Thomas J. Stanley : Millionaire Next Door Author; Researcher; Expert

January 13th, 1979

Speech for the New York Stock Exchange

When did Dr. Stanley first profile the Millionaire Next Door population?  Originally he used a different title in defining this segment.  Dr. Stanley first coined the "Wealthy Blue Collar Segment" in a paper he wrote entitled "Market Segmentation: Utilizing Investment Determinants."  He presented this paper on October 10, 1979 at the sales/marketing conference of the Securities Industries Association held in New York City.  His paper was later published under the title of "Brokers to Use Proactive Market Segmentation for Success in the '80s" on November 30, 1979 by The American Marketing Association.

Earlier, in May 1979, Stanley was asked by the New York Stock Exchange to develop a set of marketing implications and recommendations based upon its then recently completed national survey of the investment patterns and attitudes of 2,741 households.  This provided the base for the paper cited above.

A key point made by Stanley in his paper is as follows:
  . . . the (investment) industry has attracted a high portion of customers who are or aspire to be upper middle class . . . .Look at other segments for new life support.  Opportunities exist in segments that they industry has ignored for years. . . (members of) the "really big segment" . . . the Wealthy Blue Collar do not need to purchase the expensive artifacts that are part of the white collar worker's status knapsack. . . the discretionary income of the Wealthy Blue Collar segment presents a great opportunity . . . in terms of population and long run potential.

At the time of Stanley's presentation he realized that the blue collar/millionaire next door segment did exist and that it was likely to be a sizeable one, yet ignored by many marketers.  Not long after he identified this market, he discovered how very large it indeed was.