I’m sharing the latest information from Pam Danzinger with Unity Marketing.  Pam is reporting the latest news on affluent buying habits, and it is good.

Whether we like it or not, our service is a luxury.  If you want to be busier, it’s important to focus on the more affluent marketplace.

Here’s the challenge for some designers.  Some feel that interior design services should be available to people with more modest means and that interior designers are only interested in people with money.  I’m not saying that the middle class shouldn’t have great design, there are many great alternatives available for everyone.  Some mass merchandisers and Internet resources are great for the people that don’t have the resources to hire a professional designer.  Home Depot and Target have their place.

However, for you as a designer to have a business that feeds your passion and your family, it is important to serve a market that can afford to pay you for your services.  That means the affluents.  They have more money than what is required to meet their basic necessities.  (Affluents earn over $100,000 per year.)

Let’s talk about the mindset.  If you grew up in a middle class background, you may have some self-esteem issues around money.  If you don’t feel good about receiving money, you will subconsciously push it away.

Just because someone has money doesn’t mean they are better than you are or will judge you because you don’t have their resources.  Affluent people often have the same problems.  They just have more money to go with it.

Don’t target the affluents just because they have money.  Be sure to pick people that have the same values as you do.  If your values are centered around family, find ways to connect with affluents through schools and charities that serve families.  When you have common interests, you’ll find it easy to make connections.

Also, if you feel insecure and unsure around people that are wealthier than you are, they will sense it and then they may not trust you.  Why?

• They will sense you aren’t comfortable and misread your motivations.  It’s important for you to be confident in what you offer, and that you are providing a valuable service.
• They don’t want to be judged just because they have money.  Ironically, many of the affluent are insecure because they are worried about losing their money.
• They also don’t want to be seen as a “deep pocket.”  Money leads to charitable giving, supporting and patronizing tradespeople and artisans…and us.  Money is a good thing.

Why do affluents hire you?

• Affluent clients are hiring you to save them time.
• They are also hiring you for your taste and resources.
• They want to fit in with their peers by showing their good taste and uniqueness.  Since the economic crisis started, they are a little more cautious about flaunting their wealth, though.

It’s a gift to be able to do what we do and to help people realize their dreams.   You are worthy of being paid for your gift, skills, knowledge and resources. Money is what you receive for the value you bring.

Focus on the benefits you bring to your clients and what you can do to serve them.  Wow them with a great experience.  Under promise and over deliver.

Here’s Pam’s latest report:

For Luxury Marketers and Retailers, Advertising Agencies, Investors and the Press…

Affluent Consumers Come Roaring Back — at least some of them — as Consumer Spending on Luxury Rises Sharply in Third Quarter

Unity Marketing’s latest survey of affluent consumers shows the most highly-affluent released pent-up demand for luxury in the past three months

Stevens, PA  October 19, 2009 –  The data is in and the news is generally positive: affluent consumers spent more in the third quarter 2009 than they did in the second quarter. However, marketers’ optimism should be tempered with realism, as a deeper look at the data discloses a dramatic difference in attitude toward luxury between ultra-affluent consumers with the highest household incomes and affluents with a less robust income level. The findings are further confirmation that the coming post-recession luxury market will be far different from the one that came before.

Changes in consumer behavior follow changes in attitude, according to most psychologists that study consumer behavior. In the third quarter of 2009 that proved true among luxury consumers. Last quarter affluent consumers showed the largest historic increase in consumer confidence as measured in Unity Marketing’s Luxury Consumption Index (LCI). In this quarter they followed suit by increasing their spending on luxury at near historic levels.

Overall spending on luxury goods and services rose 29.4 percent from second quarter to third quarter 2009.  In all but three of the 22 product and service categories included in Unity Marketing’s latest Luxury Tracking survey of 1,067 affluent consumers (avg. income $228,800), they spent more from quarter to quarter.

Good news: Affluents spent more in all but three of 22 product and service categories tracked

But Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and lead researcher in the luxury tracking study, warns luxury marketers that this quarter’s uptick might simply be a sign that consumers were releasing pent-up demand and that such strong spending on luxury may not carry over to subsequent quarters.  “No question that this quarter’s increase in spending on luxury is good news for luxury marketers. Many affluent consumers released pent-up demand in the third quarter, particularly in the area of home luxury goods and experiential luxuries, like travel and dining,” Danziger said.

Danziger continues, “In digging deeper into the data, the results show that the sharp rise in luxury spending was driven primarily by increased spending and participation in the luxury market by those at the highest-income levels (i.e. $250,000 and above).   Affluent consumers at the lowest-income level (i.e. $100,000-$149,999) were reluctant to trade up to the luxury level. So this quarter’s luxury tracking study was heavily weighted toward those in the upper-income levels.”   Click this link for more data about the number of affluent households at each income level.

Further moderating results in this quarter’s luxury tracking is a modest gain in overall luxury consumer confidence as measured by Unity Marketing’s exclusive Luxury Consumption Index (LCI).  For the third quarter 2009 the LCI only rose 1.6 points.  Commenting on the results of the latest survey Tom Bodenberg, Unity Marketing’s chief economist says, “The Luxury Consumption Index for third quarter 2009 was 75.9, which is a very slight increase from second quarter’s index of 74.3, thus ending a three-quarters-long pattern of substantial improvement.  Stated another way, the index has held its half-way climb back from its precipitous fall in the third quarter last year.  In the latest data we find that the downward spiral in the LCI that began in mid-2007 has bottomed out, and there are signs of a long, slow, but steady haul upward.”

For more major findings from Unity Marketing’s 3Q Luxury Tracking survey, log on to Pam‘s Twitter cite: www.twitter.com/PamDanziger

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