Who are America’s biggest savers and how can brands reach them?

Who are America’s biggest savers and how can brands reach them?

Kineree Shah - January 30th, 2023

If you are a brand selling high-end products or services, it is natural to target consumers with the luxury to spend extra. In a separate piece, we established that 7% of nationally representative Americans have $100,000 or more in their savings account. These are America’s biggest savers. To help marketers and brand target this core audience, we dig into YouGov Profiles – an audience segmentation tool that includes thousands of demographics, psychographics, attitudes and behavioural consumer metrics.

Who are America’s biggest savers?

It comes as no surprise that the highest proportion of ‘biggest savers’ are adults aged between 45-64 and 65 or older (35% each). A fifth of consumers between 30-44 age have $100,000 or more in their savings accounts. Nearly a tenth of America’s biggest savers are aged between 18-29 years old constituting a small but significant proportion of this cohort.

YouGov data suggests that almost three in five of those with $100,000 as savings are men (65%).  In comparison only a third are women (35%) suggesting a big gender gap.

Can the ‘biggest savers’ be persuaded to invest?

More than four-fifths of America’s biggest savers consider themselves financially secure, making them nearly twice as likely to say so than the general population (85% vs 49%). These consumers could be a core target audience for financial service providers as they are more likely than the general population to look for profitable ways to invest money (77% vs. 52%) and take risks in the stock market (36% vs 28%). On the plus side for marketers, a third of these ‘biggest savers’ don’t make financial decisions without talking to a professional, five percentage points more than all adults (35% vs 30%). 

Are ‘biggest savers’ impulsive buyers?

Brands need to be aware that ‘biggest savers’ are less likely to make impulsive purchases than all US adults (35% vs 43%). Our data shows that if this segment of consumers are looking to make a big purchase, they are more likely than the general population to look at news about finance and the economy and then make their choice (65% vs 54%).

Do the ‘biggest savers’ trust banks?

America’s ‘biggest savers’ lean on banking institutions and financing companies, and they are less likely than the general population to say, ‘banks try to trick us out of our money’ (39% vs 46%). Seven in 10 consumers of this target group prefer to have more than one bank account in comparison to nearly half of all adults (70% vs 51%). They are more likely to trust banks and credit unions compared to the general population (69% vs 54%). 

What do the ‘biggest savers’ think about cryptocurrency?

America’s ‘biggest savers’ are more likely than the general population to say crypto is not be trusted (70% vs 58%) and that cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is a fad (58% vs 49%). More than three in five of the ‘biggest savers’ don’t understand cryptocurrency, around the same percentage as the general population (66% vs 68%). Our target group is three percentage points less likely than all US adults to say crypto is the future of online financial transactions (30% vs 33%). This broadly reflects the lack of understanding and mistrust towards crypto. Marketers and brands may need to take steps to increase consumer acceptance before targeting this audience.

In related news it may be worthwhile to know how much Britons have saved for their future.

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Methodology

YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data for the US is nationally representative of the online population and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race. Learn more about Profiles.