My purse, my life

Editor's note: Tanya Krim is founder of TKInsights LLC, a Teaneck, N.J., research company.

“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” is an adage I am fond of quoting. However, I recently had the privilege of conducting an interesting qualitative research study on a topic near and dear to my heart: handbags. As a result, I have come to realize that handbags can be considered - together with diamonds - one more indispensable member of a female’s close coterie of friends.

In 2005, handbags (aka purses and pocketbooks) dominated the accessories market in the U.S., accounting for over $5 billion in sales. Consumer research from Mintel finds that British women are also becoming increasingly enamored of their handbags as sales there grew by 146 percent between 2000 and 2005 to reach an estimated $680 million. Functionally, handbags are used to transport a woman’s essential daily items. Emotionally, however, they perhaps play a more powerful role, although current advertising for the category does not focus on the emotional threads which often tie women to their handbags.

For women, handbags are a form of identity and individuality, and, like the women who carry them, they may or may not have multiple identities. Regardless of whether a purse acts as a mini-office, a bag on wheels, a mini-pharmacy or snack bar, a mobile beauty salon, family photo gallery or as a nostalgic connection to a mother or grandmother, it is also a beloved and trusted accessory which either reflects a woman’s specific personality or provides a glimpse at her wannabe personality.

Handbags can also be used to instantly broadcast messages about a woman’s mindset, mood or life stage. The woman who is pushing a stroller and carrying a large, practical black purse might be resigned to the fact that it screams out “responsible young mother” rather than “trendy young woman.” Nonetheless, she knows that this is the one she needs because she is in her maternal life stage.

A handbag can also reveal whether a woman is into power and status, glamour and luxury or fun and fantasy. Using it to make a fashion statement is unquestionably appealing to women.

True essence

Regardless of its exterior, a handbag’s contents generally seem to reveal the owner’s true essence and soul. What is on the outside of the bag may separate one woman from another, but what is inside may unite them; a peek inside may reveal whether a woman is feeling overwhelmed and chaotic, or “together” and in control. In fact, many women seem to have a relationship with their bag which is similar to the one they have with a dependable and trustworthy female friend/confidante: It knows everything about her and her life.

On some occasions, however, it is undeniable that handbags appear to be more like good-looking, desirable men than close female friends as they become objects of women’s deep-seated, unbridled lust!

Most women also view their purse as their one and only real personal space, a kind of safe haven and security blanket, without which they feel naked and vulnerable. It carries all the items they need or might need, and as a result of this, is synonymous with feelings of warmth, safety and togetherness.

Interestingly, women also perceive handbags to be the one and only piece of fashion without clear demarcations based on looks, size or age. While many may feel too old for certain styles of clothing or shoes, most believe that they have more leeway with crossing the young-old lines with handbags.

Dearth of emotion

The emotional territory surrounding the handbag category is clearly enormous. Nonetheless, most women I recently spoke to readily testify to the dearth of emotion visible in contemporary handbag advertising.

In today’s world, handbag advertising tends to consist of print ads rather than TV. Although there are undoubtedly numerous handbag print ads to be found in the glossy women’s magazines and other upscale general-interest magazines, these print ads are not really very differentiated from each other.

When asked, female consumers mention that all of these print ads feature the handbag brand’s logo and iconography as well as beautiful, thin women with perfect hair - usually alone on the page with the product. The eye-catching, desirable handbag is usually displayed dangling off an elegant, long arm or shoulder, or alongside a pair of long, lean, perfect legs perched in an enticing pair of shoes. The visuals are unquestionably eye-catching and telegraph - albeit only via visual cues - product usage mood as well as easily comprehensible messages about the product along the lines of “If you buy this glamorous, sexy little evening bag, you too will get noticed/feel as sexy and beautiful as this woman,” or “You too can have fun if you buy this one!”

Women admit that they often lust after the handbag as well as the pair of shoes they see advertised in these handbag advertisements because they look stylish, sexy and eye-catching. However, as yet, no one brand of handbag appears to have differentiated itself in a relevant and memorable way by using imagery, words or an insightful tagline to telegraph that the brand really “gets” how women feel psychologically and emotionally about handbags (or for that matter shoes). No manufacturer seems to be trying - directly and overtly - to move away from merely grabbing a share of wallet and to focus instead on also grabbing a share of heart.

