A Prime Target

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When discussing target audiences with your clients, do affluential consumers enter into that conversation?  They should, as MediaPost reports, they really can move the sales needle in key metrics...

Affluencers, a powerful grouping of Affluent consumers who also influence others’ shopping and buying behaviors, represent 71% of all Affluents, according to the Fall 2017 Ipsos Affluent Survey released this month. The Survey defines “Affluent” as adults living in households with at least $125,000 in annual household income, a group that reflects the top 16% of American households. “While most marketers have understood that the Affluent audience is important due to their buying power and purchase behaviors especially in luxury and high-ticket categories, we’ve found that their influence is felt in nearly every category,” said Michael Baer, SVP and Head of Affluent Intelligence Group, Ipsos Connect.

Marketers are becoming more and more interested in reaching out to and engaging Influencers – due to the factors like media fragmentation, quality and transparency issues of the media supply chain, and the rise of ad blockers. Thus, the idea of reaching a targeted group of people who are particularly powerful and influential is spreading. Which is why the identification of the Affluencers is so important – this target has the potential to not only represent a disproportionate amount of purchases, they also represent a group that is sought for their advice and purchasing input across all categories. In addition, Affluencers on average consume more media than general Affluents, with both print and digital publications up +9%.

Other key findings from the survey include:

• Affluencers spend 40% more than other Affluents on all categories, and 3.6X as much as non-Affluents.
• Affluencers are early adopters to new technology, innovations and new products – again influencing the adoption and purchase of new products beyond themselves.
• Affluencers have the highest levels of future purchase intent in the categories they influence – from 10% to 400% more
• All Affluencers influence others’ shopping and buying in at least one category, while 50% of all Affluencers express their influence in 5+ categories. In addition, 97% say that others seek them out for their advice across many product and service categories.