(Source: Business Wire)
Investment firm marketers who can anticipate when investors will move to their next life stage can quickly capture market share with well-timed and personally relevant messages, according to the first Investor Services Consumer Dynamics study released today by Acxiom® Corporation (Nasdaq: ACXM), a global leader in interactive marketing services.
Acxiom's study, titled "Putting Life Into Investor Insight," provides a compelling observation at how investor behavior, life-stage motivations and affluence come together to influence investment interests and actions.
"Understanding where investors are in their lives now and where they are headed enables marketers to anticipate, rather than react to, the needs of consumers," said Tate Olinghouse, Acxiom industry executive for Financial Services. "If you know the life-stage challenges investors face, you can tailor your messages and offerings to their unique combination of needs, assets, risk tolerance and stage of life."
Acxiom's study finds an investor-centric approach can help investment firms:
Retain and grow current customers by conducting regular reviews of their current life stage to forecast potential transitions and events that support their individual and household investment needs
Capture new customers by connecting with their investment goals, limitations, strategies and current investment partners at a time when they are ready to hear the message
Develop the best marketing message, theme and content appropriate for the investor's current life stage and for potential life changes
Anticipate when investors will be open to changing investment relationships, modifying investment choices and changing advice dependency
The Investor Services Consumer Dynamics Study analyzed 70 lifestyle segments across the United States using Acxiom's PersonicX® market segmentation system. Investor-behavior traits and general mindset motivations revealed 12 distinct investor life-stage segments. Based on this segmentation model, marketers can define and anticipate primary triggers that lead from one life stage to the next as well as prevalent life events that occur within each life stage.
The study, for example, identifies which consumer segments have the highest net worth; which will be shopping for newer and better investment options; which are more likely to begin trading online; and which are ready to speak to -- and pay for -- a financial advisor. A few key findings include:
Affluent Couples & Singles represent more than 10 percent of the U.S.
