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Prying Eyes
Michelle Leder
11/01/2006
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Larry Samuel passes his days
chatting with your doorman and your porter,
scribbling into his notebook. He talks to your bartender and the waiters at the
restaurant where you dined last night. He talks to your gardener and your dry
cleaner. He shops for high-end cars and boats and chit-chats with your favorite
dealers. He even hangs around your child’s school. (School security guards
alerted by worried parents have asked him to move on.) Samuel and his retinue of helpers spend their days and nights
in  the same places that you and your friends may spend yours: in the summer,
East Hampton, Martha’s Vineyard or Maine’s Northwest Harbor, and in the winter,
Naples or perhaps Scottsdale. Samuel likes to call what he does "field
research." Back at his desk in New York, he distills his observations into
reports that he sells to some of the country’s largest corporations—companies
with seemingly endless appetites for information about your preferences and how
you like to spend your money. "This is a funky, offbeat type of information that straight
data collection and the focus-group research just doesn’t [capture]," says
Samuel, who has a PhD in American studies and an MBA in marketing. "There’s all
kinds of information out there if you just look for it," he adds. A growing number of people are looking for it. As the ranks of affluent
individuals grow—the number of U.S. residents with at least $30 million in
assets increased by 10.2 percent last year, according to the 2006
Merrill Lynch–Capgemini World Wealth
Report—so too does the appetite for information that
helps companies successfully pitch products and services to them. These
companies turn to people like Samuel, whose consulting firm, Culture Planning,
takes a somewhat unique hands-on approach. Other better-known research and
consulting firms, such as Capgemini, the Spectrem Group and Phoenix Marketing
International, which have been tracking upper-income demographics for more than
a decade, use more traditional techniques, such as surveys and focus groups, but
their goal is the same: to pinpoint what drives individuals to spend, save
and invest. Just a few years ago, only a handful of financial institutions
conducted or purchased research on the affluent market. Today, many more
companies—from air charter firms and yacht builders to "lifestyle management"
consultants—are hoping to buy actionable insights into this demographic. Indeed,
chances are your alma mater or your favorite nonprofit has done a fair amount of
research before calling you to ask for a donation.  This intensive analysis has sparked an increasing array of
highly customized and creative product pitches. Technology has made it easier to
collect and track many types of personal and often very detailed information,
much of it available on the Internet. As Samuel noted during a presentation to
JPMorgan Asset Management: "Exceptionalism is now virtually required to make an
impact in marketing to the rich."There is an unprecedented need, he said, "to
raise the marketing bar by delivering truly unique and meaningful things and
experiences." Personal information is traded outside and within commercial
institutions like a precious commodity:
- Natasha
Pearl, chief executive of New York-based Aston Pearl, which bills itself as the
"private bank for everything but money," often fields calls from hedge fund
managers seeking insights into her clients to better sell them on a particular
investment strategy. Because Pearl’s firm manages such personal details as
arranging for a multigenerational family birthday, negotiating an art sale or
even helping to select a private school, she gathers valuable data on her
clients’ likes and dislikes. "They can’t get to the individual families,so
they call us because we provide services to the families," Pearl
says.
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