Featured Finding

"Affluent consumers don’t buy “luxury” the way luxury marketing sells it: service, durability, and privacy outperform exclusivity—by 24–47 points."

73%Brand Distrust
3.2xPeer Multiplier
18 minAvg. Reading Time
7+Research Reports
Audience Intelligence

The Affluent Consumer Perception Gap: What $200K+ Households Actually Value:
6 affluent segments reveal a systematic disconnect between luxury marketing and affluent buyer behavior.

"Affluent consumers don’t buy “luxury” the way luxury marketing sells it: service, durability, and privacy outperform exclusivity—by 24–47 points."

6 segments
78%
Rank “time saved + service access” as a top-3 driver of premium purchases
+31 pts vs. “exclusivity/limited-ness” (47%)
58%
Prefer understated branding (no visible logo) on $1K+ goods
+36 pts vs. statement-logo preference (22%)
Emerging Trends

When AI Agents Shop: How Autonomous AI Will Restructure Every Consumer Market:
6 segments simulate a world where brand awareness becomes irrelevant.

"Modeled consumers shift 29 points away from brand recognition toward machine-readable trust signals as AI agents take over routine buying—compressing consideration cycles by 63% while intensifying privacy and incentive scrutiny."

6 segments
29 pts
Drop in Brand Recognition importance (Human-led 61 → Agent-led 32 on a 0–100 importance index)
-29 pts vs human-led baseline
62%
Consumers who expect a shared model (AI shortlists; human approves) to be their default purchase flow within 36 months
+24 pp vs today’s modeled default (38%)
Brand Perception

How Consumers Actually Perceive AI Companies: The Trust Topology:
8 segments reveal a complete disconnect between tech insider narratives and consumer mental models.

"Consumers don’t sort AI companies by “model quality” or “research leadership”—they sort them by perceived intent and data risk, pushing “None of them” into the top-3 trust outcomes in 5 of 8 segments."

8 segments
56/100
Category AI Company Trust Index (modeled mean across major AI brands)
+4 pts vs 2025 modeled baseline
61% → 27%
30-day AI assistant usage vs “high trust” in primary AI company (trust gap = 34 pts)
-2 pts usage, +3 pts high-trust vs 2025
Emerging Trends

AI-Generated Content: How Consumers Actually Respond:
8 segments reveal the disclosure paradox: AI content performs better unlabeled, but brands perform better when they disclose.

"Unlabeled AI boosts content performance by +18% on average, while disclosure boosts brand trust by +14 points—creating a measurable “disclosure paradox” for marketers."

8 segments
+18%
Average engagement lift when AI content is unlabeled (vs labeled)
+6% vs 2025 modeled baseline
-7 pp
Click intent drop when content is labeled “AI-generated” (31% → 24%)
-2 pp vs short-form video; -11 pp in news-like formats
Consumer Behavior

AI Purchase Delegation: When Consumers Let Algorithms Shop for Them:
8 segments map the delegation boundary between human and AI purchase decisions.

"Consumers will delegate more than groceries: telecom, subscriptions, and travel fixes beat beauty, luxury, and anything that feels like identity or health risk."

8 segments
61%
Consumers willing to delegate at least 1 purchase category to AI (any mode: recommend → autopilot)
+8pp vs modeled 2025 baseline (53%)
21%
Consumers willing to let AI auto-buy (no approval) in at least 1 category
+6pp vs modeled 2025 baseline (15%)
Audience Intelligence

The Gen Z Brand Trust Crisis:
Who They Believe and Why

"73% of Gen Z trust no brand completely — but their wallets tell a different story"

12 segments18 min read
73%
Brand Distrust
▲+12pp
42%
Trust Recover
▼-8pp
Consumer Behavior

The Future of Ethical Consumption:
Impact of Supply Chain Transparency

"Radical transparency is no longer a perk; it's a market entry requirement"

8 segments15 min read
82%
Eco-Priority
▲+15pp
24%
Premium Pay
▲+4pp
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