Target Markets of Dior and Chanel

The fashion industry is one of the luckiest industries in history to have legends like Christian Dior and Coco Chanel. These 2 icons found the companies with their respective names during the first half of the last century and since then both companies have been enjoying worldwide success and fame as French luxury companies in the fashion industry. The new innovative styles and combination of elegant and comfortable clothes were one of the many things that made these 2 companies so successful. Yet, another key factor of those dozens of factors was their marketing strategies. So, as you already guessed I am going to discuss the target markets of Dior and Chanel and understand the specific segments that they target.

So let’s start by going through Christian Dior and understanding the company.

In the post-World-War II world, Christian Dior was the most influential fashion designer. A gentle and sensitive man, who understood women’s values and preferences and was able to interpret them in the world of fashion with good taste and luxury feel.

After his death (1957), the brand continued to operate with the same values by maintaining its aim to stay as a luxurious fashion company.    

As a worldwide popular brand, surely it has a variety of target segments and products adopted to those segments. The huge product lines have found their shelter in the hearts of millions of consumers, who feel more up-to-date and self-confident while or after using the products of Dior. 

However, there is the key target segment that Dior has put emphasis on and gives more importance to compared to the other segments.  So, to explore this segment, I’m going to start by discussing the famous Miss Dior commercial starring lovely and beautiful Natalie Portman.  

This elegant commercial, full of positive vibes pictures the lifestyle and relationship of a cute young girl, filled with love and positivity towards life and the world. Her free spirit, fascination, and ability of enjoying the life make her a perfect example of a charming person. 

“AND YOU, WHAT WOULD YOU DO FOR LOVE?” is the slogan of the commercial, where the girl asks her boyfriend to prove his love. 

From those facts and characteristics of this woman, we can assume that the target segment I’ve identified is Chardonnay Girls.

So, who are Chardonnay Girls?

Lifestyle and Values

Very open-minded, ‘yes’ oriented, and energetic people. These are the adjectives that best describe Chardonnay Girls. Sharing special moments and making good memories with friends and the ones they love are key drivers for them in this life. Naively optimistic, but still believe that their outlook towards life is practical.   

They take care of their look a lot, because of their desire to be attractive to the opposite sex. Most of them may spend an hour in front of the mirror while getting ready, but will still make it look like that they just spent a couple of minutes on getting ready. 

Most of them are young professionals and students who are eager to achieve their goals and to get to the peak of their careers. However, they are not sure about the sacrifices they are ready to take to do so. It is important for them to be noticed at their workplace not only because of their efforts but also due to their intelligence and charisma. 

Different cultures are something that they are highly interested in. They like traveling, sharing cultures, getting new acquaintances, and making friends from other nationalities. The latter makes their life more colorful and adds up terrific episodes to their memories about their special moments, which they value a lot. 

Shopping Preferences:

Since they take care of their appearance a lot, shopping has a vital role in their lives. Doing it often, makes them very aware of fashion and trends. While sometimes their desired good may exceed their planned budget, they will most probably save some money to buy it as soon as possible. 

They prefer quality over quantity, so most probably they may spend their money to get one good product, instead of 2 average ones. Large logos and flashy things do not attract them much and sometimes may even be considered low taste. While following every trend, they mostly go after the most fashionable ones. 

Advertisements that offer entertaining value and aspirational characters are attractive to them. Thus, something that only looks good wouldn’t actually catch them. They believe that beautiful things should have a soul behind them and should stand for something. So, overall their receptivity level towards good advertisement is high.

Here are some interesting facts about Chardonnay Girls.

• Nightlife has a very important part of their social life. Hanging out in pubs with a crew or going to clubs and getting new acquaintances is one of the best ways to fill their social needs. The preparation for the night out is done with very great care as they like to be noticed in public places, but not because of flashiness but due to unique style and elegance.
• They like nature but are not into environmental issues. Their love towards nature is mainly expressed by aesthetics, as they enjoy hanging out, chilling, and picnicking in natural environments a lot.
• Chardonnay Girls give huge importance to having a large group of friends and a big number of crews, with a variety of background, which surely make their social life more interesting and boosts their social skills. 
• Family is viewed as a base for them. By spending time with family they take a break from their chaotic and buzzing social world. They don’t hang out with family members frequently, however, they always try to not miss the weekend family gatherings, where they enjoy and appreciate every moment spent.
• They are very active internet users. The internet helps them to stay up to date with the society and share their moments in Instagram stories and Facebook, as sharing is a very big part of Sociable Progressive people like them. While they like meeting new people, this trait is expressed online as well. They frequently use dating apps, for example Tinder to find a match and go out in the evening. 

16 Personalities (Which one is for your business?)

You may be interested, in how did DIor succeed and give so many trends? They just found their ideal persona and concentrated on them. Who is it? It’s Chardonnays’. Dior used its all marketing arsenal to pay Chardonnays’ attention.

And of course, the company considered some key features of Chardonnays.
These people are usually positive-minded. They just want to enjoy life and take part in interesting activities. Body health is also very important for them.

As I mentioned chardonnay people are interested in a healthy lifestyle such as yoga and swimming classes. Everything that makes them feel young and fresh is always on their horizon.
If they enjoyed your brand or your restaurant, they will definitely share their emotions in the social network. This makes one of the most targetable and useful personas as they make your company popular on a social level.

After you realize the power of Chardonnay girls you may ask now, how can I make my company desirable for them? How to pay their attention in advertisements?  What are the benefits of their behavior? You can find all the answers to these questions in our ebook called “16 Personalities”.  You will also find all the solutions for your marketing problems, which will obviously change your insights about buyer persona.

Of course, this is one of the 16 personalities and with this book, you will discover all of them. With knowledge of each 16 personalities, you will confidently find your ideal buyer persona and change your marketing strategy to achieve new levels. The book also gives you some hints for selling your product and negotiating with your clients.

