Archive for Saks Fifth Avenue
“Aspirational” Shoppers Look To Private Brand Fashion.
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This article from the Boston Globes website boston.com presents an interesting snapshot of the “aspirational” middle class shopper with luxury tastes although it is focused on fashion it is relevant to many channels and categories. Whether the “aspirational” shopper is choosing high dollar handbags, specialty foods or high dollar electronics they are looking for a value. If Private Brands can fill that need/desire they can reach new customers and create loyalty.
Are your brands up to the challenge?
The following is an excerpt from that article.
As recession stops splurges, luxury retailers retool
Liz Wyman is done splurging on indulgences like a $300 leather Michael Kors bag and a pair of $575 black suede Cole Haan boots.
Instead, the 46-year-old state lawyer in Maine is scrimping however she can, tossing out catalogs from Neiman Marcus and avoiding Saks and Nordstrom at all costs. With her income eroding, she says, “I have to walk away.’’
Wyman is emblematic of the “aspirational shoppers’’ – middle-class consumers with luxury tastes – who have disappeared during the Great Recession. Their newfound frugality has contributed to an estimated 16 percent plunge in luxury spending over the past year, according to a report by Bain & Co.
But retailers are not giving up so easily; they are trying to rekindle middle-class America’s love affair with luxury by working with designers to create lower entry prices for high-end brands like Gucci and Christian Dior.
Steve Sadove, chief executive of Saks, said his company is promoting a private-label men’s collection that offers upscale garments like cashmere sweaters for hundreds of dollars less than designer brands. And the chain, which saw sales drop about 15 percent last year, is also featuring exclusive designer lines with lower prices, including one from Zac Posen. Although Posen’s namesake runway label costs $900 to $6,000, Z Spoke, made just for Saks, will start at about $80 for a T-shirt.
“The aspirational customer, if they are shopping, is looking for value,’’ Sadove said.
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Retail and Private Brand were the stars Tuesday night in “Navigating the New Leadership Landscape: Retail” the second installment of CNBC’s five-part prime time global series “Executive Vision.”
CNBC has structured the show as an executive strategy roundtable, featuring an impressive mix of prominent CEO and senior level guests. This episode included: Tommy Hilfiger, Founder and Principal Designer, Tommy Hilfiger Group; Steve Sadie, Chairman and CEO, Saks; Kendall Powell, Chairman and CEO, General Mills; Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder & CEO, WPP Group; and Tom Stemberg, Founder & Former CEO, Staples, Managing General Partner, Highland Consumer Fund.
In addition to the roundtable, the series digs deep into topics with magazine-style feature pieces. Tuesday’s show featured a look at the current Private Brand trend through the lens of Costco, and included an interview with Costco CEO, Jim Sinegal. This was followed by a glimpse into a brainstorming session led by Ted Flinn, Director of Brand Strategy and Marketing at Daymon Worldwide and comments from Alex Miller, president of Daymon.
The show really took off when the retail lords of the roundtable discussed Private Brands. This was great conversation with a touch of tension that you knew would be present considering the players. Watching Tommy Hilfiger banter with Kendall Powell of General Mills was fascinating, as was the interaction between former Staples CEO, Tom Stemberg and Saks CEO Steve Sadove. The recognition that Sak’s had introduced a successful premium men’s Private Brand with their “Men’s Collection” seemed a little disconcerting to the well-spoken Hilfiger. Meanwhile Powell made the observation that if you were the # 4 or # 5 brand you were in a very precarious position. As well as the statement that General Mills had “abolished the words Private Label because we believe it is dismissive.”
If I can get my hands on the show I will post it or a link to it here, if you are involved in Private Brands it was a great coming of age for the red headed step child of branding. The entire roundtable truly acknowledged that Private Brands are a significant competitor.
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Saks Fifth Avenue developed a store-brand line of traditional ornaments costing $8 to $32. That compares with the $50 average price for well-known designer brand and key Saks supplier Christopher Radko and Jay Strongwater going for as much as $400.
Saks & Bloomies Focus On Private Brand.
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This article appeared yesterday July30, 2009 in the Wall Street Journal. Private Brand news has a tendency to focus on grocers and packaged goods but this article demonstrates the growth of Private Brand and the impact of the economic crisis on the high-end department stores Saks and Bloomindales.
House-Brand Menswear That Aims to Be a Cut Above
Passersby along New York’s Fifth Avenue will soon see a change at Saks Fifth Avenue: Rather than a designer collection, a corner window will announce the department store’s own new line of menswear.
While the store doesn’t go so far as using the term “house brand,” which sounds too lowbrow, it is emphasizing value with its new venture. The “Men’s Collection” is an unusually comprehensive, soup-to-nuts line of everything from suits to shirts, socks, ties and shoes, manufactured at many of the same factories used by European designers but priced at about half of today’s designer levels. The collection is trickling into New York now, and will be at Saks stores around the country by mid-August.
Bloomingdale’s, too, is rethinking its house brand. This summer and fall, Bloomies is retiring its two house brands—Joseph & Lyman and Metropolitan View—and replacing them with “Bloomingdale’s: The Men’s Store.”
These are the latest examples of how this lemon of an economy is making lemonade for consumers.
Read the entire story: House-Brand Menswear That Aims to Be a Cut Above
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