Branding the man: why men are the next frontier in fashion retail

(SAN FRANCISCO) – In anticipation of Black Friday many stores like Old Navy and Walmart chose to make a head start on Black Friday and were open on Thanksgiving day. But while analysts were cautiously optimistic it was hard to see what impact Black Friday would actually make on this City, and that played itself out in others around the country, according to many news reports.

In San Franciso’s Union Square area, it seemed every retailer had made the same investment in a sandwich board promoting their Holiday offers. The Lucky Brand Jeans store on Grant Avenue went so far as to place a sign at the front door exclaiming, “Almost Free Clothes!”

Note to Retailer: Desperate Marketing messages are… desperate.

Meanwhile, the fervor on Union Square was at a fever pitch, with belting carolers and mounted police languidly showing off their horses to tourists on tony Maiden Lane. But one thing was missing from this picture: shopping bags.

Just as with last year, Black Friday was a day to soak up a bit of holiday spirit and enjoy retailers’ holiday decor. For some, it seemed to be a chance to kick the tires on merchandise that will inevitably go on sale in the coming days. The Louis Vuitton store was mobbed with luxury gawkers, but only those visitors with Euros in their pockets seemed to be making the purchases. Adjacent to that store is the spanking new Bulgari boutique, all chrome and LED lights. They actually propped their door open in the hopes that perhaps someone would blow through the door and pick up a few gems.

But the talk of the day was online deals, and it looks like it might be a banner year for retailing online. According to Network World, The most visited retail property on Black Friday was Amazon.com, which logged a 28% increase in the number of unique visitors compared to last year. The top five most visited retailers were Walmart (22% growth), Apple (up 39%), Target (up 2%) and Best Buy (up 24%).

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that this year’s Black Friday saw $595 million in online sales — an 11 percent increase compared to Black Friday 2008.

Not far away, within steps of the tightly clenched wallets of passersby  was the Yves Saint Laurent boutique, which limps towards its final day. Sales Associates poured some of the last bottles of champagne for the few loyal clients who bothered to stop by. They  made their final purchases at the store at 40% off. The store will quietly close this Wednesday. No word on who will take the prime location on Maiden Lane.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/11/29/urnidgns852573C4006938800025767E002702D2.DTL#ixzz0YMna6jGX

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(NEW YORK) – As retailers trudge on towards what looks to be an only slightly improved holiday shopping season over last year, there are some who have ignored the usual retail benchmarks and instead have focussed on recalibrating their offer and retail experience.

The biggest winners have been the convenience and so-called dollar stores. Walgreens Co. posted a 4.9% growth in comparable-store sales for the month of October 2009. Comparable store front-end sales increased 4.7% for the month. Meanwhile discount convenience stores like Dollar General began an aggressive expansion plan and recent IPO offer. Dollar General operates about 8,700 stores in 35 states, most in small towns with an emphasis on low-income neighborhoods. The company plans to open about 600 new stores next year and remodel or relocate another 500.

But all eyes are on New York-based Duane Reade which recently opened a new retail concept in Herald Square that draws heavily from specialty retail stores. The two-storey, 24-hour store is zoned with sections such as “Apartment Living” that is customized to the needs of the everyday New Yorker: cleaning supplies, lightbulbs, even convenient meals. Frozen foods and grab-and-go meals include Duane Reade’s own “DE-lish”.

But it’s the store’s second floor that manages to offer an intriguing alternative to shopping in crowded department stores, with a high-design beauty and health department. The “LOOK Boutique” is similiar in concept to European drugstores and includes such Euro-chic brands such as La Roche-Posay and Vichy, along with the more traditional U.S. mainstays of Maybelline and Cover Girl. The difference is in Duane Reade’s use of individual makeup stations and tips-and-tricks information signage.

In their effort to remain 100% New York-centric, the store’s walls are covered with “50 Things We Love About New York.” This is a brand that listens to its customers and rigorously focuses first on service and convenience, and then invites them to linger with discovery zones. But fast on their heels is CVS and Walgreen’s each ready to use their national strength and clobber anyone in their path — R.I.P. Long’s Drugs.

Convenience retail has no place to go but up, but other retailers could take a page from how they make service and convenience a priority, with style a subtext to the customer experience. What could clothing retailers learn from this? Plenty. Stay tuned for my next post on the subject.

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(SAN FRANCISCO) – As a personal friend of Wilkes Bashford, I featured him in my new book, Branding the Man. “To be a successful men’s store you must have a vision of who you want to appeal to,” said Bashford, one afternoon in 2008 at his favorite lunchtime retreat, Le Centrale. “If you establish your vision and direct your efforts towards that, then you can build a meaningful customer relationship. The mistakes most people make is that they’re not consistent.”

Bashford was anything if not consistent. But in this economy, was that enough? I was quite moved by the recent news that he had filed for Chapter 11 (read about it here.) It is of course no secret that his business — like everyone’s —  is suffering. I think there are several important points which need to be raised here about the current retail climate and Wilkes Bashford figures in all of them:

1) Discounters and outlets have grown in strength and in their ability to supply consumers with high quality designer goods. It’s now increasingly possible to find even the current season’s looks. In some cases, retailers are cannibalizing themselves by selling off excess inventory to outlets — often one that is just down the street. I wrote about this on my blog at www.brandingtheman.com/blog.

2) Luxury retailers have been consistently fighting a losing battle with their key customers. The top 5% of critical luxury shoppers buy early in the season (or even pre-season) and often not in places like San Francisco. A store like Wilkes Bashford becomes less relevant because those who buy those clothes are a dying minority. If the WB brand had one weakness it was that they were stubborn in how they grew their customer base.

3) The specialty store and luxury boutique has become an expensive warehouse. More and more customers phone in their orders and don’t feel the need to buy in a store.  Case in point, Yves Saint Laurent is closing both its 41-year old Madison Avenue boutique AND San Francisco’s Maiden Lane store — the brand’s second attempt to settle in San Francisco. I wrote about this on my blog at www.brandingtheman.com/blog.

4) The recession has taught consumers that living with less is actually not that bad. Where a year ago it was painful to not be able to shop, now people have discovered that they really can do more with less and that their quality of life is more meaningful without so much stuff. The definition of “value” has changed.

This last point is the most critical. Retailers, rather than innovate are still digging in their heels and hoping that things will somehow change. They won’t. The consumer is in control, so if retail is to offer any real value, it needs to be in service — not just product.

Wilkes Bashford represents one very sad truth about the American consumer and American culture in particular: with the democratization of fashion and the evolution of retail channels, stores like Wilkes Bashford could simply become obsolete. Mr. Bashford was a vanguard of his time, ushering in some of the first designer goods on U.S. soil — Zegna, Armani, Montana — and he continues to have a sense of fashion that deeply understands the significance of innovation and style. At this time of writing, Bashford has committed to staying with the company after Ed Mitchell West LLC finalizes the purchase. I for one, look forward to his continued influence on the brand.

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