American Consumer Opinion

Luxury Market Research—Popular Views of Conspicuous Consumptions Debunked in Survey of Luxury Consumers

Contrary to assertions by some luxury market and retail consultants that the current economic problems are creating longer term changes in their lifestyles and reductions in spending on luxury and conspicuous consumption by America’s luxury consumers, Ron Kurtz, President of The American Affluence Research Center (AARC) believes that “most of the affluent are behaving like their normal, rational, and frugal selves. Their careful spending is not a new trend”.

While the concepts of “stealth wealth” and “luxury shame” are now being advanced by the retail and luxury consultants and futurists through anecdotal research about cut backs in the spending on ostentatious luxury, Kurtz feels “the sale of luxury goods and services, as defined by the majority of America’s affluent, is not subject to much change in 2009, just as it has not shown much change over the past 30 years”.

Kurtz bases his opinions on AARC’s ground breaking research on the definition of luxury among the affluent. The respondents to the AARC survey of the wealthiest 10% of US households were asked to specify the most they could imagine spending for 37 different products and services. They were also asked to name the brand they would most likely purchase for each of the items.

The profile of the 552 affluent men and women in the national survey sample is: $304,000 average household income, $3.1 million average household net worth, and $1.2 million average value of their primary home. The average age is 55 while 86% are married and 60% are males.  

Kurtz emphasized that he “doesn’t see any evidence that the majority of the affluent are showing major long term trend changes in their spending patterns and attitudes. They have never been ostentatious or conspicuous consumers. They have always been careful shoppers and savers who look for quality and value in their purchases, the brands they buy, and the stores where they shop”.

The affluent market in the US is cutting back and deferring expenditures, according to AARC research in  2008 and 2009, due to current economic conditions, especially given the reduced values of their homes and stock portfolios. However, these expenditure changes should not materially affect the sales of the high end products and brands normally associated with ostentatious “luxury” because most of the people in this market have not represented a substantial source of the sales of such products. “They will not suddenly be switching from Manolo Blahnik to Stuart Weitzman shoes, from Prada to Coach purses, or from Four Seasons hotels to Marriott,” according to Kurtz, “because they were not supporting those brands previously”.

The sales of the high end “luxury” products appear to be derived primarily from international “new rich” consumers and by the small segment of the wealthiest 1% in the US, as indicated by the AARC research.  A portion of the sales have apparently also been derived from those stretching their resources (especially their credit) to achieve a taste of luxury.  

Kurtz believes “a segment of the small niche market of conspicuous American consumers will have to change their spending and saving behavior. The Wall Street investment bankers, attorneys, and others in related activities are experiencing large reductions in income and net worth. Many of the younger people in this group don’t have substantial net worth to fall back on, as they were spending what they were making and perhaps even more”. Kurtz observed that changes in the spending of these people, as well as among the wealthy “new rich” citizens of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and other countries now experiencing recessions and declines in oil and commodity prices, will contribute to the decline in sales of the ostentatious “luxury” brands.

Concepts such as “discreet luxury”, in Kurtz’s view, are creations of some retail and luxury consultants who invent terms such as “mass affluent”, which he considers to be an oxymoron, to promote new consulting work. In his opinion, “some of these consultants are prone to invent such terms to describe changes in behavior among a small group of people as major trends. These trend projections are often based only on anecdotal or “managed” research”.

For a more detailed summary of the findings of this research and its implications, visit our blog post at AffluenceResearch.org entitled “Popular View of Luxury Spending Debunked in Survey of the Wealthy.”

About the Author

The American Affluence Research Center, led by AARC President Ron Kurtz, provides marketing research and mailing lists of affluent consumers to prominent companies targeting the affluent market, commonly referred to as The Luxury Market. AARC is an independent, private research organization dedicated to providing reliable marketing information about the values, lifestyles, attitudes,investments, and purchasing behavior of the most affluent segments of the U.S. population through both custom and multi-client surveys.

