- BORN AGAIN FASHIONISTAS: Mothers of children ages two and younger typically are consumed by their focus on their offspring — but they are still 31 percent more likely than the average American woman to buy clothing for themselves, according to Mediamark Research Inc. That’s good news for apparel marketers, considering the baby boom projected for mothers among the Millennial generation, a group now ages 6 to 26.
Indeed, 92 percent of women ages 18 to 24 are or plan to become mothers; one-third of them have already attained motherhood, Boston-based Silver Stork Research revealed this fall in a study called the U.S. Mom Market. Nearly half of women ages 18 to 24 anticipate giving birth by 2008.
Further, the 75 million or so Millennials could spur a 17 percent increase in the country’s birth rate for the next 10 years, Silver Stork estimated. That rate would signal a shift in the country’s aging dynamic: A child is born every eight seconds, and someone turns 50 every seven seconds, which means today’s birth rate is being offset by the aging of America, noted Marshal Cohen, chief fashion industry analyst at Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD Group. Following an upswing in births as estimated by Silver Stork, there would be roughly 294 more births per day than adults turning 50 (12,636 versus 12,342), compared with 1,542 more adults turning 50 daily than children being born — a swing of 6.5 million people over 10 years.
The best ways for apparel marketers to reach prenatal women and new mothers, said Silver Stork president Marta Loeb, is via magazines, direct mail and online, due to rising demands on the groups’ time. For example, Silver Stork found this May that 60 percent of mothers had shopped for baby clothes online in the previous three months, and 26 percent had shopped online for maternity wear in that period. Also finding favor with new mothers in metropolitan areas, like Boston and the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut region: in-home trunk shows for children’s apparel brands such as Brussels Sprouts Kids and Emma T.
Overall, 46.6 million mothers spent $19.6 billion on apparel in 2002, or 48 percent of the $40.5 billion expended for clothes by all American women. — Valerie Seckler
- USING HER DISCRETION: Women’s apparel captures the top share of spending on personal luxuries — items not considered necessary — according to new research from Stevens, Pa.-based Unity Marketing. In a draft of its upcoming report, provided to WWD, called “Why People Buy Personal Luxuries,” Unity noted people spent an average of approximately $667 in the past 12 months on discretionary purchases of women’s apparel. Consumers ages 25 to 34 expended the most on such items: $827 on average. Jewelry and watches ranked a rather distant second, snagging discretionary expenditures of $531 on average, or 20 percent below the apparel consumption level.
Curiously, the majority of those polled said their most recent personal luxury purchases in six of seven categories were made at a discount; personal care was the lone exception. Discretionary purchases of women’s apparel saw the highest share of discount transactions, at about 80 percent. Women’s apparel has been so heavily promoted for so long, said Unity Marketing president Pamela Danziger, “full-priced items are perceived as overpriced. When they go on sale, they’re seen as being priced right.” Men’s wear saw a 72 percent share of discretionary purchases at a discount, followed by teen/tween apparel, 71 percent; children’s clothing and fashion accessories, each at 57 percent, and jewelry and watches, 56 percent.
“Women have a harder time than men giving themselves permission to spend money on their personal luxuries, as they tend to control the family’s wallet — and know how far every paycheck must stretch to pay for necessities,” Danziger remarked. “As a result, they tend to spend money on others before they buy for themselves.” — V.S.
- FASHION’S FACELIFT: As Americans have rearranged their priorities over the past couple of years — often forsaking status symbols for time and money savings — many apparel brands have seen a decline in popularity. Now, it could be prime time for the fashion industry itself, among others, to buff up its image.
“As the economy improves, people will be more likely to act on their newly found disconnection to the workplace,” projected J. Walker Smith, president of Atlanta-based market researcher Yankelovich Inc. “This may mean leaving their jobs in favor of work they find more fulfilling.”
Thus, Smith counsels employers to better understand the underlying factors contributing to job satisfaction and worker productivity if they expect to retain employees in a recovering economy. Those attributes include: flex arrangements allowing people to balance broader lifestyle concerns with work; undertime, or taking time off work for personal tasks, with a nod from a supervisor but outside formal policy; bringing “life” to work, like taking a child to the workplace, and sequencing, or allowing mothers to exit and reenter the work force in sync with the birth and maturation of their children. The latter policy signals Gen X’s reversal of Baby Boomers’ desire to do it all simultaneously.
“The next recovery is unlikely to see the same rebound in job commitment we saw after the recession of the early Nineties,” Smith forecast. In the meantime, economic constraints could lull employers into complacency. “Job security is the number-one worry of workers,” Smith observed. Of course, there’s a question as to how many workers the apparel industry actually wants to retain, as it has let so many go over the past several years. In October, for instance, apparel manufacturers employed 52,100 fewer workers than in October 2002. — V.S.
Marketing Intelligence: Born Again Fashionistas…Using Her Discretion…Fashion’s Facelift
- BORN AGAIN FASHIONISTAS: Mothers of children ages two and younger typically are consumed by their focus on their offspring — but they are still 31 percent more likely than the average American woman to buy clothing for themselves,...