Redefining 'The Rich'

One important demographic variable used to segment market is income. Although there is a wide gap between rich and poor, identifying and targeting rich is a difficult proposition. The objective of this study was to find out how and why consumption basket of two sets was different from each other. Focused group discussion method followed by qualitative research tool of bubble drawing was used for this research. Total number of participants was 25 only and represented almost equally by both genders. Importantly, all of them were highly educated and were either independent professionals or senior executives. Interestingly none of them was from so-called royal rich family. However, age group varied widely from 35 to 68. Participants unanimously confirmed that liquid assets held by them were prime mover of their buying pattern. In their opinion, only ownership of fixed assets did not make an individual rich. Consumption basket consisted of small number of necessities and a large portion of luxury products. Interestingly, mobile handset and services was treated as necessity, I phone owned by them was treated as luxury. Similarly, a car as category was necessity for them, but a BMW owned was a luxury. Their responses to occasion, home, possession, investments, vacation, priorities, attitude to life, socialization, services needed, sports, cuisine and hobbies were decoded. On basis of the responses and discussion, two-dimension matrix was developed which included robust rich, fragile rich, robust poor and fragile poor. To conclude, marketers need to relook to the rich customers and further sub segment them into robust rich and fragile rich. This sub-segmentation shall help them in delivering value to the sets of customers in a more efficient and effective manner.