Abstract
In early 2007, when the last edition of Packaged Facts The Affluent Consumer
Market in the U.S. was published, affluent consumers in America as well as
wealthy individuals around the globe were going about their business of
making, borrowing and spending money in blissful ignorance of the perfect
financial storm that lay ahead. At the time, it was unimaginable that the
housing bubble would deflate and leave behind a wreckage of foreclosures and
worthless subprime mortgage securities. It was unthinkable that the stock
market would collapse, financial markets would come close to imploding and a
storied institution such as Lehman Brothers would simply disappear from the
Wall Street landscape. Practically no one could foresee the onset of the most
severe recession in more than 70 years.
The 2009 edition of Packaged Facts The Affluent Consumer Market in the U.S.
provides a timely, in-depth analysis of how affluent consumers are responding
to the most profound economic crisis since the Great Depression. The report
uses multi-year data from Experian Simmons National Consumer Studies to track
affluent consumer attitudes and behavior from the years preceding the onset of
the Great Recession into 2009. This trend analysis gives marketers an
insightful, up-to-date view of what' s changed and what' s stayed the same in
the psyche and behavior of affluent consumers, who account for 22% of the
nation' s households but still generate more than half of the household income
of the country and remain responsible for more than one-third of all consumer
spending.
This Packaged Facts report begins with an assessment of the strategic trends
shaping the affluent consumer market today, including a data-driven analysis
of how affluent consumers are coping - or not - with the Great Recession. The
next Chapter describes how marketers are adapting to change in the affluent
consumer market and highlights key opportunities in what remains the single
most attractive market segment in the American consumer economy. Following a
Chapter that includes an in-depth demographic profile of affluent consumers,
the report assesses the size of the affluent market today and projects its
growth through 2014.
The second section of the report examines how affluent consumers manage and
spend money. It includes a Chapter offering insights into changes in the
attitudes of financial consumers toward risk and includes an analysis of
credit card use and ownership of insurance policies and investments. The next
Chapter explores affluent consumer spending and shopping patterns. It includes
a trend analysis of affluent consumer expenditures from 2005 through 2008 that
demonstrates where affluent consumers are cutting back and in some cases
adding to their household budgets. It also provides an overview of the
behavior of affluent shoppers - in stores, online and from catalogs.
The third section of the report includes separate chapters highlighting key
aspects of affluent consumer behavior. These include chapters on health and
well-being, affluent consumers and their homes and cars, how affluent
consumers spend leisure time and affluent consumers and the media.
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