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Article: THE UMBRELLA DILEMMA : DRIVING BUSINESS OF AN ITEM ALMOST HALF OF AMERICAN WOMEN DON'T USE IS TOUGH. HERE'S HOW SOME MAKERS PLAN TO DO IT.
- Article from:
- WWD
- Article date:
- March 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Conde Nast Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW YORK -- Umbrella makers don't have it easy.
If the world is divided into umbrella users and nonusers, and if the average umbrella user uses only one umbrella every seven months, how do you keep a business going? And since most users already have an umbrella, and converting a nonuser into a user is nearly impossible, according to manufacturers, how to sell umbrellas?
The demographics are no less encouraging, according to John Catt, category director for rain products at Totes, based in Cincinnati. Umbrellas are highly urban instruments, used by pedestrians in highly populated urban areas -- in other words, more people on the Eastern seaboard than ...