Fashion Notebook

Research Desk: Girls Will Give Up Coffee Before Concealer

The current economic situation may look ugly, but that doesn’t mean women want to. Which, at least, is some good news for marketers and health and beauty retailers.

According to the Allure Beauty Index, an online survey of 1,088 readers of Allure magazine conducted on its Web site in April, 75% of respondents said they would give up other indulgences before they would stop buying their favorite beauty products.

What’s more, 84% of those surveyed said they felt beauty “is a necessity in life.” We know, we know, it is a little bit cringe-inducing, y'know, given what's happening in Myanmar right now, and I don't know, immigrant refugees being burned alive in South Africa. But this is the U.S. peeps, where it's OK to put beauty, and fashion, first. After all, many of our basic needs are met, or at least so the popular media tells us. Plus, there's that big news event of that big big big movie coming out now, guys! It's so big even the international press is getting Carried away. (We promise, no more SATC references. God knows we've had enough of them!)

Sorry, we're getting off track today. More to the point for marketers, 65% agreed with the statement that “you can't put a budget on beauty,” which means charge whatever the f*ck you want for those not-tested-on-animals powders, creams and compounds.         

When asked where they would look to cut back their spending, those surveyed ranked the affected categories as follows:

    •    Dining out: 69%                         •    Home goods 44%            
    •    Jewelry/watches: 59%               •    Clothing: 37%
    •    Electronics: 58%                        •    Automobile: 30%
    •    Entertainment: 51%                        •    Beauty products: 16%
    •    Vacation: 45%

   

Not that Starbucks hasn’t recently been hit with enough ugly financial news, 79% of respondents said they would “eliminate afternoon Starbucks’ runs” in order to be able to afford their favorite beauty products. In addition, 56% said they would alter their vacation plans to free up funds for their beauty needs.               

The survey did have good news for some food retailers: 61% said they would save money by switching to
lower-priced “generic” food brands at the grocery store. That means, like, buying 365 Organic at Whole Foods, right?

Lessons in Branding: How Diesel Fuel For Life Rocketed the Brand to the Top of the Fragrance Market, With Just One Launch

So no doubt you've all seen the ads for Diesel's first foray into
the fragrance category, Fuel For Life, right? (If not, check out these trés sexy photos, at right and below, left). Well, what you probably didn't know is that this one fragrance has shot the Diesel name up to the top of the men's cologne business.

According to figures from NPD Group, the fragrance was the No. 3 overall launch (across men's and women's fragrances) for 2007, despite the fact that Diesel had no history in the category. What's more, through February 2008, the fragrance is solidly within the Top 10 Men's Colognes, ranked by sales.

So how'd they do it? With an ad campaign that didn't only win over consumers, but also won awards, picking up the Fragrance Advertising of the Year via the Fragrance Foundation, in both the men's and women's category. So when we're drooling over the eye candy in both of these shots, it's for a reason. This stuff really IS solid gold.

Wanna hear more? Well, you can ready all about it in our article "Filling It Up With Premium." If you're link-a-phobic, here's a taste:

It's no secret that most every fashion brand wants to break into the fragrance business. And with good reason. While the market is fickle, materials can be found on the cheap, the bottles have a long shelf life and their contents are less prone to the more dramatic trend overhauls that characterize luxury apparel. Because customers will actually pay up to $80 for a little bottle of the stuff, the profit margins smell loveliest of all. But Diesel knew it was facing an uphill battle as an unknown in the space, which was presumably behind its decision to partner with L'Oréal, Paris, for its first foray into the category.

It's also why the introductory support broke many of the traditional rules L'Oréal applies to marketing and launching its ever-expanding portfolio of fragrances. First there was the aforementioned antimarketing viral campaign in the weeks leading up to the August 2007 launch. (Some subsequent print ads announced that the fragrance was "finally legalised.")

Next, when it came to traditional brand advertising (chiefly print and TV), the campaign took a more-is-more approach. Rather than one TV spot, the company created six, via agency FFL Paris. Instead of two, static print ads, one for men and one for women, that feature either a celebrity or single model, FFL created four executions, each of them utilizing a new model to express the individuality of the fragrance. The tag read simply: "Are You Alive?"

"For us, this was an ambitious project," said Ulli Lindauer, vp-marketing of L'Oréal European designer fragrances. "There is a moment captured in the photography that is a universal moment of feeling alive. It was about the brand giving each of us the opportunity to be an individual."

Financial Desk: Strong Gains in Q1 Portend Bright 2008 For LVMH

In the words of one Flavor-Flav, LVMH Chairman and CEO
Bernard Arnault "knows what time it is."

