This special episode of Market Says was recorded live in Marcus Collins' marketing classroom at the University of Michigan. Gayle Troberman joins Marcus's class as a guest, and the whole room gets the mic. The question on the table: why do some brands last a hundred years while others are gone in a season? The students look at brand loyalists and at sports fans who keep showing up when the team doesn't. They also ask why picking an AI assistant has become a question of whose founder you believe in. And they get honest about the moment a brand stops being what they believed it was. For every marketer chasing the next trend, the market's advice is simple: know who you are and keep being it.

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​Technology can generate almost anything now. So what's left that only humans can do? In this episode of Market Says, hosts Gayle Troberman and Marcus Collins sit down with University of Michigan marketing students to make the case that taste is the last real human advantage. The students explain why taste has to be lived rather than learned, which tastemakers they actually trust, and why content built on the average will never connect. For every marketer under pressure to automate the creative work, the market has some advice: keep the humans in the room.

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Moviegoing was supposed to be dying. Then Gen Z sold out theaters all summer. Gayle Troberman and Marcus Collins sit down with University of Michigan marketing students to unpack what's actually driving the comeback. Spoiler: it's less about what's on the screen and more about who's in the seat next to you. From sold-out Spider-Man showings to Letterboxd rankings that beat Rotten Tomatoes, this one's about why the movie might just be the excuse, and what that means for anyone trying to market a moment.

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65% of Gen Z feels nostalgic for eras they never lived. That's a marketer's dream — and a minefield. In this episode of Market Says, hosts Gayle Troberman and Marcus Collins sit down with University of Michigan marketing students to unpack why some brands earn their way into a decade that isn't theirs, and why the ones that fake it get caught every time.

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74% of Gen Z uses TikTok as a search engine. 81% of teens get news from creators. But 55% still say they trust established experts when a story really matters. So the question isn't whether Gen Z has abandoned traditional sources. It's whether "the source" is even a concept anymore. In this episode of Market Says, hosts Gayle Troberman and Marcus Collins sit down with University of Michigan marketing students to figure out who they actually trust, when credentials still matter, and what all this means for brands and truth.

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The ’90s version of showing off was a giant Tommy Hilfiger logo across your chest, a big Nautica patch on the sleeve of your polo, or head-to-toe Adidas from the hoodie to the trainers.

Gen Z’s version? Waking up at 4am for a limited edition sneaker, waiting in line for 12 hours for a hoodie, or hunting down the Canada Goose jacket that sold out in minutes. The logo might be smaller, but the scarcity and sacrifice add something even more valuable than the product itself - the story behind how you got it.

In this episode of Market Says, hosts Gayle Troberman and Marcus Collins sit down with University of Michigan marketing students to explore how identity is signaled now that scarcity, sacrifice, and cultural relevance matter as much as the product itself. Why are Gen Z willing to work harder than ever to earn their brand identity?

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Some brands you grew up with stick with you forever. Others get dropped the minute you have your own grocery list. In this episode of Market Says, hosts Gayle Troberman and Marcus Collins sit down with University of Michigan marketing students to figure out what makes Gen Z stay loyal, what makes them switch, and why so many of them are happy to keep their parents' bank but wouldn't be caught dead in their parents' jeans.

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Brands have been gearing up for America's 250th birthday like it's the next Super Bowl. The market is shrugging. In this episode of Market Says, hosts Gayle Troberman and Marcus Collins sit down with University of Michigan marketing students to find out which 250 plays are actually landing with Gen Z, and why so much of the big-budget spectacle is losing out to the small, simple stuff.

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