How US Spends : Middle Class Consumer vs Affluent Consumer

 US Middle Class consumer spends vs the Affluent's Spends

US consumer Spends Down

Consumers spent more on housing and transportation but less on apparel and entertainment in 2013.Apparel and services saw a 7.6% drop in average annual spending  This drop is  spread across most apparel categories, and included an 8.3% decline for men and boys clothing and a 7.6% decline for women and girls clothing.

he second-biggest percentage decline in spend came for entertainment, down 4.7% year-over-year to an average per-unit spend of $2,482. By contrast, spending on healthcare (2.1%) and housing (1.5%) grew the fastest of the major components.

US Superich  Spends down

Some 67.5 million American adults lived in a household with annual income of at least $100,000 (“affluents”), a 5 million (or 8%) increase from last year, details Ipsos in its latest annual study of the affluent population. As such, 28% of the adult population can be classified as affluent, as can 23% of all US households. 

According to the Ipsos study, the average age of an affluent adult is 46.1, The wealthy (household income of at least $500,000), by comparison, skew older, with an average age of 50.5.

The super rich spends on the following 

• Automotive – including the purchase price of vehicles and motorcycles, as well as auto maintenance and supplies ($398 billion in aggregate spending; 20% of total spend);
• Personal insurance ($227B; 11% share);
• Home & garden ($208B; 10% share);
• Education expenses ($201B; 10% share); and
• Groceries ($193B; 9% share).

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Digital Consumption Trends: India vs BRIC Nations

Rise of India's Digital Consumer_2012 Comscore report from Karan Bhujbal

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Starbucks Prepaid Mobile App users grow 23%

Source: Uploaded by user via Sumit on Pinterest

The coffee chain has processed more than 42 million m-payment transactions since its Mobile Pay platform was launched in January 2011.Starbucks customers had initiated some 26 million mobile transactions since the application officially launched in January

Starbucks CEO: Mobile Payment Signals Seismic Change In Consumer Behavior - PaymentsSource Article: One of the biggest champions of mobile payments so far comes from an unlikely sector–the coffee industry.

Starbucks  has been a pioneer and an innovator on Mobile marketing and has shown how the emergence of mobile payments is part of a “seismic change” in consumer behavior that played a key role in the Seattle-based coffee marketer’s record revenues in 2012

Reflecting on the success of Starbucks’ mobile-payment applications for iPhone and Android introduced last year, Schultz deemed it indicative of “the unbelievable way in which mobile payment and mobile commerce is going to change the way in which consumers buy things.”

Starbucks customers during December loaded $500 million into their Starbucks prepaid card accounts, which encompasses mobile-app users, up 23% compared with the same month a year earlier.

 One in four customers pays with a prepaid Starbucks card, and the firm now has 3.7 million members in its My Starbucks rewards program, comprised of customers that reload funds into prepaid card accounts and pay for Starbucks products using the cards or mobile apps.

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Connected Devices Consumption Asia :Top 3 Technology Trends

The Asian Revolution in Connected Devices: Top 5 Insights

An increasing number of Southeast Asian consumers have internet-capable devices at their disposal, with rapid uptake expected in 2012.

In all markets except Indonesia, desktop computer ownership is high

In Indonesia, ownership of an internet-capable mobile phone is more than double that of desktop or notebook computers

Notebook computers are more prevalent in Singaporean digital consumers’ households, than desktop computers

Tablet computers have seen strong uptake across the region, with the exception of Indonesia and Vietnam. Tablet ownership is expected to further increase in the year ahead, in particular in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand

South East Asian countries  have seen a spectacular growth in terms of   been digital consumers, mobile phone ownership has reached saturation point. Smartphones are prevalent in Singapore and Thailand, and gaining ground in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Penetration is considerably lower in Vietnam at just 11%

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3 Reasons why Television Industry on its last Legs

Source: visually.visually.netdna-cdn.com via Sumit on Pinterest

Source: visually.visually.netdna-cdn.com via Sumit on Pinterest

Is the " State of Television"    on its last legs standing ?  After " having  ended the the Newspaper Business, is the internet going to obliterate Television ? The chart above published at Business Insider  lays out the problem: After a century of growth, the New York Times's news business peaked earlier this decade with just over $3 billion in revenue and $500 million of operating profit. In the years since, however, the company's revenue (blue line) and operating profit (green banrs) have begun to shrink.

The greatest Folly of the Newspaper Industry was that it paid no heed on the " writing on the wall" and  the print Barons   failed to realized how" users  are moving towards the web..   .. But for almost a whole decade, the newspaper industry barely noticed.

Subscriptions kept going up.Ads kept going until they realised that " the party was about to end"  So is the same thing going to happen to the TV ?.

So  how soon are we going to write an obituary for Television.  Businessinser cites 4 reasons why this may end up the same way

Reason No 1: Television shows Broadcasts have come down drastically    (with the very notable exception of live sports)News today  is consumed via the Internet, and less via TV or Print.

Reason No 2 :Users are increasingly watching TV and movie content, but always on demand and almost never with ads ( used to watching shows via Netflix or iTunes or HBO that ads now seem like bizarre intrusions)

 Today " Consumer  are awash with " three to four Mobile Screens" which is watch TV and movie content on 4 different screens, depending on which is convenient (TV, laptops, phones, iPad)

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Mobile Advertising Surpasses TV,accounts for 27% media consumption

The above infographic by Inmobi shows how Mobile advertising has surpassed Television usage, in terms of media consumption, 27% users interact with Mobile..66% are comfortable with Mobile Advertising  or and TV Online advertising

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