Men's wear shoppers demand top national brands - 1994 Power Brands, part 2 - Industry Overview

Discount Store News, Oct 17, 1994

When it comes to men's apparel, shoppers know what brands they want and they are more likely to skip a purchase entirely than settle for alternatives.

Men's Apparel: Consumer Brand Preference

(Among consumers who shopped discount stores in the past year)

                         All Discount

Power Brands(1)              Stores     Wal-Mart   Kmart   Target
Hanes                          26%        23%       27%     21%
Levi                           23         24        22      23
Fruit of the Loom              21         22        21      18
Wrangler                       10         11        12      9
Jockey                         6          6         6       8
Lee                            5          6         6       3
Haggar                         5          4         5       9
Arrow                          4          5         4       5
BVD                            4          3         3       3
Dickies                        3          2         2       --

Rank by Store Managers(2) Wrangler Hanes Fruit of the Loom Rustler Brittania Lee Dickies Gitano Manhattan BVD

(1)Based upon discount store consumers' response to the question: "If you were shopping for (product) in discount department stores, which brand of that product would you want?"

(2)Based upon store managers' response to the question: "What are the best performing brands in (department)?" Source: DSN/Leo J. Shapiro & Associates, July 1994

According to the latest consumer brands survey, seven out of 10 men's wear shoppers visit their local discount store with a specific brand in mind, the highest brand preference rate in the three apparel categories. Just 59% of children's wear shoppers and a paltry 52% of women's shoppers have a brand preference.

More than two-thirds of consumer preference in men's apparel is concentrated in three brands, relatively evenly split, among Hanes, Levi's and Fruit of the Loom.

Generally, men's wear shoppers have a fairly low confidence level of finding their preferred brand, a mean 6.85 on a nine-point scale where one means no confidence and nine means total confidence. The only other categories to score lower on the confidence questions were CE, groceries, hardware and computer software and hardware. Further, just 31% of men's apparel shoppers rated their confidence level a nine, also among the lowest in the survey.

[TABULAR DATA OMITTED]

Men's apparel shoppers are increasingly less willing to switch brands. This year, just 40% said they would switch brands if their preferred label was unavailable, down from 50% who would switch in 1993.

Private label is a so-so concept for these shoppers. Just half said they would be willing to buy a store brand garment.

Brand names are still very important to these shoppers, particularly such labels as Hanes and FOTL, which are the Power Brands. Each received strong results from both retailers and consumers. Wrangler is a near Power Brand here, missing the main list due to weakness with consumers, particularly Busters.

Levi's, not a power brand in this survey, is still top-of-mind with consumers, even though it is not sold at discount. Levi's mass label, Brittania, is offered to consumers in this retailing segment.

Between retailers and consumers, a common list of top labels include six brands: Hanes, FOTL, Wrangler, Lee, BVD and Dickies. Consumers added Levi, Jockey, Haggar and Arrow to their Top 10. The upscale Jockey brand, and Sears/JCPenney-level Haggar and Arrow, are liked by consumers but unreachable by discounters.

Retailers' Top 10 best performers also included Rustler, Brittania and Gitano.

Wrangler is at its weakest with shoppers in the Northeast, while Jockey made the Top 10 by virtue of its popularity in the West and South.

There is marked divergence in brand preference among age groups. The highest mention rate for any brand was received for Hanes. Almost four in 10 Empty Nesters said they prefer Hanes, followed by FOTL, Wrangler, Levi and BVD.

Levi is the brand of choice among Busters and received as stunning an endorsement as Hanes did with Empty Nesters; more than one-third of Busters said they prefer Levi-brand apparel, followed by Hanes, FOTL, Jockey and Haggar.

Among Boomers, Hanes, Levi and FOTL tied with each brand receiving one-fifth of consumer mentions, roughly the mention rate of the Big Three shoppers gave these labels by retail outlet.