Review Of American Consumer Opinion A Free Survey Panel

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Choosing Schools: Consumer Choice and the Quality of American Schools $32.95 “Choosing Schools is a valuable contribution to the highly contentious, emotionally charged debate about school choice. Schneider, Teske, and Marschall have written a careful, reasonable, balanced and fair assessment of the evidence. Their quietly persuasive book deserves a wide readership.”–Diane Ravitch, former Assistant Secretary of Education in the U.S. Department of Education and author of The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945-1980″The authors’ careful and judicious reading of their evidence will be greatly appreciated by those who are frustrated by the selective and inflated claims that more typically have dominated the school choice debate. While the published articles of these authors are familiar to those who have followed the school choice debate carefully, the integration of the various pieces into this book gives that content a sense of freshness, greater complexity, and added empirical horsepower.”–Jeffrey Henig, author of Rethinking School Choice and coauthor of The Color of School Reform”There is not much empirical evidence on how school choice programs work in practice–which is perhaps the central concern in the debate over choice, political and intellectual. This book provides interesting new evidence on a wide range of choice-related topics, and ties it together with theories from economics, social psychology, sociology, and public opinion. In so doing, it offers a firm basis for gaining perspective on the performance of school choice and judging its prospects. There is nothing like it in the literature. It is a tour de force.”–Terry M. Moe, Hoover Institution and Stanford University

Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn’t Tell You : The First Comprehensive Guide to the Health Consequences of Smoking $11.99 From impotence to diabetes, cataracts to psoriasis, the proven dangers of smoking go well beyond heart and lung disease. Here, for the first time in one complete volume, noted experts detail all the known health threats of smoking.Each day thousands of people decide to smoke. The American Council on Science and Health offers the cold, hard facts about smoking in Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn’t Tell You so that the decision can be an informed one. The health experts at ACSH urge consumers to look beyond the headlines, the politics, the propaganda, and opinion polls to learn what research has proven about the dangers of smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in this country.Twenty eye-opening chapters all carefully reviewed by independent health experts explain clearly and honestly how cigarette smoking can effect the body from head to toe. They go far beyond the obvious risks of heart disease, lung cancer and emphysema, stroke, and concerns over second-hand smoke. Probed in depth are conditions few would even associate with smoking risks to which moderate to light smokers are susceptible: blood vessel disease, skin disease and wrinkles, risks during surgery, joint and bone problems, pediatric illness, male infertility and impotence, nerve disorders, numerous types of cancer, depression, hearing loss, eye disorders, Crohn’s disease, and more.The American Council on Science and Health, Inc., is an independent, nonprofit consumer education consortium concerned with issues related to food, nutrition, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle, the environment, and health.

How To Sell In Any Market $1 ATTENTION: ANYONE NOT MAKING IT ONLINE!”WHO ELSE WANTS TO BE ABLE TO SELL INANY MARKET AND RECESSION PROOFTHIER BUSINESS?”Dear Internet Marketer,A national CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 found that rising prices and declining home values have left Americans strapped for cash. Of the more than 1,000 American adults surveyed in the poll, 59% said they have cut back on clothing purchases, 75% have spent less on leisure activities, and 61% have postponed major purchases such as furniture or appliances. Americans are feeling the pinch of the economic recession and are expected to drastically cut back on discretionary purchases over the next several months. So what does that mean for those of us whose livelihoods depend on online sales to the American market? Are we doomed to see our sales fall and our income dry up? Not if we change our marketing strategies to match these economic changes!Introducing “How To Sell In Any Market Manual”!How to sell in any marketIn This Manual You Will LearnChapter One: What Does Recession Really Mean? Page 5What is a Recession?How Does A Recession Affect Consumer Buying Habits?How Long Will The Recession Last?So What Does That Mean For Me?Chapter Two: The Psychology of Consumer Buying Habits Page 7Awareness of the Need or Problem RecognitionSearch for Information – Internal and ExternalEvaluation of the AlternativesThe Decision to PurchaseMaking the PurchasePost-Purchase EvaluationAutomatic Behavior or Routine ReactionAnd Much More! Chapter Three: Identifying Your Target Customer Personal CharacteristicsPersonal

