Britannica Online defines art as "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.” It is safe to say, therefore, that the creations of Catherine Michiels qualify as art, which engages the mind, body and spirit in a thoughtful and persuasive manner. It is noteworthy that her sculpted jewelry has attracted a following drawn to the aesthetics and philosophy they represent. A Reiki master, Catherine imbues her creations with a spiritual connotation that transcends jewelry and art.
Catherine learned jewelry making at the Arts & Métiers Institute in Brussels. She studied gemology and diamond grading at the prestigious High Council for Diamonds in Antwerp. However, her start in creating jewelry came much earlier. “In the summer of 1973, I spent time with my Grandmother buying costume jewelry from the traveling salesmen for her boutique on the boardwalk in the North Coast of Belgium. “I had just started to make enamel pendants when a client saw them and placed an order for 100 pieces. My jewelry career had begun.”
After working in the magazine business for Marie Claire and Elle, and publishing her own bi-monthly Moderne, Catherine returned to the world of jewelry and launched a line that has earned acclaim and helped spread her vision of spiritual and social responsibility around the world. And then, there is the matter of India.
It would be impossible to speak of Catherine Michiels without mention of India. “I was there right after the Tsunami. I don’t think anyone can go to India without feeling a change within them, but I felt at home there. The culture, the artistry, the people and the way they confront hardship is inspiring.” She collaborates with a Fair Trade workshop in Jaipur where street children learn the craft of jewelry making as a way of escaping poverty.
The pieces in the ‘Recognition’ collection and her one-of-a-kind creations all serve as a symbol of aesthetic and spiritual awareness for a clientele that includes the elite of Hollywood.
Objectives
1. Fulfill the demand from an existing clientele for an expanded range of Catherine Michiels luxury products.
2. Offer an existing and affluent clientele an experiential product including personal contact with Catherine.
3. Develop a mentoring relationship with a broad public that has already been established with private clients, which would include services and advice relating to personal luxury, interior design and travel in a manner analogous to the relationship Oprah Winfrey has established with her constituency.
Mission
To provide lifestyle accoutrements which are aesthetic and address the mind, body and spirit creating a personal rapport between the designer and the consumer in a top-to-bottom economic base.
Keys to Success
A successful expansion into the luxury product domain relies on the following:
• A well-defined and engaging personality as the icon for the brand
• Products that resonate the consumer to the degree they are willing to pay for the experience the product offers which exceeds the intrinsic value of the product itself.
• Developing loyal and repeat business with a clientele (retail and wholesale) invested in the aesthetics and message of the product.
• Providing a continuation of product within a line to acknowledge and encourage the collector nature of the clientele.
• Providing the means for a continuing relationship between the brand and the client that is enhancing and provides a sense of participation with the designer.
.Products and Services
Jewelry, handbags, selected clothing, furnishings, objets précieux, private consulting (and, ultimately, a “lifestyle destination” chambres d'hôtes) would constitute the initial brand offerings.
Additional Products & Services
A demand for the personal attention of Catherine Michiels amongst an affluent grouping of her clientele has manifested and takes the form of requests for personal assistance in choosing luxury products, advice on where to travel and where to stay. This interest comes as a result of Catherine’s expertise in the luxury domain and the personal connection her clients feel as a result of acquiring her unique designs.
Catherine has declined external offers in the past—to design the interior of a luxury hotel, for example. These design engagement offers, which would serve to extend the Catherine Michiels brand into new areas that have a luxury connotation, would now be welcome and pursued.
History
Catherine’s ‘Stardust’ bracelets, with their signature leather ties, have sparked an interesting phenomenon. Women start with one and go on to acquire and an entire collection, all worn together on the wrist, that they never remove. This attachment to the bracelets is so strong that three generations of women in a family will wear them evidencing the fact that they appeal to all ages. It is also worth noting that husbands and boyfriends have also become the effect of the phenomenon wearing the bracelets in combination next to their wristwatches.
