Market researchers say there's something fundamentally different about tech-savvy millennials, steeped from birth in a fast-moving world of digital data, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (via ConsumerLab).

Millennials - aka echo boomers and Gen Y, ranging in age from 13 to their late 20s - are the second-largest generation in U.S. history, behind only the baby boomers, and have an astounding $179 billion in spending power, according to the 2006 TRU Study.

Apart from their sheer numbers, millennials are prized for their ability to frame the pop-culture agenda. They are trendsetters for the population, at the cutting edge of a tech-centered world that is changing before anyone has a chance to react.

Gen Y is also the personalization generation - spending time and money shopping from a wide range of brands to define who they are. Choice offers a sense of control to overburdened teens who have been forced to grow up and focus on goal-driven career choices at ever-younger ages.