Mattresses selling for circa $3,000 are not typically a signal for how consumer spending is bending historical patterns but Tony Pearson, CEO at mattress maker AH Beard, is seeing two distinct consumer groups going in opposite directions. Sales of his premium lines in the $2-3,000 tier are holding strong just as his cheaper lines - from $600 - fell off a cliff in April. Meanwhile, mattress sales to hotels are soaring as even the cash-strapped masses keep spending on holidays and experiences – first hand evidence of the consumer spending divide mapped by Commbank-Quantium analysis of 7 million bank accounts playing out. But Pearson saw it all coming, because that’s exactly what Roy Morgan’s segmental database of NEOs, or ‘new economic order’ consumers, said would happen. Ross Honeywill helped pioneer the typology – the quarter of the population that earns more, and critically spends more. He says the NEOs are currently keeping Australia out of recession and with latest rate rises yet to hit home, Honeywill says brands must have a premiumisation strategy that targets NEOs, or risk pain. CommbankIQ innovation and analytics chief Wade Tubman agrees: Marketers without “stratified” or multi-layered brand strategies “might be starting to feel the walls are closing in.” Following clothing and household goods, Tubman says insurance extras and telco are next as pinched consumers wring out every last dollar to spend on experiences, which he suggests are becoming “the new essentials”. The good thing for marketers is that comms to NEOs deliver double duty, per Honeywill, tapping the aspirational but squeezed masses as well as those with money still to burn.