Even the Manolo Blahnik handbag brand has not achieved relevant differentiation in the minds of many consumers - in spite of the fact that its Manolo Blahnik shoe brand counterpart began to feel more differentiated a few years ago because of its frequent presence in Sex and the City episodes.

Enticing and alluring

It is interesting that the status of handbag advertising today seems to be somewhat comparable to that of shoe print advertising: the lack of emotion in advertising campaigns for these products is perhaps all the more surprising as both handbags and shoes are perceived by women to have particularly enticing and alluring facets which could be used to generate highly emotive and creative advertising.

Furthermore, sales of high-end handbags currently appear to be at an all-time high. An increasingly large number of women today confess that they suffer from handbag mania, and refer with pride to their wardrobe of handbags which caters to each of their many moods and style occasions. According to Judy N. - a manager in a New Jersey department store who has 25 years of experience working in the accessories department - handbags are now perceived to be an essential fashion item, one which women coordinate carefully with their outfits and replace frequently so that they consistently project as stylish an image as possible. Judy observes that women’s current desire to change their bags is matched by their increasing interest in investing in top-of-the-line handbags. She simultaneously remarks that while the “need” to place such emphasis on handbags seems to be fairly recent - arising perhaps in the past three to five years - she feels that the behavior is nonetheless a familiar one as it is reminiscent of women’s behavior with other important accessories - specifically watches or jewelry.

Walking around various high-end stores recently in upscale Bergen County, N.J., I could not help but marvel at the diversity of the women looking for their expensive handbag “fix.” Regardless of age, income or career path, women today certainly seem to understand that a beautiful, high-end pocketbook can simultaneously give them the emotional high they yearn for and telegraph to their female peers that they have class, taste and are where it’s at!

Importantly, marketers might also want to take note that some of these “women” are still in their teens, and many of them seem to already be gravitating to certain brands - including Coach and Betsey Johnson.

Huge opportunity

There consequently appears to be a huge opportunity for one of the popular brands of handbag to be the first to market with an advertising campaign which layers on more meaning and emotion, and moves away from the old handbag “product is hero” formula. An ambitious handbag manufacturer might even try and position itself in a fresh and innovative way as the company which is in the female “look good, feel good” business rather than just contenting itself with being “in the handbag business.”

The possibilities for the development of emotionally-resonant handbag advertising are endless. A brand might wish to position itself as the one which really gets that handbags or purses are a woman’s most trusted accessory and close friend. Or it might wish to position itself as the ultimate lust-inducing, “can’t live without it” handbag; or as the quintessential female pick-me-up brand of handbag - one for each shade of a woman’s moods. Then again, it might prefer to position itself as the one which helps a teen girl-woman feel very together and sophisticated, or helps another woman project her wannabe personality.

Positioning itself as the brand which helps an older woman recapture a slice of her youthfulness also appears likely to spark an emotional chord. The reality is that no matter how much she notices the appearance of crow’s feet round her eyes, how desperately unhappy she feels about the collection of those unappealing extra pounds on her hips or derriere, or the discomfort caused by those pointy, sexy shoes she used to strut around in quite happily, a handbag can transport her back to her more youthful, carefree days. It can help her communicate to the world that she may have the experience of years but is still proud to retain that enviable, youthful sparkle.

Lockheart, a California-based handbag brand which launched in July 2006 and is currently available in boutiques and upscale department stores offers women some very beautiful, eye-catching, romantic-looking handbags. The price point is quite high, although brandishing one of these pieces on your arm is an uplifting experience: I know, because I have one! Maybe this will be the newcomer brand which begins to shake up the category!

The fact is that handbags and women have a close-knit, warm and satisfying relationship. In today’s often lonely, frightening and disappointing world, advertising which capitalizes on the “look good, feel good” aspects of life is likely to resonate particularly well with women. Because, no matter how intelligent, profound and analytical we are, we still also long to score points on the got-it-going-on-ometer!