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Affluent Name Recipients of December Holiday Gifts in New Survey
Where Gifts Are Purchased Varies by Type of Recipient
About 90% of the married respondents to a recent survey of the
affluent plan to give a December holiday gift to their spouse,
and the most frequent sources of the gifts will be traditional
department stores (62%) and specialty retail stores (57%). Gift
cards or money equivalents will be given by about 20% of the
spouses.
About one in two said they have children under 18 to whom they
will give gifts. Specialty retail stores (58%) will be the most
frequent source of the gifts. Traditional department stores
(55%) will be a close second, and the internet and discount
department stores were essentially tied (at almost 50%). Gift
cards or money equivalents will be given, about equally, by
about 31% of the survey respondents.
Almost six in ten said they have children 18 and over to whom
they will give gifts. Traditional department stores (57%),
specialty retail stores (43%), and discount department stores
(35%) will be the most frequent sources of the gifts. Gift cards
or money equivalents will be given, mostly as cash or checks, by
about 69% of the survey respondents.
About 80% of the respondents plan to give gifts to other
relatives, and 62% will give gifts to friends. For both types of
recipients, traditional department stores and specialty retail
stores were named the first and second most frequent sources of
gifts. For relatives, the internet was named third (39%) and for
friends discount department stores were named third (37%). For
both types of recipients, gift cards or certificates will be
given to about by about 25% of the survey
respondents.
For each type of recipient, catalogues were named as a source of
gifts by about one in four of the respondents.
These results were obtained from the recently completed Fall
2005 "Affluent Market Tracking Study #8" by The American
Affluence Research Center. A continuing series of twice-yearly
surveys, these studies track the 12- month economic outlook and
spending plans of the wealthiest 10% of Americans, the 11
million households representing about half of all consumer
income and spending and a third of the total US economy. These
are the consumers who have helped the more upscale retailers to
out perform others in recent years.
The survey participants were asked to rank their first, second,
and third most important sources of gifts based on the total
dollar value of gifts purchased.
Highlights of the national survey of 448 men and women in the
wealthiest 10% of U.S. households can be found on the AARC
website, www.affluenceresearch.org. The survey participants have
an average income of $308,000 and an average net worth of $2.7
million. The survey has a 5% margin of error at the 95%
confidence level.
About the author:
Ron Kurtz is a principal of The American Affluence Research
Center and The Management Resource Group. Both companies provide
marketing research and strategic planning services to prominent
clients in the travel and hospitality industries, especially
those targeting the affluent market. Ron earned his MBA at
Harvard Business School.
For further information: http://www.affluenceresearch.org and
http://www.mrgconsultants.com
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