THE MARKET :

1-   Some information about the “prêt à porter” market in France

France is the 4^th hub of prêt à porter consumption!

In 2010, the feminine prêt à porter re-finds a stability after 2 years of economic crisis and decrease of sells  of  -3,2% to and represents 11,6 K€. But the production costs are increasing with the inflation of the cotton price and could affect again the market in 2011…nevertheless the feminine prêt à porter keep staying the main segment of the clothing market.

The market is more and more cluttered and the competition is aggressive. In addition there is the threat of the Chinese groups which have flooded the occidental market with low prices. Finally the distribution way are changing with e-commerce which comes up and take a market share of 10% and so retailers are stepping  back.

So companies in this sector need to reinforce their strategy and find new solution to differentiate their brand from the others.

                            2- Market trends and consumer changes

First of all, we can observe that leggings, dresses and top are doing better than the other categories of product on this market.

Another trend is the Family Relationship as marketing tool: Many companies in the fashion industry not only sell product but also a special universe. This is this universe which consumers will identify to.

Besides, another change is that Today daughter and mother relationship is better than yesterday. Whereas before it was more about conflict, today it’s more about fusion. So shopping together is a pleasure moment and the concept of Comptoir des Cotonniers matches to this change.

Finally, the consumer are changing more and more their way to buy and use more and more the e- commerce. By the way, with this new way of consumption, the customers ‘purchases are more resonated due to the crisis and respond better to their immediate needs. They also tend to look for a “responsible” purchase, ethics purchase…

   3-    The consumers's purchase motivations of the “prêt à porter » and of  Comptoir des Cotonniers ::

Consumer of fashion clothes are motivated by:

-          The price

-          The pleasure moment

-          The experience

-           A collection which change regularly

-          Hedonist need: to make pleasure to itself

-          Olbative need: make pleasure to anyone

-          Self expression: appearance.

The consumers are less loyal in a brand in general and tend to switch of brand often. So brands need to adapt their strategy to the new evolution of the consumption. However Comptoir des Cotonniers have succeed in keeping their customer loyal. The consumer of Comptoir des Cotonniers, thanks to their strategy and their specific target and universe of the mother and daughter are loyal but sensitive to give up anytime if their the brand doesn’t keep their attention to the changes (such as attractive prices demand…)

The mother-daughter campaign of comptoir des cotonniers ! 

This campaign matchs with the stragegy of the brand to demonstrate that mother and daughter can do shopping together. It represents a moment of complicity and affection. This campaign is elegant, simple and the message is really clear and easy to understand. 

The interesting think with this campaign, is that comptoir des cotonniers does not advertise in priority for the clothes but more for the experience of doing shopping, for a moment of sharing between mother and daughter.

However with this campaign, the main risk is that people could also think that mother and daughter wear the main clothes. And who like to wear the same clothes than his mother?