Apparel strives for continuity: direction of womenswear a critical factor

Discount Store News, June 23, 1997 by James Mammarella

Kmart has improved its game in apparel. But competing in this league keeps getting tougher. Within the past nine months, Kmart president and coo Warren Flick's fiat to cut the clutter has produced results. In many of the chain's 2,100 stores, order has been restored on the apparel pad. Kmart's denim, intimates kidswear, footwear and accessories departments now make sense to the Kmart shopper.

But that may have been the easy part.

Kmart is showing it can tell fewer stories better. Now it needs to get fashion right more often. The chain needs to roll out its better execution from departments like denim and intimates--where major vendors provide turnkey solutions--to the more demanding areas like women's sportswear, dresses and young men's goods.

Kmart is still playing catch-up ball in plus sizes, but could feel the impact of expanded special size offerings this year. The chain is also depending on the fall 1997 Sesame Street launch to provide needed oomph in children's departments.

Kmart must build momentum to gain ground on its competitors. On every front, mass market retailers are making steady improvements in soft lines:

* Wal-Mart marches on, building foot traffic, incinerating inventory and melding awesome brand basics volume with recognizable lifestyle labels.

* Target glides to new heights of profitability, and its fashion mystique starts to make the chain a true apparel destination.

* ShopKo sharpens its activewear edge. Ames offers crisp commodity departments and surprising special buys. Hills champions children's apparel with its dominant Kids Club assortments, while Bradlees, Venture and Caldor press fashion/value initiatives.

* T.J. Maxx/Marshalls gets rapid return on its consolidation, and unique apparel off-pricers Old Navy, Goody's and Stein Mart surge geographically.

* Fashion Bug, Dress Barn and other specialty formats finally focus for a rebound.

* Sears and Kohl's extend the growing soft lines mastery of mid-tier chains.

In this climate, Kmart's best strategy is to stay within its game. That has been a strenuous endeavor, with a shifting roster of talent both a cause and effect of the strain.

The churn in the merchant structure at Kmart has shifted much of the burden to suppliers. Over the last two years, apparel vendors have adjusted to master plans issued by a succession of executives--Charles Chinni, Michele Fortune, Rich Toback and Maria Comfort among them--who didn't stay with Kmart long enough to see the execution of more than a season or two of those plans.

Now, Flick's overarching rule of focus on the floor has provided some continuity. To marshal the execution he recruited his favorite soft lines sidekick from Sears days. Senior vp, soft lines gmm Stephen Ross has wielded great clarity of purpose. His goal is less to reinvent Kmart than to reinstate a consistent taste level across departments, in both styling and execution.

Things seem to be firming up now, but women's apparel remains the critical test. Ross' choice of a divisional vp for womenswear, unresolved at press time, is a high priority.

Kmart needs to acquire women's apparel talent in a dramatic fashion. The surprising move in May by Montgomery Ward's new ceo, Roger Goddu, is an example. He recruited both the men's and women's gmms from pace-setting Kohl's as a get-serious decision that will have a powerful impact on Ward's prospective turnaround.

Having seen Kmart tap the ranks of specialty store merchants twice without major success, some vendors hope Ross will attract the strongest candidate from within the discount industry.

Kmart, these suppliers say, needs an imaginative, intense merchant with deep experience in the customer make-up, advertising constraints, product sourcing and pricing issues that comprise mass market apparel merchandising.

Whoever takes hold of Kmart's women's apparel will work within set parameters. For instance, Kmart chairman, president and ceo Floyd Hall told DSN that Kmart is happy with both Jaclyn Smith and Kathy Ireland, indicating the chain has no plans to modify its celebrity-based sportswear/casual/ activewear merchandising. Indeed, he pointed out that Jaclyn Smith is currently taping two made-for-TV movies, vital when the success of her Kmart line must be measured in part against the performance of the Kathie Lee Collection at Wal-Mart.

Kathie Lee Gifford has proven a tremendous asset to Wal-Mart. She is on TV virtually every day and has shown media jujitsu in turning the would-be scandal of sweatshop garment production into a moral crusade. Smith, by comparison, has had limited media exposure in recent years. Nevertheless, she scores high in consumer brand recognition studies.

Kmart is set on distinguishing itself with star power.

The charisma and tone of Kmart spokeswomen Penny Marshall and Rosie O'Donnell are precisely on target, generating affinity with the core Kmart shopper. They will be used to promote both storewide and selected departmental events by season, Hall said, adding that the search is on to secure a male figurehead not only to replace jocular golfer Fuzzy Zoeller's presence in sporting goods but as a spokesman for a variety of merchandise categories.