Luxury Tracking Report Spending Trends - 2Q2009 Luxury Consumer Tracking Study

This report summarizes the results of the Luxury Tracking Survey recording luxury purchases from April through June 2009, based upon a survey fielded in early July 2009. These second quarter results are compared with quarterly results from the second quarter last year and the first quarter this year. The next survey will cover July through September 2009 purchases and will be fielded in early October 2009.

Unity Marketing’s luxury tracking study is intended to keep luxury brand marketers’ and retailers’ fingers on the changing pulse of the luxury market. Through regular quarterly surveys, companies will better understand the shopping and buying habits of their affluent customers and anticipate how they will be spending their luxury budgets in the coming months.

To enable luxury marketers to understand variations within the affluent market, perspectives of three different segments of the luxury market were gathered, based on household income. These segments correspond to the top 20 percent of U.S. households based upon income:

• Comfortable affluent, with household incomes between $100,000 and $149,999 (56 percent of the sample 2Q2009);
• Super- affluent, household incomes between $150,000 and $249,999 (33 percent 2Q2009);
• Ultra-affluent, with incomes $250,000 and above (11 percent 2Q2009)