Luxury for the post boomer set

I came across a new term the other day- "young affluents"- used to describe the post boomer luxury consumer- those people of the Gen X and early Millennial crowd with incomes high enough to be considered prime luxury consumers. I personally think this is a great term for this group and hope it comes into the mainstream- or at least into the ways in which marketers and biz dev people think about a core audience.

Many of my clients are squarely focused on the boomer market still and while there is tremendous potential in this market in many CPG categories- travel, experiential products, health and well being related products there is somewhat of a waning interest in the larger items at the upper echelons - furniture, homes, etc as those needs are for the most part already taken care of for this group.

The new kids on the block- those under 40 who have the income and the need for these items are at times being forgotten by marketers and companies that have yet to realize the potential of this market.

We (yep, I am Gen X all the way) are a wired generation and the traditional ties to brands and to the standard way of purchasing things will not work for us in the same ways it did for the boomer generation. Honestly, we are also a coddled generation of consumers- we have not had the uncertainty (or war) that marked both the generation in front of us and now the generation coming up behind us in our formative years. So, we have a sense of entitlement, and a need for validation of our worth, that should be taken into account when courting us. Many people think that psychographics such as this are moot when talking about the luxury consumer as they are not typically buying items for survival or everyday consumption but I think that each buying decision, regardless of the price point, takes into account larger societal mores and issues.

Companies will have to come up with new and exciting programs to lure this discerning, busy and well traveled (and a tad cynical) generation. The question is - what will work? Loyalty programs, advertising, blog traffic, guerilla marketing, immersion marketing, direct ask approach? Each product is different and each company takes a different path to success but those I have seen be most successful have used a multi-pronged approach in which they bring the product to the consumer several times and hopefully tie it into a value proposition for the buyer that makes it a "must have" instead of a "would be nice to have, but don’t really need it" item.