Marketing to the Affluent - 3 Tips For Success

Marketing to the Affluent - 3 Tips For Success

Marketing to the affluent can be the best investment your business will ever make. Once you count the affluent among your customers, you rarely need to worry about having to compete based on price. However, there are some pitfalls you must avoid or you'll spend a lot of money and get no tangible results.

Who Is Your Buyer?

First, and foremost, you need to understand who you're targeting as your best potential customer. The affluent can not be grouped together as one large group of people who 'have money'. Yes, they have money, but they have varying degrees of wealth and different groups, like the mass affluent, for example, pull back on spending when the economy worsens. The mass affluent spend when times are good, not when the economy looks uncertain. If you're targeting the affluent, you need to decide which demographic among the affluent groups will be most receptive to your message.

Once you determine which group is best to target (mass affluent, super affluent, ultra affluent), then you need to familiarize yourself with who these buyers are and what's important to them? Are they aspirational affluents? If so, they'll most likely respond to the 'you've made it' type of marketing message. For someone who has accumulated wealth over several decades, this is hardly the marketing message you want to use.
That's why it's so important for you, as a marketer, to understand the mindset of the buyer you're trying to reach. If you understand who they are and what's important to them, it's much easier to develop the appropriate marketing campaign.

How Do You Find the Right Marketing Message

There are a few universal themes, we know to be true about the affluent buyer:

1) They are in search of life experiences. Can you craft a marketing message that relates to your product or service in the context of life experiences?

2) They don't buy on price, but do buy on value. How do you determine what 'value' your product or service holds for an affluent individual? Again, it goes back to knowing what's important to your target market

3) They want to establish a relationship of trust with people, and companies, they do business with.

Your marketing message and sales approaches need to focus on this need. If you know what's important to the affluent, you should be able to craft a marketing message that resonates.

For example...

If you sell Porches, why not focus on the experience of driving the car rather than things about the car-0-60 in xyz seconds, the luxury interior or the high performance tires. These things contribute to the overall experience, but no one is really that interested in all the nuts and bolts.
If you own a dry cleaners, how can you become the Clothes Concierge to upscale clients? You're not starching shirts, you're providing a high level of service.

You can see from the above examples how you need to expand your marketing horizons if you expect to attract wealthy consumers.
Try Different Marketing Approaches

Many marketers, regardless of the business they're in, are reluctant to keep trying different marketing methods. However, for the affluent, it's vital that you be prepared to try several different approaches. Be consistent with the themes you know resonate, as you look at writing sales letters, building websites and developing collateral materials.
Also, keep in mind the need amongst the affluent for information. They spend 15-20 hours a week online and will most likely check you out online before they ever make a telephone call. Make sure your website has detailed information (white papers are an example) that a prospect can down load and review. If they feel comfortable after reading a white paper, then they'll be more likely to contact you. If the website feels 'cheap' or lacks information, they'll click away immediately.
Don't send any direct mail marketing unless your website is ready for this type of scrutiny. If your letter is ready and your website isn't, wait until both are up to par. Otherwise, you're just wasting marketing dollars.
Here are a few ideas for different approaches:

1) Affinity marketing in publications 2) Social networking via the web 3) Joint venture marketing 4) Marketing through networking