They watch their money as much as everybody else, and they don't want to feel that they're being ripped off. Forging a relationship is another key component in marketing to the affluent, Langer says. Affluent people feel tremendously pressured in terms of their time and their resources. Cathy Chute is publisher of Harvard Magazine and executive director of the Ivy League Magazine Network, a national network of nine university-based magazines that reaches alumni from the seven Ivy League schools, Stanford, and Harvard Business School. It's different from what they have with Martha Stewart Living or Town and Country.
People read university magazines when they're in a receptive mood.
They read for a connection with the past and when they are thinking about who they really are and why they are happy or glad they went to Harvard or Yale or Brown. Searching for acceptance by association, advertisers of high-end automobiles, expensive liquor, and luxury vacation packages have flocked to the Ivy League. Ad sales shot up more than 24 percent a year ago and have since remained steady, Chute says. His magazines attract an affluent audience by appealing to various interests, such as gourmet cooking, luxury travel, fashion, and home decor. It's the Message, Not the Medium Steven Judson, president of Judson Management Group, a New York marketing firm, applies the same principles when selecting cultural sponsorships for clients selling luxury goods and financial services.