I (Steve) wrapped up my tour of Florida Luxury Marketing Council talks this morning in Sarasota. Again, city-by-city dynamics were evident. Historically a retirement community, the population of Sarasota has gotten significantly younger over the past decade, and with it so has the local community of affluent and wealthy individuals. As a result, generational dynamics in wealth were of particular interest to marketers there.
One magazine publisher asked me for data about spending patterns by generation, and normally when I hear that question, it is asked in terms of Baby Boomers vs. Gen Xers. But in Sarasota, the greater interest is in comparing Baby Boomers to the generation that came before (alternatively called Matures, the WWII generation, or any number of other names).
This publisher had been targeting Boomers, while his competitors ask: Why target Boomers, when it’s the 75-year olds here who have more money? The most important question for magazine publishers (and by extension, all marketers), of course, is less about who has more money – the question is who spends more money, particularly in the categories their advertisers care about.
Generation and age also play a role in psychological reactions to the current economic situation – many of those in the Mature generation believe they won’t see a return of their portfolios to previous levels in their lifetimes, further curtailing their enthusiasm to spend. Although younger affluent individuals aren’t entirely confident their investments will fully bounce back, they certainly feel that have a better chance of making up lost ground simply because they have more time to do so.
