One way to maintain exclusivity for a brand is to raise its price. That's what luxury fashion and leather goods maker Louis Vuitton did. The company did not want the brand to become overexposed and too common, so it raised prices 20 percent and is slowing its expansion in China. The Louis Vuitton brand is the largest contributor to the company's $13.3 billion revenue from its fashion and leather division, accounting for $8 billion of those sales. It might seem counterintuitive to want to encourage fewer customers to purchase a company's products, but when price increases, so does the product's contribution margin, making each sale more profitable. Thus, sales can drop and the company can still maintain the same profitability as before the price hike. If a company's original contribution margin was 55%, calculate the new contribution margin if price is increased 20%.

Set the initial price equal to $1.00. Then the variable cost is $______.