• by Wayne Friedman , October 16, 2012

U.S. marketers take note: You may know about those "1%" of U.S. consumers -- now consider the 11%.

Nielsen says "mass affluents," a new segment of wealthy Americans -- those with income producing assets between $250,000 and $1 million -- represent 11% of the country, 13 million U.S. households. (Nielsen says these financial numbers exclude real-estate value.)

Nielsen says the new group fits in between the super rich (the 1%, perhaps) and the mass-market. Mass affluents had a U.S. household average of $105,000 in 2011 -- 50% higher than the national income average of $62,912.

Two-thirds in this group are more than 55 years old, and most are couples without kids or empty nesters who own their homes. An estimated aggregated value of their assets totals more than $7.5 trillion.

Nielsen says they often live in suburbs and are adopters of high-end technology, and many have both a bachelor’s and post-graduate degrees and do not think of themselves as rich.

But not all these higher-income homes are created equal. Nielsen says marketers need to work harder to micro-target new products and services -- especially when it comes to financial companies -- with more segmented messages.

Here's why: They tend to tune out traditional marketing strategies. Good news for marketers: They are avid consumers of media.