Well, don’t anyone tell Maria Pinto, Kia Milla, and now, Tracy Feith about Lady M’s power to move markets. Unfortunately they all went belly-up following Lady M’s endorsement of their designs.
Surfer boy Tracy’s oriental print for Lady M
I just don’t understand how this can be, maybe they just had cash flow problems, or their accountants were embezzling. Because according to the prestigious Harvard Business Review, they should have been selling stock, not closing up shop.
HBR’s recently published study, Vision Statement: How This First Lady Moves Markets, demonstrates definitively – or as definitively as any Harvard study these days – that Lady M generates value of 14 million dollars every time she steps out of the Big White in someone’s outfit. Furthermore, she has driven increased value of companies’ stocks who make or sell stuff she wears over 2.7 billion dollars!!!!!!
So at least now you understand why MO was selected Fortune’s Most Powerful Woman in the World. Apparently it has nothing to do with our organic garden and No Kids’ Fat Behind program after all.
Here’s an interesting little factoid from the well researched Harvard study:
Few models or celebrities make the kind of impact on company stock price that Michelle Obama does. The First Lady’s astonishing influence may be tied to the fact that consumers know she’s not paid to wear what she does, whereas they may subconsciously discount models’ endorsements as inherently corrupt.
… as opposed to the inherently non-corrupt motives of Washington. They seem to understand that Lady M’s clothes choices is just a part of her sacrificing for the American people.
and then there’s this:
The third and final factor driving this effect is Michelle Obama’s authenticity in the context of fashion. Consumers perceive her interest in and knowledge of fashion to be genuine. Combine those three factors and you have a powerful force: a woman who, every time she leaves the White House, creates an average of $14 million in value for the companies lucky enough to be chosen by her.
After reading this prestigious and comprehensive Harvard study, “Toxic Timmy” Geitner put together a plan to stimulate the economy by having Lady M change frocks hourly. His Treasury weasels are busy developing a model to translate our daily economic contribution, estimated to exceed $224 million per day, into the number of jobs MO has created or saved. It’s an almost infinite number!
Stay tuned: when we land in Seattle later this morning we’ll see who’s lucky enough to make $14 million today.
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