A comparative analysis of the French baby wears market and its main competitors

Résumé du document

In an analysis concerning European Consumer trends that I found on Mintel confirmed my feelings; showing that French consumers consider themselves much more fashion conscious and have a look at style at first when buying clothes, even for babies (61,3% look at style first against 41,4% of British consumers) . That is maybe why the offer for baby wear in France seem to me to be much more fashion oriented and look like adult's fashion than in England where there is a real baby fashion, very different from adults', that look much more dressy and would be worn mainly for occasions in France. That was confirmed when I asked some French mothers about what they look at first when buying garments for their babies: 7 out of 10 told me that style was the most important thing and then practicability and comfort. Also, the structure of the market is quite different: in France baby wear retailers are mainly little stores, independent or franchisees, like Petit Bateau meanwhile in Britain there are big stores like Mamas and Papas that also sell accessories like buggies or even furniture. I also noticed that British consumers tend to shop more in their favorite high street fashion retailers like H&M, Next or Gap for their babies than in France, where it is not really developed yet.

It is to be noticed first that France is ranked 2nd among countries with high birth rate, behind Ireland, with more than 800.000 births per year and with 1.92 children per woman (European average is 1.40).

Since 2000, the time of the last big baby boom in France and more particularly 2003, French need for baby wear has increased significantly (around +2% per year ) meanwhile women's wear has remained same and menswear has drop. The baby wear market is a very lucrative niche in that it represents today more than 825 millions of euros for the 0-2 year's bracket2. Moreover the budget allocated by parents to clothing for a baby between 0 and 2 years was around 600 euros in 2002 and is rising steadily every year since then.

Extraits

[...] Indeed, customers are more and more worried about materials trend that come from the altermondialist and ecologist movements) and comfort. Moreover, Petit Bateau is currently alone in the market. However, this is a market where renewals are not very frequent: these very basic products, of excellent quality, do not need to be renewed often. The luxury bracket is the one that is growing the most but it is also the most difficult to enter if you do not have a strong, established brand name. [...]

[...] Analysis based on the consumers opinion table in appendix Panties, special materials for pyjamas, babygrows, first brand to adopt American armholes in France, and the inventor of colours that can boil. A quoi ça sert d'imaginer des vêtements si on peut rien faire dedans ? (It is useless to create clothes if you can't do anything in them) resumes well the quality-oriented positioning of the brand. www.petit-bateau.com See Notoriety and Brand image in France ranking in appendix Japan, Germany, Italia, Belgium, UK, USA, Saudi Aradia, Brazil and Netherlands Analysis based on the consumers opinion table in appendix Since 2001 Babywear sector, like all clothing markets, is very different according to countries and cultures and needs adaptation from the retailers to the local culture and tastes > fit with cusotmers' expectations. [...]

[...] Thus, the main differentiation mean used by Orchestra could no longer be an advantage and customers might desert the stores for higher quality or trendier brands, even if they are a bit higher priced. For more informations concerning products see appendix. Summary In this report, we looked at four babywear specialised chains (the main store format in the French babywear market). It is to be said that, in a market with great potential and opportunities but where foreign competition is not established yet, they drive their development through differentiation. Bonpoint is the unique haute couture brand for babies. It has a very important role in that it dictates the trends for each season. [...]

[...] - Occasional customers: they are the family or family friends who are making gifts for the baby (baby shower, birth, baptism, Christmas or birthdays).These customers do not hesitate into buying very expensive garments in that they are just buying occasionally. They are the ones who buy more upper market brands or even luxury brands. They are not very regarding of practicability or comfort but style and fashion. - Prescribers: they can be family, friends or peer groups that have already children or even salespeople instores. Children become prescribers since they are able to recognize brands. [...]

[...] It is what we call “rarity marketing” in that it will encourage the consumer into buying immediately (encourage impulsive purchases), otherwise the product might not be available when he/she come back. Moreover, it encourages them to come visiting the stores often so that they can find new things. DPAM stores are known to be very messy, small and often crowded. They are not very adapted for children neither: it is difficult to move along with buggies and nothing is made to make children wait. [...]