If you’re like most real estate professionals, you’re familiar with the usual target markets of Baby Boomers, first time homebuyers and retirees. Consider this: what if rather than focus on a particular niche based on age or economic status, you focused on who’s buying now?

That’s the premise that Christopher Norton, chief strategist of the Advanced Marketing Institute in Boulder, Colo., is using based on data from a 10-year ongoing study that analyzes the spending habits of 800,000 people in the United States.

“From a marketing and sales perspective, customers are looking for different things. We noticed that the marketing programs we [Norton’s previous company which was a real estate sales and marketing agency] were running—that were successful before—were getting lower response rates, even before the market took a dive,” says Norton. “We could excuse it early on that the market was changing but it’s more than that. After doing a ton of research to figure out what was going on, we realized the problem,” he says.

The problem, says Norton, is that most marketing programs are modeling people based on age, stage of life and demographics; when really they should be modeled after those who are spending money today.

“This niche group of consumers, dubbed the NEO or New Economic Order, account for 24 percent of the population,” says Norton. “NEOs contrast in a variety of ways with the majority of consumers—traditionals—who tend to be measurably more price-driven, brand-focused and reticent to spend in challenging economic times. According to the research, 88 percent of those indicating they’ll buy a home over the next 12 months are NEOs. In addition, NEOs move from home to home four times more often than traditionals; making them more profitable clients over the long term. NEOs are also more optimistic about today’s economy than traditionals. “It’s a change of approach on multiple levels to understand how they operate, how they research real estate and what they’re looking for,” he says.

Norton suggests that to reach these buyers, real estate professionals must market the property that shows how it is unique and different from all other properties. “This is more than just saying the property has a wonderful garden,” says Norton. Instead, your marketing should be focused on the relaxing summer nights spent with family and friends sitting on a long, wooden table in that garden, drinking wine and having intimate conversation. “That is the one thing this house has that no other house has, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” says Norton, who notes that Apple does this the best. “It’s more marketing and less sales,” he says.

Focus on what makes this property unique—great restaurants, architectural features, history of the land, history of the homeowners. “Does the sun shine in the kitchen window just so on a winter’s afternoon? Is there a cool bagel shop that’s close enough to walk to each morning? It’s not about square footage or pricing. It’s about being very open and authentic about the property and the consumer who buys it,” he says.

The main point, according to Norton, is that you must stop operated based upon a market that no longer exists. You have to get to the edge or it won’t work.

What do you think about this new consumer?