Are You Going After The Wrong Market?

Last month on Think in the Facts & Stats column I dove into some of the numbers on The Wedding Report. Well I’m at it again.

I was looking at the numbers on distribution by total wedding budget. Here is an interesting fact: 82% of the weddings in the United States are under the national average of $28,704. Said another way, there are 1,434,962 more weddings with a budget at or below $28,704 than there are at the higher end of the spectrum. Even more telling is the top category. Wedding with budgets of $57,408 account for only 3.5% of the total estimated weddings in America in 2008.

Yet I find more and more that wedding vendors want to turn their nose up at this massive target. Nearly ever wedding professonal that I talk to asks the same question: How to I get the quarter of a million dollar weddings? My question to you is how hard do you want to fight to get a slice of 3.5% of the market?

My next question is, with the current economic news what do you think those numbers will look like for 2009? I don’t see a very pretty picture. Yes, weddings will always happen and in that sense they are recession proof. What isn’t guaranteed is the level at which they will be funded. Much as we are witnessing some serious corrections in the housing market and other parts of the economy, I think that the same type of correction is coming to our industry.

So, back to the question in the title; are you targeting the wrong market? As you work to find ways to ride out the current storm, you may consider trimming your sails and heading toward that very rich market south of the average. Weddings for the masses; or to steal a word from the Germans, VolksWeddings.

PS. If you aren’t already a subscriber to Think Like A Bride, use this link for a month’s guest subscription so you can see what all the buzz is about …and read the article I talked about above.

Christine

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