A while ago, Chanel ushered in the first round of price increase in 2024, officially raising product prices worldwide.
The price increase bag types include Classic Flap (hereinafter referred to as CF) handbags, 2.55 handbags Leboy handbags, 19 bag, etc., up about 5%. Among them, Chanel large CF handbags and large 2.55 handbags cost more than 90000 yuan, reaching 90600 yuan.
The price of large CF handbags has risen above 90000 yuan. Source: Chanel official website
Some netizens joked, "A bag of 90000 yuan is catching up with an electric car."
A bag can hold a car. Why does Chanel dare to rise so much?
Can the price of luxury goods rise at will?
It can be found from the past price query that Chanel often increases the product price in spring and autumn, and the most classic CF and 2.55 series are "hard hit areas".
In the five years from 2019 to now, CF handbags and 2.55 handbags (classic medium size) both rose from 38100 yuan to 84000 yuan, more than doubling the price. Small CF handbags saw the most dramatic increase, with an increase of nearly 140% from 33700 yuan to 80800 yuan.
Netizens' discussion on the price increase of Chanel | Image source: Weibo
Although the pricing logic of luxury goods is different from that of most people's daily consumer goods, even in the luxury industry, Chanel's price rise momentum is particularly rapid. Many netizens complain that Chanel will catch up with Hermes if it goes up.
Interestingly, consumers' complaints may just reflect Chanel's intention beyond making profits.
Although Chanel denied its intention to benchmark Hermes handbags, in the years after the outbreak of the epidemic, Chanel thoroughly brought all classic handbags into the price range of Hermes platinum bags with its aggressive price increase strategy.
Hermes Classic (top) VS Chanel Classic (bottom) | Image source: Hermes official website, Chanel official website
The VIP Research Institute, which focuses on the research of China's high-end lifestyle (including luxury goods), has put forward the theory of "benchmark products and benchmark prices": benchmark products are the concrete expression of customers' perception of brands in their minds. In principle, a brand generally has only one benchmark product in a category, and benchmark products must correspond to one benchmark price.
Benchmark prices are mainly determined by reference to two points: one is the price sensitive range of target customer groups based on their own consumption capacity, and the other is the price sensitive range of similar competitive products based on different brand levels.
In the opinion of Zhou Ting, president of VIP Research Institute and luxury goods expert, Chanel has always coveted the throne of "Bao Wang" and urgently needs to challenge Hermes' brand status. To achieve this, its benchmark product price must reach or even exceed Hermes' benchmark product price. In the past, the gap between the two was too large, and Chanel could only accelerate benchmarking by raising prices. Such an approach is not guaranteed to be successful, but it must be an effective brand promotion strategy.
Zhang Peiying, Honorary Advisor of Luxury China Alliance, said that Chanel has cooperated with LV Prada, Dior and other brands have shaken off a certain position and basically reached the height of going hand in hand with Hermes. Therefore, Chanel's price rise has its own strength. From the perspective of market performance, Chanel has been able to maintain the stability and even increase of its overall sales and market share within a certain period of time while improving its brand positioning through price increases. It can be said that its price increase strategy is relatively successful.
Some consumers also noticed that in this round of price increase, in addition to the classic CF handbag and 2.55 handbag, the 19bag and leboy series also had a price increase of 2200-2500 yuan, while 22bag, as a big hit of Chanel, did not have a price increase. At present, the price of 22bag classic black gold small and medium size is below 50000 yuan.
Source: Chanel official website
It is also a popular series of Chanel. Why do some prices rise while others do not?
Zhou Ting told an interesting report that different products are in different positions in the product matrix of the brand, playing different values, some improving the image, some maintaining profits, and some attracting traffic.
The image product shows the brand status. Generally, the higher the price, the better, so the price will continue to rise; For profit products, maintaining reasonable profits is the most important, and too high pricing is likely to cause customer loss; The price of flow products will also rise, but it is more suitable for the strategy of several small price rises, and continues to maintain the price affinity.
In this case, can consumers see the law of price rise from it?
Unfortunately, this is a bit difficult.
Zhou Ting said that the time of concentrated price increase of luxury brands in the whole year is generally three times in January, March and September, but there is no constant law to follow when it comes to a specific brand. Especially for a luxury brand like Chanel, its price rise is actually irregular. If it sells well, it will rise. To some extent, it can be said that it will rise if it wants to.
However, experts in the industry have different views on whether the price increase will continue. Zhang Peiying believes that Chanel will continue to increase prices in the future. After all, luxury goods do not have a strong sense of marginality; Zhou Ting advocates that there will also be a critical point in the price rise of luxury goods. Now the price rise of big brands has approached this critical point. When the price index reaches its target price, the price will become relatively stable. At that time, the price increase of Chanel will no longer be "crazy".
Which Chanel bag can you buy to become a "family heirloom"?
As for the price rise of luxury goods, consumers are happy and unhappy. Those who haven't started yet are sighing at the price that is higher than their consumption ability; If you already have something, you will feel that your value will be multiplied by your price.
As for Chanel, "buy early and enjoy early" seems to be more applicable. In particular, the CF and 2.55 are two classic models. It is abnormal not to increase the price, and there is almost no "late purchase discount".
In the eyes of many consumers, owning the classic Chanel is equivalent to investing in a low-risk and high-yield financial product, which will not lose money, but will only increase in value.
Many netizens even said that when their daughters grow up, they can still be "heirlooms" to their daughters.
This is indeed reasonable. As far as Chanel bags are concerned, the classic ones are not easy to go out of style, and the seasonal exclusive ones are scarce, so they are very handy for ordinary people. In addition, although bags belong to daily necessities, the quality of luxury bags is usually superior.
Zhou Ting said that although some consumers reported that Chanel's "price rises and quality declines", most of this is because the price rises have raised consumers' psychological expectations, resulting in a psychological gap. In fact, there is no so-called quality decline, and at most it is just that the service cannot keep up. "Luxury attaches great importance to product R&D investment, including product quality. Except for the possible quality of newly developed product categories to be improved, there is generally no quality decline."
So it seems that "family heirs" are feasible, but can they really become "treasure"? If the price does not rise in the future, will the Chanel bag keep its value?
In this regard, Zhou Ting said that it is necessary to correct a misconception: consumer goods are consumer goods, not financial products, and "luxury goods have financial attributes" is just a gimmick and marketing means for luxury goods.
Therefore, it is OK to buy a bag and enjoy yourself, but you should also recognize the fact that most bags cannot maintain their value. Even if some brands and some products have the characteristics of value preservation, it is just that brand marketing is well done, creating scarcity. In fact, most of the value preservation products are facing an embarrassing situation of being priced but not marketed.
On the social media platform, the recycling market of "second-hand luxury goods" is always full of complaints.
Consumers who secretly rejoice in the idea of "buying early and enjoying early" often ignore another "truth": "Buying a bag is a pleasure for a while, and selling it is a great way." No matter how well the luxury bags bought at a high price are maintained and classic in style, as long as they are labeled as "second-hand", they will basically fall by "thousands" if they are resold. Chanel classic is one of the most valuable luxury bags, but it can not break the market law.
In other words, from the aesthetic and practical point of view, it is possible to buy any Chanel bag as a "family heirloom"; However, in terms of economic value, it may not be a "family heirloom" to buy any Chanel bag.
In fact, the basic attribute of luxury goods is still commodities. No matter what consideration you have for purchasing a Chanel bag, the core should be the demand for commodities and recognition of the brand. The investment attribute is just an accessory.
Source: Interesting report