Remember when the luxury house's head honcho (pictured, right), whom we've always thought was like a lost member of the Rat Pack, said this, a while back?

"I believe that [the recession's] consequences on LVMH will be limited, weak, or even non-existent. In fact, the clientele that we are dealing with is far less affected than the rest of the economy by these short-term economic swings.  They have high purchasing power, located in a number of countries where the economic climate will be bouyant, even if there's a minor recession in the U.S."

Well, he wasn't just puffing his sails. First quarter revenue reports show that, with the sole exception of the wine and spirits group, all divisions of LVMH are up.

Fashion and leather goods grew 7%, led by the strength of Louis Vuitton, which received its own TV commercial this quarter, in addition to recently inking a deal to have Rolling Stones' guitarist (and, we think, animatronic wax doll) Keith Richards star in its current print campaign. On the product front, the company said that the collaboration between Marc Jacobs and Richard Prince (the artist of "Let's not and say we did, XOXO, Jennifer Aniston" fame) was particularly successful. Meanwhile, perfumes and cosmetics grew 8%, attributed to the continued momentum of the Christian Dior brand offerings, as well as the new Midnight Poison fragrance and Addict High Shine lipstick.

But the real winner of the quarter was the watches and jewelry group , which posted 12% revenue gains over the year-earlier period. Strength came from brands including TAG Heuer, Zenith and the Christal collection from Dior. The company added that Chaumet and De Beers also continued their retail expansion plans and increased revenues. New watches previewed at Art Basel in Switzerland have reportedly attracted "large increases in orders" from retailers.

And the bottom kicker of the sales release seems to only confirm what Arnault had promised earlier:

"LVMH will continue its growth in 2008 despite the challenging monetary environment and an uncertain economic climate at the beginning of this year. Increasing market share and the profitability of its leading brands as well as improving the results of its developing companies remain LVMH top priorities."

If they can keep these numbers up, or better yet, best them, then we think it's fair to say that the strategy we outlined a while back, that of weathering the recession by only appealing to the top end clientele, has indeed proved not only stable, but a money maker for LVMH.

Financial Desk: On Q4 and FY07 Losses, Macy's To Investors: "Hey, We're Not Doing As Badly As The Others!"

It's not a good day for retailers, with many reporting sales
and earnings slumps.

In its report this morning, Macy's appears to be hoping that they might at least look better than the competition.

"While a weakened economic environment led our industry to softer financial results than initially expected, Macy's, Inc. did outperform most of our primary competitors in the fourth quarter," said Terry Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO, in a statement. "We also generated significant cash flow despite weaker-than-expected sales trends. Going  forward, we are aggressively pursuing our recently announced market localization initiative to drive future sales and earnings."

What's he talking about? Well, earlier this month, the brand announced that they would be consolidating their various Macy's regional divisions into three primary groups: Macy's East, Macy's West, and Macy's South. Within each of those divisions will be 20 "districts," each consisting of about 10 stores, governed by a new workforce of about 250 managers. The thought is that by having more management in more localized markets, the company will be able to make much more specific marketing appeals to its consumers, tailoring everything to their particularly tastes, whims, or geographic proclivities. Of course, that consolidation also includes the downsizing of some 2,550 jobs across the previous geo-divisions. More on that, here.

 

Oh, and also, Macy's announced that it will no longer be reporting same-store monthly sales figures, which, you know, are the clearest indicator of a retailer's performance inbetween earnings reports. Oh, and another thing, they're not going to be giving anymore estimates about sales and earnings for the future. That certainly sounds like an underwhelming vote of confidence in the company's ability to perform.

"In total, 2007 was a year of significant strategic progress," added Lundgren, in a statement. "We successfully launched exclusive new brands such as Martha Stewart Collection, invested for continued growth in the direct-to-consumer business, expanded Bloomingdale's, changed our corporate name, and launched a breakthrough new marketing approach under the umbrella of 'The Magic of Macy's'."

You probably remember that particular campaign from the holiday season, when you were besieged by a commercial with a melee of images of Donald Trump, Sean Combs, Martha Stewart (who almost seemed warm and whom we were also relieved to see unshackled from KMart), and mental eyesore Jessica Simpson hawking their products sold through the mega-retailer.

Lay your chips down, folks, we're betting on Martha as the sales driving leader in the full collection category this year. Hopefully, for Macy's she'll be "a good thing."

