A TMCnet team member sent me an article from Forbes which is titled Ultra Rich Spending Less And Chasing Quality and gives fascinating insight on what makes these people tick and moreover how they spend and how to influence them. The piece is based upon The Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America 2010 – a creation of American Express Publishing and the Harrison Group who polled about 2,400 people from the richest 10% of U.S. households. The article starts with some interesting notes – 91% of the mega wealthy feel we are still in the middle of a recession but they are happier than the rest of the population when it comes to their personal relationships.

It is certainly worth a read as there is fascinating insight to be gained. As the CEO of a company which publishes four magazines I found the section dealing with what influences these people to be the most interesting.

About 69% answered that they pay more attention to print ads than those online. Only 8% said they use Facebook to make a purchasing decision, though more than 40% had Facebook accounts.

It is common thinking among some that print ads have declining influence in purchasing decisions compared to the web but this research shows how important magazine ads still are.

And this brings me back to the schizophrenic marketers I often speak with who will go into detail regarding their marketing budgets and volunteer why they don’t think their customers read print magazines. But these same people upon hearing TMC is going to write about them ask – will the article be in one of your magazines?

This is not to say I don’t understand why many marketers send these mixed messages. TMC has a thriving online business and part of the reason for the growth of this area for our company has to do with the incredible amount of measurability related to spending marketing dollars online. The challenge for the magazine market is proving results.

The plain truth is some marketers feel they need to cover their rear and spending money where there are metrics to back up the decision is safer than spending money where it is more difficult to measure results. And this is the case – even if the magazine marketing spend is most effective. But for the smartest marketers out there it is worth considering that the share of mind resulting from your magazine ad spend has perhaps never been greater. And besides, who couldn’t use a few more ultra-rich customers?