NEW YORK — Status-seeking hasn’t lost its cachet.
In fact, it is a compelling consideration among luxury goods consumers in the country’s 10 percent of wealthiest households — contrary to the belief among many market researchers that, in recent years, the aura of social status had declined considerably as a driver of such purchases.
That phenomenon is one key finding in the “Luxury Brand Status Research & 2005 LuxuryStat Index,” newly published by the Luxury Institute based here. The research is based on a nationally representative sample of more than 200 adults, among the country’s 10 percent of wealthiest households, with a median annual household income of $395,000 and a median net worth, including home equity, of $1.9 million. (For the past 40 years, 80 percent of the nation’s wealth has been held by 20 percent of its households. Although people don’t generally dip into their assets for everyday purchase such as apparel, a wealth effect, or sense of security brought by such holdings, is believed to stimulate consumption.)
Among four categories of products and services evaluated in the first-time study — automotive, fashion designers, hotels/resorts and retailers — fashion designers accounted for three of the top 10 brands in the LuxuryStat Brand Value Index for 2005, an evaluation based on an index of 0 to 100. The index reflects an average of four factors: quality, exclusivity/uniqueness, status and self-enhancement. The three fashion houses ranking in the top 10 — Giorgio Armani, Hermès and Prada — also led the study’s list of designer brands that symbolize the strongest social status.
More than half, or 54 percent, of those responding to the online survey in the fourth quarter of 2004 agreed or strongly agreed that Armani is the designer name that conveyed the strongest social status. Armani was followed by Hermès and Prada, each of which commanded a 44 percent share. In the broader LuxuryStat Brand Value Index, Armani was accorded the fourth-highest rating, or a 72, by those surveyed, making it the top-ranked fashion brand overall; Hermès was seventh best, with a 68, and Prada, eighth, with a 67.
Fashion designers were the second most prevalent sector in the LuxuryStat Index, a group dominated by five automotive brands. Porsche led that category, garnering a 78 from wealthy adults and finishing second overall. Ritz-Carlton topped the index with an 81 and one other hotel franchise, The Four Seasons, rounded out the top 10, tying with Mercedes for the third-highest rating, a 76.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
Consumers were asked to rank 17 fashion brands, which were chosen for the luxury study based on their frequency of advertising in magazines aimed at wealthy readers, including Worth, Travel & Leisure and Departures, noted Milton F. Pedraza, the Luxury Institute’s chief executive officer, in disclosing the fashion results exclusively to WWD. As such, the 17 included only three American brands: Coach, Polo Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. And those three labels fell into the bottom half of the 12 rankings, which included five ties.
Coach came in eighth, indexing 62, including a 65 from women and a 59 from men; Polo Ralph Lauren placed 11th, with a 55, based on a 56 from women and a 53 from men, and Calvin Klein was 12th, scoring 50, as women gave it a 53 and men, a 48.
The broad distribution of Polo Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein merchandise and wide range of prices of those products, such as Polo Sport activewear, Chaps sportswear, CK Calvin Klein jeans and Calvin Klein underwear, Pedraza posited, have reduced Klein’s and Lauren’s luxury luster for the nation’s wealthiest consumers. “They are upscale brands but they are not [perceived as] luxury brands,” Pedraza maintained. “They are not seen in the same way as brands like Giorgio Armani, Gucci and Prada.”
A pair of brands appeared among the top three fashion names seen both as most exclusive and as most likely to offer a sense of self-enhancement, that is, make someone feel special: Armani and Versace. More than half, or 57 percent, agreed or strongly agreed that Armani made them feel special, making it the leader for that attribute, while 51 percent made that association with Versace, which was ranked third. Asked to assess exclusivity, 44 percent associated the quality with Armani, while 39 percent said it described Versace.
There was also a correlation between the two fashion names — Armani and Prada — that scored highest both in quality and status. Nearly half, or 47 percent of those polled, agreed or strongly agreed Armani was a designer brand offering consistently superior quality, as did the 41 percent who considered Prada as such. That compared with the larger shares of 54 percent who contributed to Armani’s top ranking for status, and 44 percent who propelled Prada into second place in that regard.
“Luxury in the highest [fashion] sense has long been an Italian and French phenomenon,” offered Pedraza, who added he believes the suggestion of exclusivity is the biggest piece of that perception, alluding to their distribution, which has generally been narrower than that of their U.S. counterparts.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||