With 87% of mass affluents reporting use of social media, according to LinkedIn, it has become even more important for brands to entice this rapidly growing group with content. But creating content that's both effective and unique means we have to dismiss some unfortunate untruths that plague our industry when targeting a more upscale audience.

Last week, on Sept. 22, the autumnal equinox occurred. This event meant summer 2014 had come to a close and fall 2014 had begun. And with fall beginning, America's retailers and the companies that supply them with the goods and services they sell are focusing intently on the 2014 holiday shopping season. We discovered that some affluent consumers had already quietly started their shopping, and we gained some insights about how retailers will most likely fare during what is traditionally the No. 1 selling season of the year.

The luxury marketplace, where the high-end goods reside and the affluent in society are frequent visitors, has been beginning to feel a bit of a shift over the course of 2014, and may continue to follow this trend of change for some time. As the old adage goes, the rich get richer. What does this mean for the older generations of the affluent, the Baby Boomers?

This morning we released the 2014 Ipsos Affluent Survey USA, marking our 38th consecutive year of exploring the lives, lifestyles and media habits of Affluent Americans. The results reflect a number of encouraging developments and growth opportunities for media and marketers interested in Affluents.

What defines luxury to a man 2015? Is it a Rolex and a private jet, or the ability to travel the world and gain life experiences?

For any brand, targeting and engaging your preferred audience is key - and, in the grand scheme of digital marketing challenges, it's not that hard anymore. We have access to data that shows us how our target audiences behave and what they like. Marketers who embrace and understand the signals, can speak to their audiences at scale and convert.

One of the challenges in researching the Super Rich is that they are hard to research. In fact, there is very little research out there that has a significant sample size of households with $1 million + HHI.

By this point, as the summer winds down, we have likely read in several magazines, read in a newspaper or two, seen postings on Facebook, and maybe even seen a special on TV cautioning us on the dreadful effects the sun's harmful UV rays have on our skin. With fall coming, we may see advertisements for moisturizers that will extend our summer tan.

As part of our recent focus on wealth, our previous two columns - "Millennials Are The Future, But Boomers Are Today" and "Gen X Is The Generation That Affluent Marketers Can't Afford To Ignore" -addressed where household income and wealth currently reside among upscale consumers. Plus, for the first time, we also included mass-market consumers in order to provide affluent marketers with a benchmark of the rest of America, which is often one of their target markets.

Grabbing the attention of a niche population can be challenging, but when you're able to target and ultimately occupy that niche, the rewards can be immense. In all honesty, grabbing the attention of the affluent male is a 24/7 job. But like marketing for any business, the first step in the process is to first understand, to the best of our ability, everything about this target.