• Ad Age, Wednesday, April 7, 2010 10:45 AM

The New Affluents are demanding a new and different kind of relationship from the brands they purchase, writes consultant Ted Arnold. It's not about being expensive. "Luxury" brands, per se, are no longer important to them, or even relevant," according to the 2009 Mendelsohn Affluent Survey. Neither is "overall social status."

What these elites want is brand interaction -- a dialogue -- based on integrity, authenticity and performance. "And that means that the days of controlled, top-down brand marketing are over," Arnold writes, "especially for this sector."

You probably won't be surprised by many of the brands that are resonating with this group, with median age of 45 and median income of nearly $200,000. They include Apple, Sony, BMW, Ralph Lauren, Crate & Barrel, Ikea, Whole Foods, Levi's, Porsche, Lexus, Chanel, Viking, Target, North Face, Volkswagen and The Gap. But consider some of the classic luxury brands that didn't make the cut of the Top 75 brands: Cadillac, Gucci, Armani and Versace. Oh, and Louis Vuitton (see next item).

The study's takeaway, Arnold writes: "Define an integrated, consistent and positive interaction that reflects your brand's values, and understand that these consumers depend on mobile connections and social networking just like their mass-audience counterparts."

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