NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - February 09, 2016) - A new series of Luxury Brands Status Index (LBSI) surveys from the independent and objective New York City-based Luxury Institute provides a fresh look at how affluent female consumers from the world's largest economies rate and rank more than four dozen global luxury fashion brands. The Luxury Institute surveyed 3,900 high-income consumers from seven countries meeting various household income thresholds in local currencies: United States ($150,000); United Kingdom (£60,000); France, Germany, Italy (EUR50,000); China (1 million CNY); and Japan (¥150 million).
Women from high-income households in these countries rated each fashion brand on quality, exclusivity, social status and overall ownership. Luxury Brand Status Index scores range from 0-10, and are an average of respondents' degree of agreement with each of the following four statements:
- "This brand delivers consistently superior quality."
- "This brand is truly unique and exclusive."
- "This brand is purchased by people who are admired and respected."
- "This brand makes its buyers feel special across the full customer experience."
Wealthy female respondents also identified the brands they are most likely to purchase in the coming year, as well as evaluated each brand's worthiness of charging premium prices, and indicated their willingness to recommend each brand to friends, family, and other people they care about.
Widely bought brands may be highly popular but low LBSI scores suggest buyers are less than convinced of the brand's luxury credentials. For example, Calvin Klein is the brand that women worldwide are most likely to have purchased in the past year, despite Calvin Klein's scores placing it at the bottom on the 2016 Luxury Brand Status Index overall rankings.
The most popular fashion brands among U.S. women are Calvin Klein, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Michael Kors. Worldwide, Chanel is the brand that women are most likely to be familiar with, and second most likely to select the next time they make a fashion merchandise purchase, behind only Calvin Klein, and ahead of Polo Ralph Lauren and Burberry.
The degree to which a customer agrees a brand is worth premium prices is a good measure of brand value. Globally on this measure, affluent women rank Chanel and Hermès the two fashion brands most worth the premium prices, followed by Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Prada. The top five brands identified by wealthy women as making them feel special across the full customer experience are a mix of well-established and newer brands: Hermès, Temperley London, Chanel, Brunello Cucinelli, and Proenza Schouler.
The willingness of affluent shoppers to recommend a brand to family and close friends may be the best overall measure of satisfaction. On a global basis, wealthy women are most likely to recommend Loro Piana, Chanel, Hermès, Akris, and Brunello Cucinelli.
"In the fast moving world of women's luxury fashion, big brands and newer names can rapidly build -- and squander -- valuable brand equity by losing touch with their core customers," says Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza. "It's encouraging to see some of the world's largest luxury houses learning to compete in the digital age, as well as turning brilliant designs into big businesses in a very short period of time."
Below are all 54 women's luxury fashion brands under consideration in the 2016 LBSI survey, listed alphabetically:
1. Akris
2. Alberta Ferretti
3. Alexander McQueen
4. Balenciaga
5. Bally
6. Bottega Veneta
7. Brunello Cucinelli
8. Burberry
9. Calvin Klein
10. Carolina Herrera
11. Celine
12. Chanel
13. Chloe
14. Christopher Kane
15. Derek Lam
16. Diane von Furstenberg
17. Christian Dior
18. Dolce & Gabbana
19. Donna Karan
20. Escada
21. Etro
22. Faconnable
23. Fendi
24. Salvatore Ferragamo
25. Giorgio Armani
26. Givenchy
27. Gucci
28. Hermès
29. J. Mendel
30. Jason Wu
31. Jil Sander
32. Lanvin
33. Loro Piana
34. Louis Vuitton
35. Marc Jacobs
36. Marni
37. Michael Kors
38. Missoni
39. Miu Miu
40. Oscar de la Renta
41. Prada
42. Proenza Schouler
43. Polo Ralph Lauren
44. Roberto Cavalli
45. St. John Collection
46. Stella McCartney
47. Tom Ford
48. Temperley London
49. Tory Burch
50. Valentino
51. Vera Wang
52. Versace
53. Yves Saint Laurent
54. Zac Posen
About Milton Pedraza and Luxury Institute, LLC
Milton Pedraza is the CEO of the Luxury Institute. Over the past 12 years, Milton has established the Luxury Institute, first and foremost, as a high performance client relationship consulting firm. Our Luxcelerate System has helped our clients to significantly improve client data collection, conversion and retention rates. In addition, the Institute has conducted more research with affluent consumers than any other entity in the world. In the last decade, we have served over 1,000 luxury and premium goods and services brands across dozens of categories.
Milton advises and coaches luxury CEOs and advises the boards of top-tier luxury and premium brands, as well as luxury startups. He is sought after worldwide for his practical, innovative and humanistic insights and recommendations on luxury and is the most quoted global luxury industry expert in leading media and publications.
Milton is also an authority on customer relationship management technologies, analytics, and Big Data. Prior to founding the Luxury Institute, his successful career at Fortune 100 companies included executive roles at Altria, PepsiCo, Colgate, Citigroup and Wyndham Worldwide.
Milton was born in Colombia, raised in the United States, and has lived in several countries. He has conducted business in over 100 countries, and speaks several languages.
Complete rankings of all 54 fashion brands in seven countries are available in the 2016 Global Luxury Brand Status Index - Women's Fashion complete report. To purchase this report, visit luxuryinstitute.com, or contact Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza (mpedraza@luxuryinstitute.com).
Contact Information:
Katherine Sousa
ksousa@luxuryinstitute.com