It's the hottest, well, buzzword in marketing. Buzz. Everybody wants it. Not everybody has it. And to get it, best you forget the old lingo of media buys, bump rates and drive times and get hip to the "influencers," "viral marketers," "bloggers" and "blasters" who are driving things today. According to many of the top consumer advertisers, getting people talking about you—be it face-to-face, online or over the phone—is where it's at.

Hear that echo in the distance? They're coming. They're a stampede of new consumers, 75 million strong, and they're unlike any herd that's ever hit your feeding stalls. Some call them Millennials, others Generation Y. Most often, they're known as the Echo Boomers. The offspring of the Baby Boom generation, they form the next big wave rolling down America's demographic curve. Born between 1977 and 1995, they number at least 25 million more than Gen X (or the Baby Bust), the cohort that came of age in the 1980s and 1990s.

It’s been said that the easiest way to a mother’s wallet is through her child’s mouth. Like most nuggets of wisdom, this one’s only partially true. American mothers, all 82.5 million of them, are—surprise!—quite often swayed by the whims and desires of their children. But when it comes to buying food, moms base their decisions on what’s important to themselves as much as to their kids. And how they choose to dole out the family dough can mean plenty to anybody who owns a restaurant.