Generations of Luxury: What 'Young Affluents' Want and What It Means to Luxury Marketers

Meet the Young Affluents. The fresh, unexpected needs and desires of this "Want-It-All" Generation will be the most important trend to impact the global luxury market over the next decade and beyond. And savvy marketers need to be poised to meet the demands of this unique new force in the luxury marketplace.

Young affluents -- roughly corresponding to the Generation X and Millennial generations -- will play an increasingly important role in the target market for global luxury marketers over the next ten to twenty years. This is true not just in the United States (with a median age of 36.5 years) or in the European countries (where the median age ranges around 40 years old), but in the developing luxury markets, like Brazil (median age 28.2 years), India (24.9 years) and China (32.7 years), where the population as a whole is more youthful. This report presents information that is vital to the future success of luxury marketers worldwide.

This report will help luxury marketers and retailers 'think young' in order to understand the young affluents and to position their brands for the future in the developed and the developing markets. To prepare for the future, luxury marketers must understand the unique desires of the young affluents, how they express luxury in their lifestyles today and how they will do so in the future. Understanding the young luxury consumers is critical for marketers to target their marketing communications, advertising and product development efforts effectively now and for years to come.

This report presents the nine key trends that distinguish the young affluents from the more mature luxury consumers, based upon the latest research combining both qualitative and quantitative methodologies conducted by Unity Marketing. These nine trends form the basis for a strategy to help luxury marketers understand and reach out to the young affluents who will be their primary consumers for the next decade and for years to come.

What Do the Young Affluents Want and How Does It Differ from the Over 40 Crowd?

The global luxury market is going young so luxury marketers must learn to think young in order to survive and thrive. Global luxury marketers have gotten used to the passions and nuances of the maturing Baby Boomers after so many years of targeting this generation with their luxury goods and services. Now they have a new challenge to appeal to the young affluents who have different ideas about luxury and different priorities in how they spend their wealth.

Looking to the future, the global luxury market will be less culturally bound. Given the rise of the internet and other global media embraced by young people, trends in the luxury market will cross borders at alarming rates. The future of the international luxury market will be a 'global village' made up of young affluent citizens of the world.

To prepare for the future, luxury marketers must understand the unique desires of the under 40 year olds, how they express luxury in their lifestyles today and into the future. Understanding the young luxury consumers is critical for marketers to target their marketing communications, advertising and product development efforts effectively now and into the future.

This study reveals:

• Nine key trends that distinguish the young affluents from the older generation -- and the implications for luxury marketers for each of these nine trends in terms of branding, marketing and retailing
• What luxury categories are most appealing to the young affluents -- In which luxury categories the young affluents represent the core target market
• Where the young affluents shop for their favored luxuries and what marketers need to do to capture those customers when they are shopping
• How marketers can influence young affluents in their luxury purchases
• Why young affluents spend more and how luxury marketers can capture a bigger share of their wallets