Singles have money, so why is business ignoring them?

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

As the number of unmarried Americans continues to grow, marketers are in danger of missing out on a consumer segment that totals 125 million and spends more than $2 trillion on goods and services each year. (For context, that's one-and-a-half times the size—and four times the spending power—of baby boomers.)

The problem, according to experts, is that marketers still appeal to predictable life stages—marriage, first homes, children, retirement—even as these lock-step milestones rapidly lose significance in modern society. And it's even trickier to target singles because they vary so widely in age and lifestyle. “It's tough to identify a shared mindset that gives you a shortcut to reach unmarried people,” says Scott Hess, a senior vice president at Chicago-based marketing agency Spark. “They have more differences than likenesses.”

The main thing singles have had in common until recently, he says, is “a characterization that they've been left behind by society, they're not as much a part of the fabric of the neighborhood and they're not as likely to be making major purchases.”

Disposable income.