Who is Chanels target audience?

Chanel is a brand with strong heritage due to its iconic founder, Coco Chanel. However, it is also a forward-looking brand aiming to attract a younger audience. Chanel targets classy, independent, free-spirited members of the elite. Gabrielle Chanel herself, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy and Catherine Deneuve were some of the iconic figures associated with Chanel… Today Twilight star, Kristen Stewart, is one of the faces of Chanel.

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http://www.instyle.com.tr/Content/images/Haberler/Orjinal/

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One of the distinctive features of Chanel is that it is a leader in content marketing. It aims to educate customers about the brand history, the artistic life of Coco Chanel, and the brand’s values. If you are interested just click on “INSIDE CHANEL” on Chanel’s official website, it’s a must read, trust me. Having said this, it is important to think about what the best way to grab the attention of the younger audience is.

Nowadays, Chanel is targeting the classy, independent, free-spirited, YOUNG members of the elite. Being the influential force that it is, it is possible that the brand wants to transfer Coco Chanel’s qualities to its models and its target audience. Chanel’s recent Spring/Summer 2015 campaign emulates rebellious femininity in the form of a street riot. The models are confident, bright, stylish and feminine…does this remind you of someone? Maybe Coco Chanel, herself? The brand still revolves around her and her legacy, with the campaign featuring slogans such as “Tweed is still better than a Tweet”.

So, what is modern celebrities’ role as brand ambassadors? Would we really associate Chanel with Kristen Steward, or would we bring back to life the founding brand ambassadors like Elizabeth Taylor and Catherine Deneuve? I believe that having present-day celebrities as brand ambassadors is not necessarily key to targeting the youth. We, young people, often find the past fascinating and appreciate the brand for its legacy. That is exactly the reason why Karl Lagerfeld’s short movie about Chanel, “Once Upon A Time”, became so popular. It tells the story of Gabrielle Chanel and the foundations of Chanel’s iconic style. Keira Knightley, the epitome of class today, plays Coco Chanel which I have previously posted about the short film. 

THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING

THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; Chanel makes a big pitch for a new perfume aimed at young women, its toughest market.

By Courtney Kane

Published: August 15, 2002

FOR the last 81 years, the Chanel name has carried a special resonance for women 30 and older, who have made Chanel No. 5 the world's leading fragrance. But the younger market has proved elusive for Chanel, a state of affairs it intends to change with the introduction of its latest fragrance appealing to 20-somethings.

Chanel's name for the new fragrance -- Chance -- is fitting. To capture the fancy of this fickle group of women of ages 18 to 29, Chanel is giving Chance the biggest marketing push in the company's history -- with an introductory budget estimated at more than $12 million. Chanel is flinging itself into a market already crowded by competitors' earlier entrants, like Happy by Clinique and CK One from Calvin Klein.
Chanel's aggressive plans are self-explanatory, industry observers said. ''Young consumers are the lifeblood of the beauty industry,'' said Irma Zandl, president of the Zandl Group in New York, a consulting company that specializes in the under-30 age category. ''A brand not recruiting teens or young adults is just getting old.''

Over the last six years, Chanel has gradually made inroads into the younger consumer market. In 1996, the company introduced Allure, marketed to women in their late 20's and 30's. Coco Mademoiselle soon followed, and its target market was women 25 and up.

Arie L. Kopelman, president and chief operating officer at the United States unit of the French couture house Chanel, is confident that Chance will be among the top tier of this group. He predicts that ''in the short term,'' Chance will be ''as big as Chanel No. 5.'' Domestic sales for No. 5 were $50 million in 2001, putting it in sixth place among all fragrances, according to NPD.

Chanel has given Chance a light, fresh, floral scent, which is meant to convey a youthful, sexy and romantic attitude, Ms. Palma said.

To differentiate it from all other Chanel fragrances, which come in square-shaped bottles and are packaged in black and white or beige, the Chance bottle is circular and packaged in pink. The scent will be available in domestic department stores later this month and in other countries next spring.

The ads, created by an internal team and photographed by Jean-Paul Goude, also try to differentiate Chance from some of the other successful fragrances geared to 20-somethings. The print ad features a 16-year-old Russian model, Anne Vyalitsyna, dressed in a gown, clinging to the enormous bottle, embracing ''her chance.'' The kicker reads, ''The unexpected new Chanel fragrance.''

IS CHANEL FOR EVERYONE?

Over the past few years Chanel has opened up its target audience to allow there products to appeal to most women. Giselle Bundchen the recent face of Chanel features in a short film advertising No.5. The film shows her doing a sport, having a luxury house, a husband and a daughter. Keira Knightly for Chanel coco mademoiselle is more edgy as she is mysterious, free, wears a head to toes beige jumpsuit while riding her motorbike through the streets then meets up with a man and disappears, she has this sexy edge to her. As you can see Chanel creates and advertises different products and creates different films and ads to appeal to a selections of the audience such as a fit, lifestyle mother like Giselle portrayed or a single sexy girl like Keira Knightly.



SOURCES
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/15/business/media-business-advertising-chanel-makes-big-pitch-for-new-perfume-aimed-young.html
http://www.theydontloveyou.com/coco-chanel-enough/