Word: penney
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Meanwhile, Kohl's, a chain known for selling brand-name merchandise at discount prices, is adapting Penney's successful, exclusive-label strategy--that is, getting well-known designers or brands to create products that will be available in its stores only. It already has partnerships with Estée Lauder, which has created other exclusive brands for the retailer; Ralph Lauren (Chaps); skateboarder Tony Hawk; and Cuban-American model and actress Daisy Fuentes. Next up in early 2007: a blockbuster partnership with designer Vera Wang and an exclusive housewares partnership with the Food Network. Says Kohl's president, Mansell...
Despite Kohl's new marketing initiatives, Penney still has the edge in private brands. About 45% of its revenues come from the store's 34 exclusive labels, like a line of women's working clothes by Nicole Miller and bedding, bath items and linens from home-design celebrity Chris Madden. In early 2007, the retailer will introduce two new exclusive Liz Claiborne lines and launch its biggest house label yet, Ambrielle, a collection of intimate apparel that is likely to compete with Limited's Victoria's Secret chain. "It's clear to our customers that our brands have the style...
...Penney has another feather in its cap: a more established online presence than Kohl's. Last January, in fact, its online sales hit $1 billion--and in the third quarter, sales via the Internet rose an impressive 27%. Ullman boasts that the company is "the largest mass merchant" online. A key advantage: the infrastructure set up to support the company's decades-old catalog business...
...ability to buy wares at a mouse click is invariably a big selling point for time-pressed customers. But ultimately the revival of Penney and the continued success of Kohl's can be traced to one thing: women are simply finding things in these stores that they want to buy. And it has certainly helped that Wal-Mart botched an attempt to upgrade the fashion quotient in its apparel offerings. "JCPenney and Kohl's finally got the merchandise right," says Nicholson. "It's hipper, and it's not boring anymore...
...possible that these stores are becoming--egads!--cheap chic, as Target was a few years ago? Consultant Wolfe thinks so. "It's almost cool now to say 'I bought it at Penney's,'" he says. Suzanne O'Callahan, 35, a mother of four and a regular Kohl's shopper, certainly agrees. "I just walked through Macy's and didn't find anything, but I've been here for about an hour already," she said, her arms full of clothes, on a recent afternoon at the new Jersey City store. "I always shop at Kohl's. And so do my friends...