il Sanders main target markets are Germany, Austria and Switzerland, however more recently there has been a lot more demand for the brand in Japan and China. The target demographic for most of their campaigns are high paid, work orientated individuals aged between 25- 40. The typical consumer wants contemporary but sophisticated garments that are made to last, which can easily be mixed and matched without taking too much time out of their busy schedule. Looking ‘on trend’ is not their aim, they simply want luxury items that are tailored to exceptional standard without the fuss of decoration. According to Mintel (figure 30, ‘clothing, shoes and a ccessories buying behaviours’ - September 2016) 73% of shoppers said they prefer to avoid ‘label heavy’ and over branded designs. In recent years, high end brands known for their prominent branding such as Louis Vuitton have had to adapt their designs in order to fulfil the consumers change in needs, as the demand for a more discreet look was rising. This lead to a rise in popularity for brands such as Rag and Bone, Jil Sander and Calvin Klein. Jil Sanders designs haven’t dramatically changed over the years due to the fact that their target consumers needs have considerably stayed the same. However the first glimpse of Lucie and Luke Meiers resort 2018 collection showed a refreshing new approach to the brand. Whilst Lucie described the collection as ‘feminine, light, and sensual’, there was an new element of colour blocking and Macramé added to the mix which had never been seen before from the brand.
Moving on to emerging markets, during an interview in 2017 Jil Sander revealed she ‘would be interested in doing an extremely effective beauty line’, possibly giving the brand a whole new lease of life and exposing itself to a completely new market. With brands such as The Or dinary and Glossier at the forefront of minimal beauty/skincare, there is a definitely a lot of potential for Jil Sander to gain success in this sector.
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