NEW YORK — With overkill coverage of celebrity nuptials, extravagant “encore weddings” for divorcées and a mention of Vera Wang on NBC’s “The West Wing,” it’s clear the $120 billion bridal industry is stretching out to new terrain.
These were a few of the trends addressed by executives Wednesday at a Retail Marketing Society-backed roundtable discussion addressing the state of the industry at the Williams Club here.
During the discussion moderated by Gloria Gelfand, who is the head of Gelfand Marketing Solutions, Millie Martini Bratten, editor in chief of Brides magazine; Mara Urshel, president of Kleinfeld, and Brian Lawrence, author of “The Wedding Expert’s Guide to Sales and Marketing,” shared their views.
While some brides spare no expenses, as evidenced by the estimated $4 million Preston Bailey-designed affair that Bratten eyed recently at the Waldorf-Astoria, many others are trooping over to Kleinfeld’s new 35,000-square-foot store here, where a monthly sale is offered for some of the retailer’s 1,500 samples. Regardless of the product they are looking for, brides-to-be are eager to find companies that specialize in customer service. Urshel noted that she and her co-president Ronnie Rothstein and a few other Kleinfeld executives have their home telephone numbers printed on their business cards to assure their clients they are at-the-ready to assist them.
“Believe it or not, they don’t call often. The most important thing is this connection or security we give to them,” Urshel said.
Apparently, customers value that, considering Kleinfeld’s average price point is $3,000 to $4,000, and seems to be rising since the $10 million Chelsea store’s opening this fall after moving from Brooklyn, she said. “We’ll probably need more space even though we have only been there for four months.”
After mentioning how she hired design firms that worked on the W Hotels and the Venetian in Las Vegas to work their magic on that location, Urshel added, “The bridal industry is really a hospitality business.”
Bratten said bridal designers’ names are now referenced by name instead of brand, their designs are turning up more and more on the red carpet, and more ready-to-wear designers are creating bridal dresses.
If the $120 billion U.S. wedding industry were a Fortune 500 company, it would rank sixth. The bulk of that figure — $70 billion — is comprised of “new life” expenditures such a house or car and another $50 billion is spent on weddings and honeymoons. Bratten also noted the Echo Boomers, those born between 1982 and 1995, are 71 million strong compared with Gen X’s 37 million base. The fact that the average Echo Boomer is 27 years old bodes well for the bridal industry, which is planning for 22 percent growth in the next 15 years.
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Next year, 2.3 million couples plan to marry, she said. All this activity is keeping the catering industry busy.
“In the catering world, it is difficult to get a Saturday, Friday or even Thursday evening so it’s really become about the one o’clock reception,” Gelfand said. “And the guest doesn’t come marching into the one o’clock reception in the long, beaded gown.”
While more casual affairs have taken hold and destination weddings have become so popular that they have their own magazine, Urshel said some brides are still buying high-end dresses. Pnina Tornai, an Israeli designer whose line is sold exclusively in the U.S. at Kleinfeld, retails from $10,000 to $20,000.
Lawrence, who is also vice president of sales and marketing for the stationery label Encore Studios, agreed, “It’s an amazing journey from the engagement to the wedding. It’s just one big shopping spree.”
As grooms become more involved with decision-making, they are a more viable marketing opportunity, Lawrence said. Encouraging divorced brides and grooms to go all out for their second weddings, and catering to same-sex weddings are other opportunities, he said.