New lines propel Fruit of the Loom in children's - children's clothing at discount stores - Top Brands, part 2: Consumer Survey

Discount Store News, Oct 30, 1989

New Lines Propel Fruit of the Loom in Children's

Fruit of the Loom emerged as the No. 1 brand in infants', toddlers' and children's apparel, jumping six spots on DSN's Top Consumer Brands Survey for the category.

The rise of the popular underwear manufacturer propelled it ahead of Health-Tex, last year's top-ranked children's apparel label, Levi's Carter, Pampers, OshKosh and Huggies.

Health-Tex fell to fifth on the current survey, with a greatly reduced mention rate.

Fruit of the Loom's move to No. 1 was likely due to the manufacturers entrance into the girls' panty business less than two years ago and its expanded line of boys' briefs.

However, Fruit of the Loom was not a clear winner at the nation's top four chains: K mart, Wal-Mart, Target and Ames/Zayre.

In fact, Fruit of the Loom tied for top honors at Target with Hanes, and at Ames/Zayre with Levi's, OshKosh, Health-Tex and Pampers.

Hanes emerged as the No. 1 brand among shoppers at K mart and Wal-Mart. Pampers was No. 2 at Wal-Mart and Fruit of the Loom was third.

Overall, consumers' top 10 list of children's wear labels varied only slightly from 1988. Just two brands, Carter (No. 21) and Wrangler (No. 11) dropped out of the top 10, replaced by Nike (No. 8) and Reebok (No. 9), relatively new brands to discounters' shelves.

The inclusion of Nike and Reebok on the consumer brands survey illustrates that discount store shoppers now have the impression - whether true or not - that such top-of-the-line labels are available at discounters.

This should be good news to discounters since it means that their customer's appetite for branded goods is accelerating at a time when they are putting greater emphasis on name brands. In addition, consumers expectation of finding top-shelf labels at their local discount store is increasing.

Confidence in finding all the brands they seek still needs some improvement, however.

On a scale of 1 to 9 - with one meaning no confidence and nine meaning total confidence - consumers gave children's apparel a 7.22 rating, down from 7.44 on the 1988 survey.

Despite that small slide, shoppers said that they are more interested in branded goods. At the same time, consumers said that they are more interested in store brand/private label products than they were a year ago.

This year, nearly six out of 10 consumers (58 percent) said they have a brand preference in children's apparel, up 10 percentage points from a year ago.

More than one-third (34 percent) also expressed a preference for private label children's wear, up six percentage points from the 1988 survey.

Also, survey results reveal that consumers are slightly less willing than they were last year to skip a purchase if the specific brand they are looking for is not available.

Fewer than four in 10 consumers said they would skip a purchase if the brand they want was not available, and 60 percent said they would simply switch to another label.

Obviously, the brands consumers want to purchase are becoming more available.

Ames/Zayre customers appear to be the most brand-conscious of those polled.

Two-thirds of Ames/Zayre consumers said they have a brand preference when shopping for infants', toddlers' and children's apparel. They are also most interested in private label/store brand merchandise.

  Table :              Consumer Brand Preferences
                         In Children's Apparel
                    Discount                                Ames/
Top Brands          Shoppers   K mart   Wal-Mart   Target   Zayre

Fruit of the

Looms                12.6%      11.6%     11.1%     15.6%    8.8%
Hanes                12.6       12.6      17.8      15.6     5.9
Levi's               11.7        9.5       6.7       8.9     8.8
OshKosh               8.1        7.4       2.2       8.9     8.8
Health-Tex            8.1        8.4       6.7       6.7     8.8
Pampers               7.2        8.4       15.6      6.7      -
Lee                   6.3        4.2       2.2       4.4      -
Nike                  3.6        3.2       4.4        -       -
Reebok                3.6        4.2       2.2       2.2     2.9
Huggies               2.7        2.1        -         -       -

Table : Top Children's Apparel Brands:

          Store Managers vs. Shoppers
Managers                            Consumers
Lee                                Fruit of the Loom
Curity                             Hanes
Fisher-Price                       Levi's
Health-Tex                         OshKosh
OshKosh                            Health-Tex
Liberty                            Pampers
Fruit of the Loom                  Lee
Pampers                            Nike
Garanimals                         Reebok
Garan                              Huggies