By any measure, the affluent sector is growing exponentially, and is far more diverse (in terms of ethnicity, education, location, and professional background) than any time in the past. This market represents lucrative opportunities for companies that understand how these customers think, act, and make purchasing decisions. Applying primary research, including demographic and economic data, and expertise developed from decades of studying, teaching, and consulting in marketing and consumer behavior, Ronald Michman and Edward Mazze present a comprehensive approach to analyzing the affluent consumer-and creating, promoting, and selling innovative products and services to them. Illustrating their principles through dozens of examples, including Armani, Mercedes Benz, Brooks Brothers, Neiman Marcus, Merrill Lynch, Tiffany, and even discounters, such as Target and Wal-Mart, the authors deconstruct how a complex market segment works. Dispelling popular myths and misconcpetions about the composition and behavior of this segment, they provide not only a practical guide for marketers and students of marketing, but a fascinating glimpse into a culture driven by materalism, status, and aspirations to luxury. By any measure, the affluent sector is growing exponentially, and is far more diverse (in terms of ethnicity, education, location, and professional background) than at any time in the past. In 2004, there were 8.2 million households in the United States with net worth over $1 million, excluding primary residence. Meanwhile, between 1995 and 2001, the number of families filing tax returns for income exceeding $200,000 doubled. This market represents lucrative opportunities for companies that understand how these consumers think, act, and make purchasing decisions.

In today's world of galloping change, adjustment and anticipation have become ever more vital for retail operations. Many retailers have successfully anticipated change, while others have simply become relics of retailing history. Facing intense environmental competition, different types of retail institutions, whether a mass merchandiser or a hotel, find themselves confronting different types of challenges. The stories of a spectrum of retailers highlight the variables necessary for duplicating success and avoiding failure. This timely work provides a starting point for understanding the complexities and interrelationships in retail management.

As businesses have grown to realize that the success of operations is more and more dependent upon an adequate knowledge of consumer behavior, the importance of lifestyle market segmentation has increased steadily. In this volume, Ronald Michman shows how social and cultural changes in group dynamics and purchasing influences can be used in making lifestyle marketing decisions. Working from a management-oriented perspective, Michman describes the key steps in market planning--interpreting signals of change, assessing the implications of change, and developing strategies to take advantage of the change--and challenges the viewpoint that strategies from lifestyle market segmentation studies can be developed in the short term.

Viewing lifestyle market segmentation as just one aspect of an overall marketing plan, Michman links the specific strategies of this approach to the larger issues of strategic planning. The first three chapters of the book place the topics of market segmentation and lifestyle segmentation into a historical perspective, and trace the development of these marketing approaches. The next three chapters focus on group dynamics and purchasing influences, covering specific target markets such as singles, teens, the elderly, and ethnic groups. Methods for cultivating these markets through lifestyle segmentation strategies are fully discussed. In the final three chapters, lifestyle segmentation is examined in relation to the impact on consumer behavior of decision making, purchasing habits, and changing values. With its emphasis on practical application, this work will be a valuable resource for managers and other professionals in the marketing field, as well as for students in business and marketing courses.

In today's competitive economic environment, knowing your customer has never been more important. Research shows that most companies do not segment their market by lifestyle. Instead, they rely solely on demographic factors to define their customers. This book helps marketers understand how to reach customers from children to tweens and singles to seniors. It demonstrates how such trends as cross-shopping and the blurring of gender roles can be accounted for by one's overall marketing strategy. Yet another consumer group evaluated here is the emerging affluent market. This book is a prerequisite to relationship marketing. It tells the reader how to reach carefully defined and described market segments. Because buyers' behaviors are so important to lifestyle market segmentation strategies, this book demonstrates how such trends as cross-shopping and the blurring of gender roles can be accounted for by one's overall marketing strategy.

Michman and Mazze present five key variables that retailing executives in nine specialty businesses must understand and work with, to gain and sustain competitive advantage in their competitive environments. Innovation, target market segmentation, image development, physical store decor, and human resource managementf are identified and examined. Authors argue convincingly from research and practical experience that these fundamental considerations are crucial to achieving competitive dominance. With up-to-date analyses and extensive coverage of e-commerce and internet retailing as well, their book is essential for retailing executives.

Michman and Mazze find that successful specialty retailers are not all things to all customers, and do not try to be. They are, however, the first to apply new technologies. Authors analyze the development of specialty stores in the U.S. and tie their variables together in an epilogue. Along the way they make clear that by focusing on their five critical variables, we can understand how marketing successes come about and what causes blunders in the nine highly important store categories under their examination here. They point out that not all of their variables need be used concurrently. Some may be more critical than others, and this depends on environmental and competitive conditions. Backing it all up is meticulously developed evidence from their research and personal experience -- all of it presented readably and in a way that practitioners can understand and immediately apply.

How food marketers make use of key variables--such as innovation; target market; market segmentation; image; and physical, environmental, and human resources--determines how successfully they sell their products. Michman and Mazze concentrate on the food industry as they examine what contributes to a successful marketing campaign. The authors discover that not all variables have to be used concurrently; some may be more important than others depending on environmental conditions, and the effective use of one variable may cancel the ineffectiveness of another. By focusing on the key variables to use in a volatile economic environment, by emphasizing lessons learned from both marketing successes and failures, and by demonstrating how to adapt key variables to changing conditions, Michman and Mazze help executives ensure the success of their marketing efforts.

Mazze and Michman examine 10 institutional formats in the American food marketing and distribution structure--supermarkets, fast-food, ice cream, soup, breakfast cereal, baby food, ethnic food, snack food, candy and soft-drinks. The supermarket industry is analyzed first with an overview of food marketing and distribution. Specific industries are then analyzed using the five key variables (innovation, image, target market, physical environment, and human resources) with a historical framework to help managers learn from past marketing mistakes. The authors emphasize that avoidance of past mistakes is essential for sound marketing strategy, a fact illustrated by the examples of companies afflicted by injuries who have disregarded this advice.

In today's competitive economic environment, knowing your customer has never been more important. Research shows that most companies do not segment their market by lifestyle. Instead, they rely solely on demographic factors to define their customers. This book helps marketers understand how to reach customers from children to tweens and singles to seniors. It demonstrates how such trends as cross-shopping and the blurring of gender roles can be accounted for by one's overall marketing strategy.

Yet another consumer group evaluated here is the emerging affluent market. This book is a prerequisite to relationship marketing. It tells the reader how to reach carefully defined and described market segments. Because buyers' behaviors are so important to lifestyle market segmentation strategies, this book demonstrates how such trends as cross-shopping and the blurring of gender roles can be accounted for by one's overall marketing strategy.