Shoppers want more brands than delivered - women's apparel - Power Brands

Discount Store News, Oct 16, 1995

In the sour apparel climate, mention rates were generally down across the board for brands and private labels in women's apparel. With this category largely in a slump, consumer responses to the 1995 Power Brands survey were in a steady state as far so level of brand confidence, willingness to try house brands or private labels and willingness to switch.

Brand preference was the sole area where shoppers' responses rose. Last year, 52% expressed a specific brand preference while shopping in the discount channel. This year, 63% named a brand.

However, this heightened level of expectation is not being met by retailers.

Consumers were not very confident of finding the women's apparel brands they prefer. The mean rating was 6.88 on a scale of one to nine, where nine reflects certainty of finding their preferred brand. The only categories in the study to rate lower than women's apparel were children's apparel, hardware, and computer hardware and software.

Consumers didn't budge from last year on their levels of openness to switching brands (55%) and trying private labels (60%).

Against this static backdrop, there were a few key developments. Hanes remains as the only Power Brand in women's apparel, holding a commanding lead among consumers and retailers.

Playtex gained in mentions by retailers, and Vassarette joined the top 10 list with retailers as the intimates department provided one of the few bright spots in this rough apparel year.

In denim-based brands, Gitano plummeted as retailers reacted to the company's second dissolution and subsequent absorption into Fruit of the Loom (FOTL).

Chic improved its position somewhat, with more mentions at Kmart and most dramatically at Target, where its total mentions soared from 35% last year to this year at 55%. Among top-performing brands at the Big Three, only Kmart's leading private label, Jaclyn Smith, pulled more total mentions than last year, at 62%. No other brand came within 15 percentage points of Chic's achievement.

Lee, repositioned as an upstairs brand three years ago, stubbornly held share of mind among both discount retailers and consumers, while its mass channel sister division, Wrangler, gained some recognition, particularly at Kmart. The higher-priced VF mass brand, Riders, has yet to make an impact within the study.

In another upstairs/downstairs subplot, Levi, not available in discount stores, actually doubled its mention rate among consumers, presumably as a result of heavier advertising and a wave of new product introductions. Brittania, the mass label from Levi, made the top 10 list among retailers, with one in 20 calling it a top performer.

Jaclyn Smith had another impressive year at Kmart and nearly doubled its support among consumers. It placed third in the field, just trailing Levi in consumer brand preference.

Bobbie Brooks dropped off the retailers' top 10 list as Wal-Mart downplayed this house brand in favor of the newly debuted Kathie Lee line. This career-wear house brand was Wal-Mart's biggest move in apparel in 1995 and will likely score high in next year's study.

A closer look at Hanes shows it earned top-performer status in 1995 from 37% of the discounters surveyed (down slightly from 1994) and preferred brand mention from 28% of consumers polled (up from 23% last year).

Hanes held consistent power across all age groups, although its total mentions by Empty Nesters (those aged 50 and over) dropped from 22% last year to 15% in '95--still double the mentions for the next strongest brand with Nesters, FOTL.

Among the Big Three, Hanes pulled as many top mentions at Wal-Mart as the next four brands combined. Hanes trailed denim brand Chic at Kmart. Both came in below impressive house brand Jaclyn Smith. At Target, Hanes was in a tie for second with house brand Honors, and house brand Merona was close behind, while Chic held the top spot.

Hanes is a Power Brand in all three apparel categories, men's, women's and children's. Its rival, FOTL, is a Power Brand in men's and children's apparel only.

Wilson and Spalding are Power Brands in sporting goods, but not in apparel, although both have become widely visible licensed names in mass market apparel in recent years, along with Everlast, Rawlings and other sporting goods brands.

Indeed, Wilson and Spalding have begun building strategic partnerships with FOTL and Sara Lee/Hanes, respectively, to bring these manufacturers' soft lines power merchandising to bear on spreading their brand clout beyond sports equipment.

Looking at the big picture in women's apparel, half of the top 10 brands as seen by retailers are denim-based: Chic, Gitano, Wrangler, Lee and Brittania. The other five include two innerwear brands, Playtex and Vassarette, two multiline knitwear commodity brands, Hanes and FOTL, and one house brand, Jaclyn Smith.

In contrast to last year's study, intimates brands became much more important, house brands less so, and the denim brand picture crystallized, with Chic decisively gaining the highest proportion of total mentions. Even when the Wrangler and Lee mentions were combined, Chic garnered 50% more mentions by retailers.