Rich Households Disappear
In the midst of a dreadful year for financial markets, it comes as no surprise that TNS, a market research company, is claiming in a recent report that the number of wealthy households is on the decline.
The company’s annual “Affluent Market Research Program” report indicates that the number of U.S. households with a net worth of $500,000 (excluding primary residences) has dropped by 5 percent.
In 2008, the number of these affluent households now stands at 15.6 million, reflecting a decline of 4.9 percent from last year’s 16.4 million wealthy households.
This drop was the first time since 2002 that a decline in this figure was observed.
There is no reason for surprise, as even the wealthy are not immune to nasty downturns in the real estate and stock markets.
Since wealthier households traditionally spend more time online than their “poorer” counterparts, this news affects the prospects of those with interests in attracting eyeballs for prolonged periods of time online; namely, online marketers.
Ipsos Mendelsohn, a marketing and research firm, found that from March to July of 2008, users from households earning $250,000 and over spent 27.4 hours per week on the Internet.
Meanwhile, users from households with annual incomes of $150,000 to $249,999 spent 25.1 hours per week online, while users from households earning $100,000 to $150,000 spent 21.8 hours per week online.
The trend was reversed for the number of hours spent with TV and radio.
Source:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006615
