Marketing To Millionaires: More Numerous, More Diverse, More Challenging

By any measure, the number of Americans that can claim millionaire status is rising, and rising rapidly. No matter how it is measured, whether by total net worth (including homes and other assets) or by financial assets alone, there are many more people living the life of luxury, or at the least, a life free from the worries that plague the less financially endowed.

On the surface, with millionaires being thick on the ground, it should be easier for marketers to sell to them. Yet with the millionaire class more numerous, they also are becoming more diverse, distinguished by greater diversity in gender, marital status, age, ethnicity and other demographic characteristics, but more importantly in consumer behavior, values and lifestyles. It is complicating the marketers’ job to identify them and communicate effectively with them.

More millionaires is both blessing and curse for marketers today .

Millionaires by the numbers

Estimates of the number of American millionaires varies by source and how millionaire status is measured. Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report puts the number at 15.4m, with predictions that their ranks will grow by some 16% by 2022 to reach 17.8m. Further they claim the number of millionaires grew 7.7% from 2016-2017.

Spectrem Group, which services the investor community, reports a more conservative 11.5m American millionaire households, based upon financial holdings, including some 172,000 households with a UHNW status in excess of $25 million, whose numbers increased by 10% from 2016 to 2017.

To help marketers understand how to succeed in marketing to today’s millionaires, I sat down with Patrick Bischoff, who heads the company’s professional services team and Rick Nichols, who works in WE’s Atlanta office. They tell me a one-on-one marketing strategy is what is required to tap the tremendous spending potential in the millionaire market.

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