Give em' What They Want

I had a client not too long ago that hadn’t realized what made her business go left. She owned a stylish super chic accessory company specializing in handbags.

Her “star” item was always her signature clutch….it was $125 wholesale and it sold and sold and sold. Every season it was reinvented in some way or another and it kept selling. Well one day I guess Jessica Simpson--Sienna Miller-- Lindsay Lohan or one of them had too much to carry one night and she pulled out this huge bag… and sent the clutch and the clutch business straight to hell.

So it downtrended….died…played out whatever you want to call it. Being the businesswoman that she was she started doing these gorgeous Italian leather boho bags but her business stumbled or chocked…or stumbled and chocked would probably be the most accurate. So let’s take a look at this…what’s really going on?

Now the clutch did in fact go out…that was a fashion fact THE CLUTCH WAS OUT and it was nothing she or I could do about it.

But what we discovered was really missing wasn’t the clutch. It was the $125 pricepoint. Buyers have allocated dollars to spend….with a $125 clutch they may be able to buy a few from here and a few from there but with $500 big bags of the moment that same strategy just won’t work.

My advice----find that $125 price point again…give it back to your customers. They miss it! They need it! And for right now you need it to fill that hole in your sales.

We know it’s not in the body of a clutch…. but is it a belt, a wallet a leather planner? As the designer she’d have to figure that out. Fashion is fabulous but every buyer has a bottom line…through merging price and the right product that’s what you have to find.

See my dear…you had it all along.