Jewelry: It's All About Money
October 09, 06
Forget Everything You Learned in the Past About Jewelry Shoppers Historically, demographers thought that a consumer’s age was a key factor driving jewelry purchases. They pinpointed age 50 as the “sweet spot” for jewelry purchases, and identified consumers in the age range 45-to-54 as jewelers’ best customers. The theory was that consumers age 45-54 had reached their peak earning years, and they had more money than ever before to make discretionary purchases. That fact, coupled with the knowledge that conspicuous-consuming Baby Boomers were about to reach this age range beginning in 1996 and continuing through 2016, led many forecasters to predict that jewelry demand would surge beginning in the late 1990s because of a rapid increase in the number of consumers aged 45-to-54. GIVE AMERICANS SOME MONEY, AND THEY'LL GO SHOPPING The old adages are true: “Americans are born to shop” and “Baseball may be this country’s national pastime, but shopping is its passion.” What is it about Americans that seems to make them world-champion shoppers? Three factors affect Americans’ ability to shop and buy luxury goods like jewelry. As a result of these three key factors, Americans buy about 50 percent (by value) of all the jewelry sold worldwide, even though they represent only about 5 percent of the world’s population.
In fact, new analysis shows that age is not the driving factor. Further, jewelry purchases do not appear to be related to any particular generation such as Boomers, Gen-Xers, or Millennials. Jewelry appears to be a cross-generational purchase. In the final analysis, the lowest common denominator is money: those with the money buy jewelry. Period. 
Demographics 101
Demographers – professionals who study these consumer statistical characteristics – are driven by numbers, many of which are provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of the Census. Demographers eagerly await each new release of American demographic information, salivating at the prospect of devouring those statistics so rich in data, the protein of demographers. For example, the Census Bureau recently provided the following statistics:
- A birth occurs every 7 seconds in the U.S.
- A death occurs every 13 seconds.
- An international migrant enters the U.S. (net) every 31 seconds.
- There is a net gain of one person in the U.S. every 10 seconds.
The Average American Household Emerges
Demography reduces the human race to a statistical database that marketers can use to target customers. Based on data from the Department of Commerce research, we can get a statistical snapshot of the typical American household for the year 2004.
- Age 48.5 years old
Income before taxes $54,453
Average annual spending (after taxes, savings & other) $43,3952.5 Persons in the household1.3 Wage earners in the household1.9 Vehicles in the household48 percent of households headed by a male68 percent Homeowners74 percent White59 percent Graduated from college
Demographic Projections
In addition to the historical data, the government forecasts much of this base data as far out as 2100. While these projections are “high-line” forecasts of population and general demographic characteristics, a reasonably proficient statistician can create credible, detailed projections for various categories of goods and services based on the government’s high-line forecasts.