After learning about Dior’s main target segment, I would love to conclude Dior’s topic with some interesting facts.

1. Christian Dior used to study politics: Yes, he used to study political science because his father was against the idea of Christian becoming a fashion designer. Shortly after graduating, he managed to open a gallery with the money his father had previously lent him. 
2. During WWII Dior continued his work as a couturier: While France was occupied by Nazi Germany, he was working under the supervision of then-famous couturier Lucien Lelong. They made fashion clothes for the wives of Nazi and French collaborators.
3. Feminists didn’t use to like Dior’s products: They used to consider Dior’s style kind of harsh and required to create some coverages to ease the oppressiveness by adding some paddings and corset. They thought that these changes would result in a better and more conservative look. 

So this was all about Dior. Our next Stop is Chanel. 

A little bit about Chanel…

Definitely an icon and a legend in the fashion world. By her innovative and glamorous approaches she had created timeless designs and breathtaking smells which resulted in priceless value for the brand. 

Her fist shop was in Paris, back in 1910 when she was 27. Starting out by selling hats, she gradually boosted the business by opening 2 more shops in Deauville and Biarritz.

Today, after a century, the company has 310 stores worldwide, with approximately $9.5 billion annual revenue. The most famous products of Chanel include the Chanel suit, “little black dress” and of course, the Chanel No. 5 perfume. 

For a company of such huge capacity and fame, surely there are a variety of target segments that the company has identified throughout the years.  Just like in the case of Dior, I’m going to concentrate on their main target segment and provide some insights about it. 

This luxury brand, focuses on delivering elegant and trendy designs for young women. These young women mainly represent the upper class who are trendy and are in fashion. Below you can see a screenshot which I’ve taken from a famous Chanel No5 commercial.

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This romantic commercial starring Audrey Tautou and Travis Davenport represents a beautiful love story in Istanbul. The focus of the commercial, as I guess you already noticed was on the look, jests, and the movements of the woman. 

A stylish intellectual young woman, aged approximately 30-35. Her looks are certain and from her behavior you can notice her high level of individualism.

She travels on her own, where she has long walked in the streets at the nights of Istanbul and goes on a cruise in the beautiful Bosphorus. This also shows some extend of her level of independence.

From these analyzes we can state that the segment we are looking for is Balancers.

What should we know about the Balancers?

Lifestyle and Values:

Very positive and ambitious people who always try to get the maximum out of everything. A key trait in their character that describes them the best in their desire to balance everything in their life which results in frequent concerns in their lives regarding the accuracy of their balancing.

For example when they are at work, they may feel that they should have already gone to a home where they would spend time with family and of course the vice versa. 

Balancers are very intellectual people. Most of them have completed graduate studies. They are open to new challenges and always try to develop themselves both by gaining new skills in their professions and increasing their knowledge about different topics.

They believe that self-development is one of the main keys to success. They aim to reach the top of their careers and most of them actually do.

The role of the family is very big in Balancers’ lives. While they were younger they used to have a very active social life and a lot of friends. However, throughout the years their focus has shifted towards the family where they may spend most of their social life by organizing activates that involve family members.

Attitude to Shopping and Advertising:

Entertaining and refreshing ads are the type of ones that can attract Balancers. The traditional and common ads make them bored and not interested. Their 2 important splits in life which are family and work gain most of their attention, so finding the right time to contact them may be challenging sometimes. 

Mostly they are open to new products if they have information about it or feel that its usage can be practical for them. However, these decisions are mainly made by immediate hits. 

Very practical and smart in shopping. Most of them have high incomes and wouldn’t mind paying extra money for something they like and desire. However, they hardly get carried away by brand names while choosing 2 similar products. When it comes to loyalty, they can be very loyal to a certain brand if they feel they found the right one that fits their needs and preferences.

Some facts about Balancers:

• They usually don’t have many hobbies, as their time doesn’t let them have so. As mentioned earlier their life is separated into two parts, family and work, so when they are free their leisure activates and hobbies mostly involve family members. These can be hiking, cycling skiing, etc.
• Most of them are concerned about their country. They find that one should contribute to the country’s wellbeing as much as their financial status lets them do so. 
• They use TV on a regular basis and mostly choose traditional channels. An important thing about their TV usage is that they mainly watch TV after work in the evening when their mind is already passive and resting.
• Approximately two-thirds of Balancers use the internet too often on daily bases. The main purposes of the usage include reading news, learning some tips to use in the jobs, and some interesting information. They use Facebook, mainly to catch up with old friends by chatting or following their life events from the feed.

In the end, again I would love to provide you with some interesting facts that you most probably haven’t heard before.

1. Chanel No. 5 is the best-selling perfume of all time. Some may say it’s worth the reputation others won’t, but the fact that it is one of the best fragrances ever created is something you can’t disagree with. Found in 1921, today the number of its annual sales amounts to approximately 10 million.
2. Suit for women was invented by Coco Chanel. While at the beginnings of 20th-century suits were only associated with men, she changed the stereotype by creating the ones that have feminine details in it, and as a result it had a huge impact on women’s fashion.
3. The price of Chanel 2.55 bag increases each year. This legendary fashion product found in 1955 gets more expensive year after year because of its ongoing increase in demand. So, this strategy makes the consumers don’t hesitate before buying the product, because hesitation may cost them money.
4. Chanel used to be a cabaret singer. Yes you read it right! She used to perform in café-concerts where she got her earnings from the money put on appreciation box by the audience. 

The role of the main target segments is undoubtedly huge in the strategies and results of these two giant companies. Surely, these companies will still continue to surprise their loyal customers by introducing new masterpieces, while maintaining their values. 

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