Infants' & toddlers' labels resurface on top 10 - children's apparel at discount stores - Top Brands, Part 1: Store Manager Survey

Discount Store News, Oct 16, 1989

Infants' & Toddlers' Labels Resurface on Top 10

After a year's hiatus, infants' and toddlers' wear brands reappeared on the top 10 list with more strength, curtailing the momentum children's labels started last year, according to results of DSN's Top Brands Survey in children's apparel.

The reappearance of infants' brands in the top 10 - and with greater strength in the top 20 - affirms a long-standing trend among parents to purchase only name brand merchandise for newborns and toddlers.

In fact, store managers reported that a top performer in children's is largely attributed to advertising, brand recognition and product performance, in that order.

On the whole, the 1989 Top Brands list in children's features a better combination of labels from all three children's apparel groups than it did a year ago.

New to the Top 10 this year are Fisher-Price, the top ranked toy label, and Pampers diapers. Fisher-Price produces both infants' and toddlers' wear.

Pampers, the top ranked diaper label, reappeared this year after dropping off last year's survey.

Labels such as Spencer's, Gerber, Dr. Denton, Huggies, Carter, and Luvs, all big names in infants' wear, are among the brands that were also named by store managers as top performing brands in children's apparel, but were ranked below the top 10.

Levi's Wrangler, Hanes, and Gitano are some of the top children's wear names appearing in the top 20.

A total of 24 children's labels were mentioned by store managers as top performers. In addition, the category called "other" received the same number of mentions as Fisher-Price.

But it was Lee that was mentioned most often as the top performing brand in children's wear.

For the second consecutive year, Lee edged out Curity, a popular label in infants' wear, for the No. 1 spot.

Lee maintained a two percentage point lead over Curity, the same as last year. In 1987, Lee and Curity were tied for second behind Fruit of the Loom.

Fruit of the Loom, which was tied for eighth last year with Spencer's, was again ranked eighth this year but by itself. Spencer's, however, dropped off the top 10 list to 14th on the current survey.

Also exiting the top 10 list this year was Levi's. Last year, Levi's was tied with Garanimals for fifth place. This year Levi's slipped down to 12th place.

Except for the two labels that exited the Top 10 list and the two that were added, this year's survey of top performing children's apparel brands contained the same labels as last year's, albeit in reshuffled form.

All of the labels, including top-ranked Lee, are separated by just a percentage point or two in the rankings and could be easily unseated from their positions in subsequent surveys.

In fact, Curity received more than twice the number of mentions from upscale discounters as a top performing brand than did Lee. And among Wal-Mart managers, Fisher-Price was named as a top performer over Lee by nearly nine to one.

Overall, however, Lee was the No. 1 brand, followed by Curity, in second; Fisher-Price, third; Health-Tex, fourth; OshKosh and Liberty tied for fifth; Fruit of the Loom, seventh; and Pampers, Garanimals and Garan tied for eighth.

Lee's best showing was with conventional discounters, coming in five percentage points ahead of Curity.

Upscale discounters, however, gave the first-place spot to Curity. One-fourth of the store managers surveyed named Curity as a top performer followed by Fisher-Price in second and Lee in third. Conventional discounters mentioned Lee most often as a top performing brand making it the clear No. 1 followed by Curity in second and Fisher-Price, Health-Tex and Liberty were tied for third.

Liberty is exclusive to Wal-Mart. Its inclusion on the Top 10 list illustrates the strength of a private label at a national chain.

Health-Tex, last year's No. 3 finisher, fell back one place on the current survey, due largely to a sharp decline at upscale discounters although not at Target.

Target store managers named Health-Tex as a top performer as often in this year's survey as last year's.

OshKosh, tied for ninth last year, moved up to fifth this year, and improved its standing at both conventional and upscale discounters.

Liberty fell one place in the rankings due to fewer mentions by Wal-Mart managers. However, Liberty was still the No. 1 children's label at Wal-Mart, according to store manager responses.

Fruit of the Loom, the lone underwear label on the top 10, improved its standing at conventional discounters but weakened among upscalers.

Results for Garanimals were exactly opposite to Fruit of the Loom. Although Garanimals fell in the rankings, the decline was not attributable to fewer mentions by managers at the top four retailers. In fact, K mart, Wal-Mart, Ames/Zayre and Target all mentioned Garanimals more often this year than last. Obviously, the decline came from other, unnamed discounters.

Among chains, Garan, maker of the Garanimals label, did best at Wal-Mart, finishing fourth behind Liberty, Fisher-Price and Curity.

Survey responses by K mart managers made Curity the No. 1 brand, followed by Pampers, and Fruit of the Loom and Wrangler finished in a tie for third.