
Market Analysis Summary
The number of American women on salaries of more than $100,000 a year more than tripled between 1991 and 2001. The growth in the proportion of women in the highest income bracket was nearly 10 times the rate at which women entered the full-time workforce during the decade.
At the same time the proportion of women in the upper income brackets was increasing, the proportion of women in the lowest income brackets were falling. The proportion of women who earned under $20,000 fell by over one-fifth during the same time.
An analysis of wage and salary data by the Employment Policy Foundation found that 861,000 women earned the equivalent of $100,000 or more in 2001 – the most recent year that data was available - compared with just 242,000 women in 1991.
There was a similar increase in the number of women in the next wage bracket, those earning between $80,000 and $99,999. And almost one in three women who entered the labor force during the 1990s earned more than $60,000. The figures mean that roughly one in every 48 working full-time earned over $100,000 in 2001 compares to one in every 143 women in 1991. Economist Regina Powers, who carried out the research, said that the figures are evidence that women are moving upward in large numbers, earning more than their mother’s generation did.
According to Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, “Young affluents (the Generation X and Millennial generations) will play an increasingly important role in the target market for global luxury marketers over the next ten to twenty years. This is true not just in the United States (with a median age of 36.5 years) or in the European countries (where the median age ranges around 40 years old), but in the developing luxury markets, like Brazil (median age 28.2 years), India (24.9 years) and China (32.7 years), where the population as a whole is more youthful.”
Danziger’s studies find that from now until 2010, the number of affluent households and their influence will continue to grow. The rising tide of affluence is driven by the 78 million baby boomers that range in age from 40 to 58 years. This is the age of empty nesting, when consumers are earning the most money in their lives, but no longer have to stretch their paychecks across the demands of a growing family.
The target market for La Vie de Chateau is predominately working and/or affluent women whose disposable income is spent on lifestyle luxury items within their economic reach. At the high end of the range, we have women spending as much as $90,000 for a Kelly handbag by Hermès. At the lower end of the range, young women will spend $245 for a Louis Vuitton iPod case or $150 for a key holder.
According to Bill Curtis, chief executive of CurtCo Media publisher of the luxury lifestyle magazine the Robb Report, “The luxury market is not a matter of what something costs. It’s a matter of the entire visceral and emotional experience attached to it. It is about being inspired by products and services, whether that means hotels, boats, cars or jewelry.”
Here are some examples of brands that have followed an approach similar to that envisioned for La Vie de Chateau but without the provenance offered by Catherine Michiels:
Coach (NYSE: COH) has experienced rapid growth, from $500 million in revenues in 1997 to $2.1 billion in 2006 with no distribution in Europe though they are now pushing into Asian markets.
Ralph Lauren (RL) wholesale sales were up 19% in 2007 to $2.32B. This growth resulted from increased sales in Europe, the company's fastest growing region. Ralph Lauren will look to Japan for future wholesale growth. Retail sales were up 12% in 2007 to $1.74B. Ralph Lauren licensing royalties for 2007 dropped 4% to $236M as a result of bringing some product line in house.
www.catherinemichiels.com
www.catherinemichiels.com
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