Financial Desk: Despite Q4 Weakness, Nordstrom Rolls on With Seven New Stores for 2008

Another sign that the luxury market might be buckling, Nordstrom reported declines across the balance sheet for the fourth quarter.

Net sales dropped 4.4% to $2.51 billion for the quarter ended Feb. 2, and net earnings declined 8.6% to $212 million, or 92 cents a share. For the full year, sales increased 3% to $8.83 billion, and earnings rose 5.5% to $715 million, or $2.88 per share.

The declines were caused, in part, by a "trailing effect" from the previous quarter, according to President Blake Nordstrom's statements in a conference call.

"[That trailing effect] coupled with the softer environment impacted our bottom line," he added, noting that the first half of the year had been, "in terms of sales," successful. "As we look ahead to 2008 and beyond, we are focused on executing our long-term strategy of increasing market share with our core customers by offering great service and the best merchandise the market has to offer. We are in a position of strength financially, which allows us to take advantage of opportunities that may come our way, as well as weather any current challenges that we may face."

Increasing market share with  core customers, boosting service and merchandise, eh? Seems that's exactly what Milton Pedraza, of The Luxury Institute told us was precisely the strategy the luxury market needed to combat the pending/current recession.

While the year-end increases do support Nordstrom's contention of his company's strong financial position, we have to think that moving ahead with the retailer's growth plan is unwise at this time. Nordstrom plans to open seven more stores this year—in Honolulu, Hawaii; Burlington, Mass.; Clinton Township, Mich.; Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Naples, Fla.—in addition to the 165,000 square foot store it opened Feb. 15 in Aventura, Fla.

No notes about changes to their marketing plan that we've seen yet, but those cartoonish inserts they've been running for a while now certainly haven't made us want to shop there.

Research Desk: Prestige Beauty Sales Grew 2% in 2007, Sez NPD

The prestige beauty industry—that's the expensive,
marquee stuff y'all—gussied itself up in 2007, according to a report from NPD Group, Port Washington, N.Y.

The category grew 2% overall to $8.9 billion in sales for 2007. Leading that charge were the makeup and skincare categories, where sales rose 4% to $3.4 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively. Makeup still leads in market share, now at 38% of the total beauty biz, just ahead of fragrance, which controls 33% of sales, and skincare, which gets 28% of the cut at $1.2 billion in sales.

And growth in a prestige market despite The Recession! Though, we can't say we're surprised, because, after all, even in the worst of times we'll plunk down the cash to prevent the world from seeing our wrinkly, blemished, pale faces, or smelling our "natural" scent. And hey, if it's got a designer name on the box, all the better! If we're not paying more than $100 for the goods, we usually chalk it up to a normal indulgence, especially when it lasts for a year (Happy Valentine's Day to our very dresser-top fave Prada Amber Pour Homme!).

Seems NPD's senior beauty analyst, Karen Grant, agrees.

"During challenging economic times in 2007, the prestige beauty industry managed to rise above the negatives," said Grant in the report. "Women and men are still willing to spend money on products that make them look and feel better."

However what did surprise us were the rankings of the top fragrances, for both male and female shoppers (keep in mind that females actually buy a greater percentage of men's fragrance than men do):

1. Acqua Di Gio (Giorgio Armani)
2. Beautiful (Estée Lauder)
3. Coco Mademoiselle (Chanel)
4. Chanel No. 5 (Chanel)
5. Cashmere Mist (Donna Karan)

OK, ok, Beautiful isn't a surprise, nor is Chanel No. 5, those fragrances are so classic they're a lock for the top spots. Coco Mademoiselle is an interesting one, since we were sure that everyone was like sooo over their current ad girl, Keira Knightley, but it's obvs just us who thinks she just a poor-man's version of Penelope Cruz with a perma-pout. And Cashmere Mist? We have to think some of those sales were a case of mistaken identity. We've never touched the stuff but the bottle looks like an exotic sex toy.

But the real shocker was No. 1: Acqua di Gio. Seriously!? Acqua di Gio!? We thought that fragrance was hot like, four years ago when we were having our Año Español and all the boys (including us) were awash in that sweet, citrus-y smell. But that was four years ago!

"It's just an easy fragrance, a good juice that easy and likable and that no one is going to hate you for gifting," Grant told us, admitting even she had been surprised that the fragrance had stayed on top for the past several years. "Men can wear it to work and to the club, and women like it, which you know is the number one factor for the guys. It isn't overpowering and its versatile. They've hit on a formula that is working on both the mass and prestige levels."

