While this class of Russians was known for its fascination with luxury brands, there is evidence that Russia's newer wealthy class are shifting their tastes to more independent looks (Groskop, 2008).
The target market therefore is going to be part of the older demographic, for whom luxury brands are directly equated with status and style. In Russia, these will tend to be females in millionaire families, aged 35 and up. These buyers will tend to live in either Moscow or St. Petersburg, where almost all of Russia's wealth is held. They are worldly, and are often familiar with luxury brands from their travels. These Russians are well-traveled and consider themselves among Europe's elite. They are usually educated, but most of the women do not work. Shopping is a pastime, and they will invariably have purchased luxury brands before, if not Coach specifically.
Financial Summary
The typical financial picture of a Coach store is that around 62-64% of revenue comes from handbags, 28-29% comes from accessories with other products making up the remainder. Price points are typically high, and stores do a relatively low volume as a result. There are only 44 freestanding Coach stores internationally, and a total of 159 international locations of all types (Coach 2009 Form 10-K). This includes the major markets of Japan and Greater China. Coach typically enjoys healthy markup on their products which allows the company to thrive even on low volumes.
The marketing outlay is typically around or below 2% of net sales. This is expected to be the case for Russia as well, although there may be an additional $1 million in promotion surrounding the launch of the first store. There are also costs associated with direct marketing, something that Coach typically uses to help sell its products. Catalogs are shipped, and emails are sent to customers on mailing lists. To adopt these tactics in Russia would add a further $1 million to market expenses, in part because of the need for Russian...
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