In 2005, luxury consumers of the GenX generation, born from 1965 to 1976, spent 6.3 percent more buying luxuries than their affluent Baby Boomer counterparts, according to new research. GenXer households averaged $52,781 as compared with Boomers average of $49,672. The biggest spending gap was in the home luxury goods category, where GenXers spent 28 percent more than Boomers on average.

“While Boomers still spend lots of money on luxuries, luxury goods marketers are going to find the younger GenXer affluent consumers a more important part of their target market in the coming years,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing, a Stevens, Pa.-based luxury marketing research and consulting firm.

“After years of catering to the Boomers’ luxury appetites, luxury goods marketers need to tap the tremendous spending potential of GenXers,” she continues. “Because they are younger and more recently affluent, they are acquiring luxuries for the first time that Boomers already have and own. As Baby Boomers downscale their lives, GenXers are at a more materialistic life stage and so marketers of home luxuries … need to become attuned to the emerging desires and shopping habits of this younger luxury generation.”

Unity Marketing will undertake a new consumer insights study to investigate the mindset and consumer psychology of the GenXers and Baby Boomers, their differing attitudes toward luxury, and how it impacts their buying and shopping for luxury goods and services. It will use focus groups among luxury consumers with household incomes of at least $150,000.

Subscribers to Unity Marketing’s Luxury Tracking Study can participate. Sponsors will help develop the overall study scope and objectives; have input on the moderator’s guide and focus group presentation materials; view the focus groups, either live or on tape; receive a focus-group report; and attend a Webinar conference to discuss the findings and implications for marketers targeting the luxury consumer market. 

The cost of participating in the study is $2,500. For more information, complete the request form at http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/reports2/luxury/affluence_reg.html, call Pam Danziger at 717-336-1600, or email pam@unitymarketingonline.com.

JCK