There is a new marketing type in town and they are called transumers. As classified by Rainer Evers in a trend briefing on trendbriefing.com, transumers are “consumers who are more interested in the experience rather than owning.” Well, yeah . . . that’s called renting. They’re just renters, right? Not exactly.

Transumers do rent, but they rent items that normally require ownership. Here are a few examples:

FlexPetz – A pet-sharing program that works like a time-share or fractional ownership in a jet. The service targets customers who want to have a dog but cannot care for it full time.

FractionalLife.com – With the tagline “The Smarter Way To Own”, FractionalLife offers partial ownership in an array of products and services. As expected, categories include yachts, jets, luxury vehicles, but other offerings such as high-performance computing and livestock are unanticipated.

Bag, Borrow or Steal – An online luxury bag and jewelry sharing service.

Flexcar – A car sharing program that allows members to reserve and drive a car whenever they want.

Should you be targeting a transumer segment among your target audiences? Your answer might be yes if:

• You sell luxury items or your product or service requires a large, up-front capital investment.

• You find that an audience segment for your product or service doesn’t have the time to own or the need to own, typical of many targets who live in metropolitan areas and/or travel frequently.