Grant also told us that a new ad campaign, by parent L'Oréal's agency Publicis, that offered new imagery for the popular fragrance, was well timed to continue the momentum of the brand last year, swapping out male model Larry Scott with Lars Burmeister (pictured above, with product), and bowing a new TV campaign, which you can view, to your water-dripping-on-abs delight, below.

Updated: Financial Desk: LVMH Closes Out 2007 with Multi-Category Growth and Teaser For New Vuitton Campaign

Another positive luxury earnings report, now with some
straight talk about how 2008 will shape up, comes across
our desk this morning from Paris-based juggernaut LVMH.

The company, which markets a wide range of luxury products, posted sales gains across every category in its portfolio. In sum, company-wide revenues increased 8% to $24.1 billion, with profits climbing 12% to $5.2 billion for 2007.

While those gains are certainly commendable, Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault didn't shy away from addressing some of the problems facing the U.S. market, though he was bullish on the company's prospects, given its higher-end clientele.

"It is true that the year is starting in a rather worrisome situation in terms of the economy and the financial markets in particular...[and] our analysis of the situation is that in 2008 we're likely to experience a degree of recession more or less important in the U.S. economy," Arnault said, in a conference call, though he added that January sales were in line with year-end performance for the company and noted that he believes the recession should only last one or two quarters into 2008, with market recovery by 2009.

"I believe that [the recession's] consequences on LVMH will be limited, weak, or even non-existent," Renault said. "In fact, the clientele that we are dealing with is far less affected than the rest of the economy by these short-term economic swings.  They have high purchasing power, located in a number of countries where the economic climate will be bouyant, even if there's a minor recession in the U.S."

Returning back to the quarterly results, of particular interest to us were the following revenue boosts: sales of fashion and leather goods  grew 8% to $8.24 billion, at current exchange rates, in 2007; the perfumes and cosmetics business also grew 8%, with sales of roughly $4 billion; while the watches and jewelry group posted a 13% sales gain, at $1.2 billion.

The company, in a statement, attributed increased revenues in the fashion category to strong performance from its landmark Louis Vuitton brand, as well as "growing success" at Fendi, in addition to solid performances from Marc Jacobs, Givenchy and Loewe. The boost in perfumes and cosmetics came on the back of its popular Christian Dior fragrance line, particularly the J'Adore, Midnight Poison and Fahrenheit 32 scents. Strength in the watches and jewelry category was led by TAG Heuer, which the  company said showed strong progress across all of its markets (for more on TAG's marketing efforts, see previous article, here).

According to statements by Antonio Belloni, deputy managing director, in a conference call, the fragrance departments at Givenchy and Kenzo will be rolling out "aggressive programs," including a renewed advertising campaign for the female market, and a forthcoming men's launch for both brands. No further details were provided.

And Yves Carcelle, president of the fashion and leather goods division, alluded to an evolution of the brand's current campaign with Mikhail Gorbachev . In the call, Carcelle mentioned a "Life After Gorbachev" initiative that would be unveiled "in a few weeks' time."

"For the first time, indeed, in the history of the luxury industry, there will be an audio-visual film which will be used both on TV, in theaters and on the Internet," Carcelle said during the call, describing the spot as "90-seconds of pure emotion." Hmmm... We'll definitely be staying tuned on that one.

Anecdotally, it would appear that Gorbachev campaign (as well as the spots featuring French Actress Catherine Deneuve, both pictured, above) has been successful. I've heard a vast majority of positive reaction to those spots, and, given the pending recession, that campaign isn't a bad strategy for the U.S. market. After all, only the super-moneyed, who are likely the age contemporaries of Gorbachev and Deneuve, will be able to afford those never-marked-down handbags if the economy really gets bad.

Research Desk: What's the Price of Love? Average of $128 Spent on Valentine's This Year, And Men Lead the Charge

What's the price of love?

An average of $128 will be spent on Valentine's Day gifts this year, according to a new study from Brand Keys, New York, though Brand Keys founder Robert Passikoff said, in a statement, that the spending increase was about half the jump in 2006.

The study surveyed 1,200 men and 1,200 women between the ages of 18 and 60 about their purchase intent and celebration plans for the Feb. 14 holiday.  Turns out the guys end up dropping more cash, averaging spends of $166 versus $90 for the ladies. Younger respondents, pegged at 18-34, planned to spend the most, at an average of $162, ahead of 35-49 year olds with an average spend of $69, and those over 50, who planned to spend an average of $52 on Valentine's Day gifts.

