Concerns abound about whether Chinese consumers will continue to splurge on luxury goods and other “non-essential” items, with Sanford C. Bernstein revealing “weakening discretionary spending” and “more muted” demand from Chinese customers, thereby, suggesting that “the luxury-goods sector may be close to a ‘temporary plateau.’” While such news does not bode well for luxury brands, according to...
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is vying for Tiffany & Co. The Paris-based luxury goods conglomerate made a $14.5 billion play for the American jewelry stalwart last month, in furtherance of a quest to bolster its offerings in the fast-growing jewelry market. Just as analysts predicted, Tiffany’s board reportedly rejected LVMH’s initial, unsolicited offer to seek a...
The demise of the Zac Posen brand is not coming without at least one lawsuit, which sheds some light into the winding down of the famed fashion brand. It turns out that a few weeks before Zac Posen announced that it would shutter after 20 years in business, the New York-based womenswear brand favored by supermodels,...
On the heels of Instagram’s decision to remove its visible “like” counter from its platform in certain geographic regions, such as Canada and Australia, earlier this year, the app’s operators say they will perform the same test in the U.S. beginning this month. The roll-out by the Facebook-owned photo and video-sharing app is being touted as larger ethos,...
“Elite”, high-earning political lobbyists are more likely to overstate their achievements, a new study shows. Political influencers who have a smaller salary and work in specialist areas or for public interest groups are less overconfident – or even underestimate their success, according to the research. This suggests overconfidence can help lobbyists make connections with important...
Despite fears about a recession, the job market is strong for college graduates – for the 10th consecutive year, according to Michigan State University’s Recruiting Trends, the largest annual survey of employers in the nation. In fact, job opportunities are expected to expand by 12% across all degrees in 2019-20, said Phil Gardner, survey author and...
No company has the exact same marketing strategy when it comes to managing its suite of products and brands, but a team of researchers led by Michigan State University faculty is the first to identify universal strategies for large companies to follow to maximize their sales and market share. The research, published in the International Journal...
McDonald’s ousted its CEO over a consensual relationship with an employee, just a week after U.S. Rep. Katie Hill stepped down due to a similar allegation. Both McDonald’s and the House of Representatives ban sexual relationships between supervisors and employees. Whether such bans on consensual relationships are really necessary has been debated many times. And...
In less than 10 years, Julep raised over $70 million from major venture capital firms and the likes of Jay Z, created a cult following of consumers itching to buy the 300 different beauty products it was introducing each year, launched a monthly subscription beauty box, amassed sales that tripled during some fiscal years, and...
A new group of diamonds stands out as being more perfect than almost all others in the $14 billion diamond market. They are completely colorless – making them, in the eyes of the Gemological Institute of America, among just 2 percent of the diamonds in the world. They are almost or entirely devoid of impurities,...