Jefferson vs. the Patent Trolls: A Populist Vision of Intellectual Property Rights $27.95 Of all the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson had the most substantial direct experience with the issues surrounding intellectual property rights and their impact on creativity, invention, and innovation. In our own digital age, in which IP has again become the object of intense debate, his voice remains one of the most vital in American history on this crucial subject.Jefferson lived in a time of immense change, when inventions and other creative works impacted the world profoundly. In this atmosphere it became clear that the developers of creative works and the users of those works often have competing interests. Jefferson appreciated as well as anyone that the originators of ideas needed legal protection. He also knew that innovation was crucial for a nation’s economic prosperity as well as its political health, and that rights should not become barriers.Jefferson was in a unique position to understand the issues of intellectual property rights. His pronouncements on these issues were those not of a scholar but, rather, of a practitioner. As a scientist, author, and inventor, he was a prolific creator. He was also a tireless consumer of others’ works. As America’s first patent commissioner, he decided which ideas merited protection and effectively created the patent review process. Jeffrey Matsuura profiles Jefferson’s diverse and substantial experience with these issues and discusses the lessons Jefferson’s efforts offer us today, as we grapple with many of the same challenges of balancing IP rights against an effort to foster creativity and innovation. Without inserting Jefferson anachronistically into the current debate, Matsuura does not shy away from positing where in the spectrum of opinion Jefferson’s ideas lie. For lawyers, legal and technology historians, and entrepreneurs, Matsuura offers a fresh, historically informed perspective on a current issue of major importance.

Living With War – Raw (w/ Bonus DVD) $14.12 For this raw limited-edition CD+DVD version of Living With War, the critically acclaimed original album, Neil Young strips away the choir, ratchets up the guitars and blasts away with all the passion and volume worth of one of rock’s greatest singer-songwriters. In addition, packaged with the new audio CD is a DVD featuring video clips documenting the recording sessions for each of the 10 songs on the album Neil Young has never been one to avoid political commentary. Ever since Ohio, his classic anthem of moral outrage about the Kent State student massacre in 1970, Young’s music has pulled no punches about the injustices of American policy both foreign and domestic. 2006′s Living with War continues that trend; in fact, the album is the most overtly political of Young’s long, dazzling career. A collection of protest songs that takes the Bush administration directly to task for their actions in Iraq and elsewhere, LIVING WITH WAR boils with outrage and aches with pathos (the grungy, midtempo opener After the Garden is a fine example of the latter). Let’s Impeach the President and Lookin’ for a Leader leave little question as to Young’s opinion of George W., while the crunching, electric-guitar-heavy feel of the album underscores Young’s bitter aggression. The album draws on the artist’s lineage to the socially conscious activism of the 1960s, yet it feels energized, angry, contemporary, and timely, further highlighting Young’s status as one of rock’s longest-running and most integrity-driven heroes. Track Listing 1. After The Garden 2. Living With War 3. Restless Consumer 4. Shock And Awe 5. Families 6. Flags Of Freedom 7. Let’s Impeach The President 8. Lookin’ For A Leader 9. Roger And Out 10. America The Beautiful

Opinion Surveys: What Consumers Have to Say about Information Privacy: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Commerce $10.71 New – OCLC Number: (OCoLC)48083568 Subject: Consumer protection — United States. Excerpt: …trusting behavior online.’ Trusting behavior online includes buying and selling goods, banking, getting health information, communicating via email or instant messaging with strangers, joining support groups and making friends and dates online.The surveys seem also to suggest that what we as Americans say in response to a survey question may be different from what we actually do. Two-thirds of American

Opinion Surveys: What Consumers Have to Say about Information Privacy: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Commerce $10.71 Used – OCLC Number: (OCoLC)48083568 Subject: Consumer protection — United States. Excerpt: …trusting behavior online.’ Trusting behavior online includes buying and selling goods, banking, getting health information, communicating via email or instant messaging with strangers, joining support groups and making friends and dates online.The surveys seem also to suggest that what we as Americans say in response to a survey question may be different from what we actually do. Two-thirds of American

Public Opinion: Measuring the American Mind $16.5 Learn how to evaluate and utilize public opinion data with PUBLIC OPINION: MEASURING THE AMERICAN MIND! With comprehensive coverage of the field combined with real-world relevance, this political science text prepares you to accurately interpret and analyze data from the public polls. Public opinion data from relevant issues such as the war in Iraq, Social Security reform, the death penalty, gay rights, and racial issues help you become a more informed consumer. Use the book companion website to access chapter-by-chapter resources, polling data, and questions about the results of surveys to enhance your understanding of public opinion and the polling process.

Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train: Errant Economists, Shameful Spenders, and a Plan to Stop Them All $22.95 Americans have been conditioned to appreciate, cheer, and serve economic growth. Brian Czech argues that, while economic growth was a good thing for much of American history, somewhere along the way it turned bad, depleting resources, polluting the environment, and threatening posterity. Yet growth remains a top priority of the public and polity. In this revolutionary manifesto, Czech knocks economic growth off the pedestal of American ideology. Seeking nothing less than a fundamental change in public opinion, Czech makes a bold plea for castigating society’s biggest spenders and sets the stage for the “steady state revolution.” Czech offers a sophisticated yet accessible critique of the principles of economic growth theory and the fallacious extension of these principles into the “pop economics” of Julian Simon and others. He points with hope to the new discipline of ecological economics, which prescribes the steady state economy as a sustainable alternative to economic growth. Czech explores the psychological underpinnings of our consumer culture by synthesizing theories of Charles Darwin, Thorstein Veblen, and Abraham Maslow. Speaking to ordinary American citizens, he urges us to recognize conspicuous consumers for who they are-bad citizens who are liquidating our grandkids’ future. Combining insights from economics, psychology, and ecology with a large dose of common sense, Czech drafts a blueprint for a more satisfying and sustainable society. His ideas reach deeply into our everyday lives as he asks us to re-examine our perspectives on everything from our shopping habits to romance. From his perspective as a wildlife ecologist, Czech draws revealing parallels betweenthe economy of nature and the human economy. His style is lively, easy to read, humorous, and bound to be controversial. Czech will provoke all of us to ask when we will stop the runaway train of economic growth. His book answers the question, “How do we do it?”

The Averaged American: Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public $21 Americans today “know” that a majority of the population supports the death penalty, that half of all marriages end in divorce, and that four out of five prefer a particular brand of toothpaste. Through statistics like these, we feel that we understand our fellow citizens. But remarkably, such data—now woven into our social fabric—became common currency only in the last century. Sarah Igo tells the story, for the first time, of how opinion polls, man-in-the-street interviews, sex surveys, community studies, and consumer research transformed the United States public.Igo argues that modern surveys, from the Middletown studies to the Gallup Poll and the Kinsey Reports, projected new visions of the nation: authoritative accounts of majorities and minorities, the mainstream and the marginal. They also infiltrated the lives of those who opened their doors to pollsters, or measured their habits and beliefs against statistics culled from strangers. Survey data underwrote categories as abstract as “the average American” and as intimate as the sexual self. With a bold and sophisticated analysis, Igo demonstrates the power of scientific surveys to shape Americans’ sense of themselves as individuals, members of communities, and citizens of a nation. Tracing how ordinary people argued about and adapted to a public awash in aggregate data, she reveals how survey techniques and findings became the vocabulary of mass society—and essential to understanding who we, as modern Americans, think we are.

The Market and the Masses in Latin America: Policy Reform and Consumption in Liberalizing Economies $23.66 Used – What do ordinary citizens in developing countries think about free markets? Conventional wisdom views globalization as an imposition on unwilling workers in developing nations, concluding that the recent rise of the Latin American left constitutes a popular backlash against the market. Baker marshals public opinion data from eighteen Latin American countries to show that most of the region’s citizens are enthusiastic about globalization because it has lowered the prices of many consumer g

The Market and the Masses in Latin America: Policy Reform and Consumption in Liberalizing Economies $23.64 New – What do ordinary citizens in developing countries think about free markets? Conventional wisdom views globalization as an imposition on unwilling workers in developing nations, concluding that the recent rise of the Latin American left constitutes a popular backlash against the market. Baker marshals public opinion data from eighteen Latin American countries to show that most of the region’s citizens are enthusiastic about globalization because it has lowered the prices of many consumer go