OK barbie_doll_713, this is the last time I’m going to address you because I know it’s pointless. You are just too young to fully understand the retail market you are trying to talk about and you’re too young to be able to participate properly in a sensible debate. You're already quite certain you know how it is. I’m going to try very hard not to be sarcastic and condescending, although that’s quite difficult because you’re just so wrong, and so convinced you’re right. Still, having been 16 myself once, I remember that I thought I knew everything at that age too.
Firstly, I’m not bitter, I’m just totally incredulous that someone with so little knowledge of the MAC ethos, their market and their marketing strategy would be talking with such certainty, and refusing to take note of what anyone else has said. I suggested you ask a MAC MA to back up what I said about a large proportion of MACs business coming from customers who want neutral or subtle looks. You didn’t bother, you just dismissed it as “wrong” on the basis that you have “worked at Macy’s”. You may well have worked at Macy’s but you have not worked for MAC. I know that for a fact because you are too young. The following is a comment posted very recently on the Live Journal mac_cosmetics group by a current MAC MA. She’s talking about the Catherine Devenue collection.
” the majority of MAC users don't wear bright shadows. Sure there's a bunch of us who do, and yes, that's what MAC is known for . . . but as a MAC artist, I'd say that 75% of the people that come in are scared by the likes of Electric Eel, SUshi Flower etc. Also, the collection is supposed to reflect the Icon. Catherine Deneuve isn't someone most of us (in this community) ever even heard of. She's of a different generation. And actually, I think it's a great idea to have something more geared towards older women. I myself was a bit disappointed in the Holiday shadow sets this year, because I don't feel that there's something for everyone. The cool palette is the only one anyone over the age of 50 has even looked at. Yes, older women can wear color, but it's not how they were raised and not something they feel comfortable in. NE flew off the shelves with that demographic. They can get away with more muted tones. I don't know. I like that MAC finally has an icon for more mature women. Almost every other collection is geared towards people like us.”
I’ve seen the same said by several other MAC MAs and the girls who work at my local MAC counter say exactly the same thing. If you actually ask someone who works for MAC you’ll find that bright colours do not makeup the bulk of MAC sales and that MAC already has a customer base of more mature people. I see them myself, browsing at the counter almost every time I go there. It may well be rare in your city, (although at 16 I doubt I would have noticed who else was shopping in a store because I was usually thinking more about what I wanted), however the majority of MAC MAs will tell you, it’s not rare in most other locations. There was a MAC MA on LJ a little while ago who was complaining that at her counter people only ever wanted brown eye shadow. She wanted to ask for a transfer to a different area so she could do makeovers with some of the brighter colours occasionally! If I had the spare time, and if I thought it would do any good at all, I would go and find some of her posts.
As for your assertion that younger customers will not buy much from this collection, (and I don’t see why they wouldn’t – a pink lipglass is a pink lipglass, as someone has already said), even if you are correct, your claim that MAC will lose customers over it is not correct. They will be right back for the next collection, which, knowing MAC, will be out 2 weeks after the Icon collection. You’ve said yourself, if someone wants bright, edgy colours, they go to MAC. So where else are they going to go? It’s highly unlikely that a large proportion of the younger customers are going to find somewhere else to get their fix of brights in the short space of time before MAC brings out the next collection. MAC knows full well that they’re not going to lose you, you’ll all be back. And in the meantime, the Icon collection will sell to the more mature customers.
I know you’re not hating older women, you’re just not understanding them at all, and at 16 that’s not particularly surprising.
Still, I already know from what you’ve written so far that you will not accept a word of this and that you are 100% convinced that you know exactly how the world works. I’d hope you will at least think about what I’ve said though.
I’d love to be able to show this to you when you are 50 and see what you think then!
