Today's Young Affluents Are the 'Want-It-All' Generation

Furniture World Magazine

For the past decade, global luxury marketers have enjoyed strong sales and profitability resulting from the rising affluence of the Baby Boom generation. Aptly called the ‘Me-Generation,’ Baby Boomers felt entitled to indulge their consumer passion for luxuries in a way that buoyed their lifestyles and the luxury companies and brands that they depended on. But today the leading edge of the Baby Boomer generation is approaching retirement and their way of expressing their ‘Me-Generation’ attitude will be to turn away from luxury consumerism toward having new life experiences in their senior years. Taking over as the core target market for luxury marketers in the years ahead will be the Young Affluents aged 40 years and under, roughly corresponding to the Generation X and Millennial generations. This is good news for luxury marketers, as the young affluents are even more passionate luxury consumers than the Baby Boomers were, according to a new study from Unity Marketing called the Generations of Luxury. “If the Baby Boomers were the ‘Me-Generation,’ the GenXers and Millennials are the ‘Want-It-All Generation.’ They have an appetite for luxury that far exceeds that of the older cohort. In 2006 the 40-and-under young affluents spent 32 percent more on luxuries than the over-40-year-olds, an average of $65,294 as compared to $49,485. Incomes for both age groups were nearly identical, so our research needed to dig deeper to find the reasons that account for young affluents’ greater spending,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing. The ascent of the young affluents is not only a phenomenon impacting the American luxury market, but a global trend as well. “Young affluents will play an increasing important role in the target market for global luxury marketers over the next ten to twenty years – not just in the United States (with a median age 36.5 years) or in the European countries (where the median age ranges around 40 years old), but in the developing luxury markets, like Brazil (median age 28.2 years), India (24.9 years) and China (32.7 years), where the population as a whole is more youthful,” Danziger explains. “Looking to the future, the global luxury market will be less culturally bound. Given the rise of the internet and other global media embraced by young people, trends in the luxury market will cross borders at alarming rates. The future of the international luxury market will be a ‘global village’ made up of young affluent citizens of the world,” Danziger says. Danziger to Present Key Findings of the Research on Young Affluents at the Global Luxury Forum The ascent of the young affluents and what these consumers will mean to luxury marketers worldwide will be the subject of Pam Danziger’s plenary presentation at the Global Luxury Forum, April 20 in Old Billingsgate, London. In a speech entitled “The Ascent of the Young Affluents – What They Want and How Luxury Brands Must Deliver It to Them,” Danziger will present key findings from the new research study Generations of Luxury conducted by Unity Marketing. Danziger’s presentation at the Global Luxury Forum will be the first time this important new research about young affluents will be presented to an international audience. To learn more about the meeting and register to attend, visit http://www.eventica.co.uk/events/luxury/2007/. The Global Luxury Forum is sponsored by Eventica. Danziger concludes, “The global luxury market is going young so luxury marketers must learn to think young in order to survive and thrive. Global luxury marketers have gotten used to the passions and nuances of the maturing Baby Boomers after so many years of targeting this generation with their luxury goods and services. Now they have a new challenge to appeal to the young affluents who have different ideas about luxury and different priorities in how they spend their wealth.” New study reveals what the under 40 year old luxury consumers want -- and what it means to luxury marketers Unity Marketing latest study of the luxury market examines and compares the 40-and-under and the over-40-year-old luxury consumers. The report, Generations of Luxury, details what the young luxury consumers want and how their tastes and perspectives differ from the over-40-year-olds. It includes nine key trends that distinguish the young affluents from the more mature, as well as the marketing implications of these trends for luxury brands. To prepare for the future, luxury marketers must understand the unique desires of the young affluents, how they express luxury in their lifestyles today and how they will do so in the future. Understanding the young luxury consumers is critical for marketers to target their marketing communications, advertising and product development efforts effectively now and for years to come. Use this link http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/cms_luxury/luxury/insights_study.php to learn more about the Generations of Luxury report. Visitors can download the first chapter of the report, as well as reserve a pre-publication copy.