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The news headlines today are full of stories that American consumers are being challenged by higher prices for food, housing, and gasoline. The middle class has effectively disappeared. Now there are various levels of affluent individuals and those who are economically challenged, with a significant gap in between, where the middle class used to be.

The old business model of appealing to a large middle class doesn't work anymore - it's gone!

A successful business needs an ample supply of customers who have the ABILITY to buy and a WILLINGNESS to buy.

The economically challenged are willing but don't have the ability.

The affluent have both attributes. This is where the action is.

Direct response marketing teacher and consultant Dan Kennedy has updated his explanation about how to market to the affluent. In addition to many other clients, Dan Kennedy is the marketing consultant relied on by Guthey Renker to build a successful infomercial business.

This fourth edition takes a somewhat softer approach than the third edition, which has more statistical analysis. Kennedy recommends having both editions in your library.

This new edition includes how to speak the language of the affluent in promotions, what the emotional factors that motivate the affluent to buy are, how to build marketing systems to attract affluent customers, and how to build relationships with affluent customers to keep them.

Martin J. Fischer is a very successful waiter at Le Cirque restaurant in Las Vegas. The key to his success has been implementing Kennedy-style marketing with his customers, so they return and ask to be served by him. Fischer describes how he provides a great experience for his customers, upgrades their meal choices, and follows up with them with thank you cards, post cards, birthday cards and anniversary cards. (When was the last time your waiter did that? Can you remember who you were served by the last time you were in Las Vegas? What was his or her name? How about at your local restaurant?)

The book also includes chapters with examples of how a dentist, an orthodontist, an asset manager, a university, and an optician adapted their businesses/practices to attract and serve affluent clients/customers/patients.

Some readers might be put off by Dan Kennedy's political views. If that's the case for you, I suggest that you hold your nose and study his books anyway. He is the best marketing teacher for entrepreneurial businesses that I know of. You will always leave with something valuable to put into action.

Buy it on Amazon: No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent (Fourth Edition): The Ultimate No Holds Barred, Take No Prisoners, Guide to Getting Really Rich.

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