What most have confirm is that accessories, mainly shoes and handbags dominate this space, it's no wonder why it is projected to top 40percentt by 2019, driven mainly by the upper middle and high net worth consumer.
The aim was to generate a buzz among Vertu's most likely customers, members of a rarefied market segment that Ekaterina Walsh, an analyst at the consulting firm Forrester Research, who studies high-net-worth consumers, calls "splurging millionaires".
"We have seen a new level of liberation on the part of women," says Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer at the Luxury Institute, a ratings and research organization of high net-worth consumers.
The Luxury Institute, which posits itself as the "global voice of the high net-worth consumer" sees various strategies whereby the posh people can turn it around in 2009.
Indeed, retailers can expect a more muted, toned-down holiday season, says Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer at the Luxury Institute, a ratings and research organization of the high-net-worth consumer.
Not only do Boomers want to look young, they want to dress young, says Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute, a ratings and research organization that is the global voice of the high net-worth consumer.
When it comes to travel, luxury hotel chains like the Ritz Carlton are advertising "value added" packages, such as a free spa treatment when a guest books a room, says Milton Pedraza, CEO at The Luxury Institute, a global ratings and research organization of the high-net-worth consumer.
"The questions are very difficult ones: How much is a service with X amount of music worth to consumers?
This imposes externalities on those with no debt: foreclosures prompt fire sales that drive down house prices more broadly, while falling net worth induces consumers to cut back, wiping out jobs.What is needed, they argue, is to make debt contracts more flexible, and where possible, replace them with equity.
