The email I posted last week from my colleague Marion (not Marion Brooks from Channel 5) about her disheartening experience at Chanel on Michigan Avenue generated a huge response. She also sent the email to colleagues and friends around the world, who in turn wrote several letters to Chanel. Here's an update from Marion:
I received a letter from the Senior VP of Retail/Boutiques. After offering some form of remedial action toward the store director... along with re-issuing their policy handbook against discrimination and launching a company-wide diversity campaign, there's some work that needs to be done. While, the letter did offer an apology for the incident, it didn't offer specifics.Never-the-less, the President of Chanel along with the Sr VP wants to talk to me and get my input as they move forward with their changes. I'm working with an advertising executive on suggestions resulting in measurable changes, including opportunities for Chanel to meet their clients of color... face-to-face. We [all] know that black women are spending a large amount of money on Chanel products, but we're not part of their advertising campaigns or corporate offices. This could be an opportunity to change all that.
Instead of a phone conversation, we'd like to meet with the Chanel executives in NYC and offer solutions that work for everybody. We'd also like to offer a dollars and sense approach. This is where you can help us... can you send an email out to every woman that you know who buys Chanel cosmetics, handbags, fragrances, fine jewelry, etc. and ask them to give an estimate on how much money (and where... states) they spend on Chanel products in any given year or over the last 5 and let me know? I think that we have to let them know that the face of the Chanel consumer is changing. And their attitudes must reflect that change or their bottom line suffers.
Feel free to post your thoughts. Marion and plenty of others, including Chanel want to hear them.
