Marketing is all about story telling, right? And luxury brands often have wonderful stories to tell, and beautiful content to convey those narratives. Historically, their stories have been told across the glossy pages of magazines and in enigmatic perfume ads shown during later prime-time television.

For more than two millennia, people have used the New Year as a time to reflect back on lessons and accomplishments from the previous year, and to plan for the year ahead. In fact, the month January takes its name from Janus, the Roman god of doorways and beginnings, whose two heads allowed him to look backward and forward simultaneously. In the spirit of Janus, I'll use this month's column for looking back on Affluent life in 2013, and projecting ahead to the key trends likely to frame the discussion of Affluent lives in 2014.

As if it wasn't already a challenge to capture the attention of Millennial consumers, many young affluent consumers have been handed almost everything their hearts desire before even officially becoming adults. When trying to appeal to a segment of the population that has been lavished with expensive material items since birth, the strategy for brand marketers can't simply be to push why their product is the greatest - experience is key.

2014 is a year for exciting and delighting customers on their terms - every time, everywhere.

As 2014 kicks off, many financial and economic pundits are optimistic about the U.S. economy as unemployment continues to decline slowly and the economy appears to be rebounding at a faster pace. And some forecasters are even bullish about 2014. What does this optimism mean for those who market to the affluent? Based on our most recent survey of high-income and wealthy consumers, we believe it depends upon how the target market is defined. Is the marketer's target defined by household income (current cash flow) or net worth (current wealth)?

We tend to hear a lot about the early-adoption habits of affluent Americans in terms of digital media, but radio as an effective vehicle for reaching this audience has been largely overlooked. Studies show that the majority of those in the car still listen to AM-FM radio, where they can find traffic and weather, local news and events.