said.

This generation will be more conscious curators of their own experiences and want to find activities that will add value to their lives.

Their fear of losing face on social media will curb their drinking behaviour.

“They are masters of the internet, not slaves to it and they’ve created a public brand of themselves they don’t want to see tarnished by pictures of themselves trashed,” she said.

Already the National Drug Strategy report in 2010 found the proportion of generation Z abstaining from alcohol in their early teen years — ages 12-15 — increased from 66.2 per cent to 77.2 per cent.

An IBISWorld analysis of this generation found they will make up 13.2 per cent of Australia’s population next year.

###