Compare True Cost and Value

The initial price of our lists may appear high in comparison to the prices of typical list vendors, who usually limit the description of their lists of the affluent to such phrases as high net worth, high income, millionaires, etc. and/or that may suggest a zip code focus that is believed to be associated with certain psychographic and lifestyle attributes that are connected with wealth.

The data from over 30 AARC surveys of the wealthy has allowed us to continually confirm (and revise if necessary) the formulas we use to identify people at specific high levels of wealth.

Consider the true cost of a typical vendor’s list priced at 10c per name. If only half of the names are deliverable and meet your wealth requirements (and our research shows that is not unusual and could be worse for the higher levels of wealth) the list has an effective true cost of 20c per “good” name.

If the wasted expense for postage and promotional materials is only 50c per piece mailed, the effective true cost of each “good” name rises 50c to a total of 70c per delivered wealth qualified name. That is 7 times the original cost.

There are many commercially available lists of individuals who supposedly have significant wealth as indicated by income, net worth, investments, purchases, etc. Because we have tested various lists when conducting our own marketing research surveys, we know that many of these lists include a high percentage of people who do not have the level of wealth promised. Fifty to sixty percent waste is not unusual!

Companies that use such lists for direct marketing are often unaware of their shortcomings. Low response rates (where a 1% rate may be considered good) do not provide an accurate picture of the quality of the overall list. Rarely will a direct marketer know if their mail is actually reaching the affluent audience for which it was intended.

Based on our surveys, we know 80% or more of the names we provide will meet or exceed the levels of wealth specified (and less than 1% will be undeliverable).