Maybe I'm just a big grump, but my boyfriend and I are clocking in at $0, since we don't celebrate Valentine's Day. (Of course, it doesn't hurt that our anniversary falls the day AFTER Valentine's Day, so perhaps our splurge is just time-shifted).

Anyhow, onto the good stuff. While the fashion biz seemed to fall towards the back half, still a strong showing for those looking to market their fragrances, apparel and jewelry collections. Here's the Top 10 Valentine's Day Gifts for 2008:

                            

And for those of you looking to size up which celebrities you'll be wanting to seeding your product to, here's a round-up of the Top 10 Fantasy Dates, broken out by gender. Don't forget, the Oscars are just around the corner! Or are they?

Hey, we didn't make this list, so feel free to post your disagreements below. While we understand George Clooney's placement (though we feel Owen should be up there), we're a bit baffled by Rebecca Romjin's top slot. Seriously? Guys would rather date her than Angelina?

And notice who didn't appear? While Nicole Kidman got a nod, seems like Tom Cruise is out of the picture. Guess no one wants to date crazy anymore.

Marketing to Men: How Two Beauty Brands are Reaching the Elusive "Mook" Psychographic

When I saw Knocked Up for the first time on DVD, I kind of fell in love with Seth Rogen. The same thing happened when I watched Jonah Hill’s character saunter through frenetic, sexually frustrated dialog in Superbad (see Rogen pictured, far left, with film's stars, Michael Cera and Hill) earlier this year. These guys reminded me of an old college buddy of mine: a pot-smoking, hard-drinking good times guy whose “Madden 2004” soundtrack used to put me to sleep each night, and with whom I'd spend the weekends swollen with beer, hollering myself hoarse watching NCAA games at a local Irish bar. We'd rag on each other, compare girls we were dating (these were my pre-out days, and now we split down the middle, he'll go for Juno's Ellen Paige while I'll geek out over Cera), and our apartment was the kind of squalor that we've both promised we'll never live in again.

Because, you know, those days are over. But they're not really, and guys well beyond the college years are whooping it up, well, like guys in college.

If you haven't already, check out my most recent feature story, "The Mook Industrial Complex," here.

The term comes from a 2001 Frontline documentary (female counterparts were dubbed "midriffs") and they're the zeitgeist of the 18-34 year old male demo that represents about $1.02 billion in annual household income according to MRI reports.

The problem is, they're highly elusive and, what's more, even though you might think their humor beyond sophomoric, they are wizards at blocking out your marketing messages. Maxim's Rob Gregory told me that these guys receive roughly 3,000 impressions a day (if they live in an urban area, natch) and they block out about 90% of them. So going after the dude-bro is not as easy as slapping a scantily-clad woman on a 30-second commercial for beef jerky, say. But some brands have found a way to get through the clutter, and there's some good advice and strategy talk from the marketing honchos at Mitchum (unit of Revlon) and Axe (unit of Unilever).

Oh, and for extra gross-out factor, check out some of the sites I had to go through for my research: Ebaum's World and College Humor. I can't guarantee that it's work safe, kids, so browse at your own risk.

Googling Beauty: Q+A with Google's CPG Sales Head, Kevin Kells

I recently got a chance to sit down with Kevin Kells, Google's
national industry leader f or CPG, over lunch at their cafe-
teria. (BTW/FYI: Google has a "cafeteria" that puts Condé's to shame AND it's free for all the employees. Go ahead, have the salmon!)

Kells (pictured, right) had a lot of interesting things to say about online marketing for CPG brands, and he and his team have been doing a lot of work to break beauty and other CPG marketers from the print/tv spot habit.

Case in point: Google commissioned research firm Harris Interactive to measure the effectiveness of CPG ads (for food, beverage and personal care brands) across traditional TV, the YouTube online video environment and ad-embedded click-to-play video. Turns out those Youtube and Web ads were just as good as the traditional TV spot at driving brand affinity and purchase intent.

Case in point #2: Kell's described one of his favorite case studies to me, in which the Googlers did a campaign for Dove’s Ultimate Clear deodorant, with ads on 271 of Google’s network Web sites and 121 groupings of sites geared toward the 18-34-year-old female target. The effort drove brick-and-mortar sales up 25% during the period. What's more, 96% of that extra boost were new customers for the brand.

But Kells isn't just speaking through his nose. Beauty marketers, he feels your pain. In fact, he used to be one, logging some time in the marketing department over at Revlon, where he handled the Almay brand as  vp-marketing. Before that, he worked over at Unilever and even handled the Guinness account over at Diageo, all before joining up with Team Google in January 2006.

Check out the full story here.