The sculptured designs of the Recognition collection are worn by men and women on a washed silk ribbon either as a necklace or bracelet and serves as a symbol of recognition among those who share the vision and intention of Catherine Michiels. “I wanted to create something special that would remind the wearer that peace begins within. Finding peace for oneself is an important step towards creating it for the world. My designs are inspired by love, truth, serendipity and freedom.”
After beginning in 2004 with a few personal clients, Catherine Michiels now exports to 14 countries which include Australia, Austria, France, French Indies (St Barts), Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain (Ibiza), Japan, Korea, Mexico, South Africa, Switzerland and Venezuela. Every week, new requests from retailers around the world wanting to sell the line are carefully screened to control distribution as production is increased without sacrifice to quality.
Fans of Catherine’s creations include Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth, Sandra Bullock, Ellen DeGeneres, Macy Gray, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vanessa Paradis, Julia Roberts, Sharon Stone, Uma Thurman and Naomi Watts.
Isetan has joined L’Eclaireur, Saks Fifth Avenue online, Steven Alan and Ylang 23 among the world-wide sales locations for the Catherine Michiels collection. It is notable that Dior Beauty and Perfume in New York has been commissioning orders from Catherine Michiels for gifting to press and their brand ambassadors including their Oscar Awards gifting.
Proposal
This presentation should be viewed with the following gross sales figures for Catherine Michiels in mind:
- Sales 2004 : $50.4K
- Sales 2005 : $170K
- Sales 2006 : $400K
- Sales 2007 : $600K
- Sales 2008 : $680K (actual and projection)
- Sales 2009 : $1M (projection)
The forward looking figures for ’09 are projections based on the current operation and take into account the venture that we are currently discussing.
In the immediate, there would be a need to set up a dedicated office/workshop in Europe in addition to that in Los Angeles to handle orders, shipping and a portion of the production, adapt production quantities to conform with the ever increasing demand for the product and for Catherine to create and introduce new designs for each of her product lines. A PR/marketing campaign would be developed and implemented concurrently.
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.
When asked how the watch business was doing, Patrick Heiniger, managing director and CEO of Rolex, answered famously, “Rolex is not in the watch business. We are in the luxury business.” Similarly, Catherine Michiels is not in the jewelry business. She is in the business of creating personal, spiritual amulets that transcend jewelry and luxury and serve as icons for those who wear them.
Competition
There are a great many luxury brands on the market today, mostly divided into two groups of ownership between the French LVMH and the Swiss Richemont Group. Often, the same designer will create products for many of the brands within a group, which can serve to blur the distinction of the individual brands. Few of the brands’ clientele have a feeling of rapport with the designer.
The entire Catherine Michiels collection is designed exclusively by Catherine Michiels and is the result of her experiences and observations about life. As a consequence, her designs offer exclusivity and craftsmanship that are the very definition of luxury and which the competition finds difficult to produce. This is why senior executives at competing luxury brands often choose pieces from Catherine’s collection to give as gifts rather than the products offered by their firms. Catherine receives personal emails from consumers around the world who feel a bond with her via the purchase of a design though they have never met.
“We are offered many jewelry lines every day but we went out of our way to find Catherine’s line after experiencing an immediate bond with her designs.”
Minako Ito, Isetan Group Ltd., Japan
“I’ve been in this business for twenty years and meet designers every day. I have to say there is something special and different about Catherine’s jewelry that makes our customers come back for more and collect her pieces.”
Lily Dufailly, Group L’Eclaireur, Paris
The near future
The initial addition of high-line showcase stores (like the existing situations with L’Eclaireur in Paris and Tokyo, Louis Boston in Maine and Ylang23 in Dallas) is required to extend the presentation of the Catherine Michiels’ collection in a context of luxury .
A “Vitrine/Bureau” would be established in Paris as the “atelier headquarters” for the brand where clients and visitors may be received by Catherine in the manner that Ferrari owners made the pilgrimage to Maranello to visit the factory in the hopes of a meeting with Enzo Ferrari, himself.
www.catherinemichiels.com
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