Stevens, PA | They are affluent, they are mature, and they are luxury marketers' worst nightmare. Meet the Temperate Pragmatist, the new type of luxury consumer who finds the luxury lifestyle just not all that important in their lives.

Luxury marketers are encountering a difficult climate for promoting their goods and services to the affluent consumer, competing for an increasingly scarce luxury dollar. The problem is not that affluent consumers have less money; on the contrary, households with $100,000 and more in household income are the fastest growing U.S. segment.

Rather, feelings of declining optimism about personal and national fortunes mean that affluent consumers are holding back on their spending. Enter the Temperate Pragmatist.

Introducing the Temperate Pragmatists

The Temperate Pragmatist is a new type of luxury consumer. This group emerged from immigrants from two other affluent consumer types. Some of the Butterflies, the high spending but socially-conscious consumer, may have decided that spending money on luxury is a poor use of resources in an climate of high gas prices and rising carbon footprint. The prime example of a Butterfly-turned-Temperate Pragmatist is Ed Begley Jr., the quirky host of HGTV's environmentally-conscious Living with Ed.

The other feeder group for the Temperate Pragmatists is the Aspirers, the lower-income affluents who have not yet been able to afford the level of luxury to which they aspire. With the current economic challenges, some Aspirers have given up the fight to keep up with the Jones and turned their back, at least partially, on the luxury lifestyle.

"The Temperate Pragmatist recently emerged in the luxury market and represents a new challenge for luxury marketers. Whether because of economic challenges or a desire to leave something behind for the next generation besides a huge carbon footprint, these consumers are setting different priorities than acquiring more luxury goods," says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience.

"Suddenly, anti-status is cool," says Danziger. "The Temperate Pragmatists want to conserve and to live a life that is less materialistic, such as that exemplified by Ed Begley Jr. Luxury marketers are going to have to think harder, to offer luxury goods more meaningful than just another diamond or mink coat, in order to attract the Temperate Pragmatist and weather the upcoming luxury drought."

"This doesn't mean that the Temperate Pragmatist will be unswayed by a traditional luxury good, like a prestige handbag. Rather, the marketer must look beyond promoting the status value of the luxury brand and help the Temperate Pragmatist understand that the prestige brand brings superior quality, a long lifespan, and more value than the knockoff available at a mass market department store. If the only difference between the two is the label and the status, the Temperate Pragmatist will walk straight into Target to buy a handbag with no regrets."

Luxury Report 2008 details the state of the United States luxury market

The Temperate Pragmatist personality emerged from research conducted for Unity Marketing's Luxury Report 2008, the definitive study of the U.S. market for luxury goods and experiences. The total market for luxury contributed some $321.9 billion in consumer spending in 2007. The Luxury Report examines consumers' buying behavior and spending details on 22 luxury product and services, including where products were purchased and details of the types of products and services bought.

This report provides vital market size, growth and demographics for any company that is in the business of luxury, including product marketers, advertisers, retailers, and service providers. It reports the results of a three-year longitudinal research survey of the luxury market conducted every three months. The results of the four 2007 surveys are combined with those from 2005 and 2006 to provide vital trend analysis. In 2007 a total of 4,284 luxury consumers were surveyed, with an average income of $155,100; average age of 45.2 years and including 64 percent female and 36 percent male respondents.