• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 1, 2017

According to the Fall 2017 Ipsos Affluent Survey, “Affluent” defines adults living in households with at least $125,000 in annual household income, and “Affluencers” as a group that reflects the top 16% of American households representing 71% of all Affluents, a powerful grouping of Affluent consumers who also influence others’ shopping and buying behaviors.

Michael Baer, SVP and Head of Affluent Intelligence Group, Ipsos Connect, says “While most marketers have understood that the Affluent audience is important due to their buying power and purchase behaviors, especially in luxury and high-ticket categories, the study found that their influence is felt in nearly every category.”  

Due to the factors like media fragmentation, quality and transparency issues of the media supply chain, and the rise of ad blockers, marketers are becoming more and more interested in reaching out to and engaging Influencers, says the report.

The idea of reaching a targeted group of people who are particularly powerful and influential is spreading, having the potential to not only represent a disproportionate amount of purchases, but also represent a group that is sought for their advice and purchasing input across all categories.

Key findings from the survey include:

• 71% of Affluents are Affluencers, “influence” others in any category; 97% of Affluencers say “people ask my advice across any category
• Affluencers spend 40% more than other Affluents on all categories, and 3.6X as much as non-Affluents
• Affluencers are early adopters to new technology, innovations and new products, influencing the adoption and purchase of new products beyond themselves
• Affluencers are early adopters. 53% are one of the first to try new products or services; 64% prefer vehicles that offer the latest technology; 52% prefer vacation locations “off the beaten track”
• All Affluencers influence others’ shopping and buying in at least one category, while 50% of all Affluencers express their influence in 5+ categories. In addition, 97% say that others seek them out for their advice across many product and service categories
• Affluencers have the highest level of future purchase intent, indexing 131 for travel, 313 for watches and jewelry costing over $2500, 150 for planning and retirement, 151 for auto buying or leasing new vehicle, and 197 for home decorating, designing or building new home

The Fall 2017 study is based on 22,449 online interviews, says the report, conducted between June 2016 and June 2017 among U.S. adults (18+) living in households with at least $125,000 in annual household income. The survey uses rigorous methodologies, including weighting to Census estimates, to ensure the results are projectable to the population of America’s 58 million Affluent adults. The maximum margin of error is ±0.8 percentage points in the total sample.

For additional information from Ipsos, please visit here.