Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

Chanel has a very broad market in general due to their many market segmentation.  This well rounded company has been expanded a significant amount since it was established in the 1920’s. Gabrielle Coco Chanel opened her first store selling hats and few accessories. People mostly know Chanel for their fragrances, clothing and bags. Chanel's product mix has made them successful because they are specially targeted to women. The market segments for Chanel are mostly women (21 and older), they have knowledge about the brand and they know that they have good quality products. These product lines are targeted to different markets and it helps the company expand even more.   Chanel's geographic segmentation is limited since this brand is expensive and exclusive, their products cannot be afford and available to everyone. Retail Stores are mostly located in main cities such as: New York, Beverly Hills, Miami, Madrid, Russia, Tokyo, Paris, etc. Chanel is a brand that offers more than just clothes, it has become a brand that sells everything women need but now they are showing their new lines which will be for men and children.  

Although Chanel was extended greatly throughout the 1990’s, with the launch of a men’s version of perfume, its first skin care line, PRÉCISION (1999) as well as a new travel collection and fabulous line of sunglasses (under a license contract with Luxottica), there still remains scope for Chanel as a master brand to extend itself into other luxury products and services. An extension into Furniture would be successful because it is clear to envision sophisticated sofas which hold within them Chanel brand values of being classy, fabulous and authentic. The brand could also be leveraged to provide a range of products (perhaps a range of hats to start with; because of course they war Coco’s first product line) in the mid-price market, in order to provide a Chanel experience to those who are not extraneously wealthy, as this would spread the Chanel Universe and promote inter-wealth connections between people. However, this would have to be a one-off product offering so as to not ruin the overall image of Chanel. Chanel Candy sold at all Chanel counters, concessions, stores and booths would be a great success would be another idea of how to extend the brand. In essence, every touch point displays this. Brand expression is clear consistently and the brand identity is maintained to a high standard to ensure the fashion business maintains its personality and lives in the way in which its founder would have wanted it to.