Marketing Luxury Goods

"The rich are different from you and me"

Whether Fitzgerald was on to something with that statement is a moot question. However, that could be a valid observation concerning one aspect of wealth -- the buying habits. Traditionally, marketers have always desired to reach this market, largely because the affluent consumer has more disposable income than the average consumer. Tracking the desire of the affluent consumer, however, is somewhat hindered by certain problems of definition, the first being just who is considered affluent?

In the United States, for instance, the number of U.S. millionaires is increasing at roughly 20 times the rate of the population as a whole. By the end of 1996, there were more than 4.8 million households whose net worth -- excluding the value of their primary residences -- exceeded $1 million. That is an increase of 118 percent from 1992, according to Payment Systems Inc. (PSI) of Tampa, Florida. One of the more accepted figures is that analysis determined by Mendelsohn Media Research Inc. that claims households earning between $70,000 and $99,999 annually were "marginally rich," those earning $100,000 to $249,999 were "comfortably rich," and those earning $250,000 or more were rich.

A second major problem is the act of determining whether such trends as economic recessions in specific countries impact the buying habits of the rich, or are they immune (eithe

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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1160
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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