Ann Taylor
Ann Taylor: Survival in Specialty Retail
Founded in 1954 by Robert Liebeskind, Ann Taylor starting out in New Haven, Connecticut, is first stand-alone store. Ann Taylor was considered a store for the busy socially upscale women- polished, refined and versatile women. Although Ann Taylor wasn’t a real person, her persona lived up to the character of the customer. Ann Taylor has been one of the most popular women’s clothing companies in the United States. Ann Taylor has four divisions; Ann Taylor (ANN), LOFT, LOFT outlet, and Ann Taylor Factory. There are 929 stores in 46 states and 231 manufactures and vendors.
Ann Taylor’s current strategy was designed for professional women whose time was limited and was drawn to Ann Taylor total wardrobe strategy, personalized customer service, store layouts and continual flow of new products. Within their divisions, Ann Taylor’s purpose is to the working customer and with this being their primary focus, these divisions have been successful. With ANN having multiple divisions this could hinder growth with each division-competition. ANN could become its own direct competitor with its division. Because nowadays the working environment is more casual; LOFT had become the competition for Ann Taylor because they were more oriented toward casual clothing. With the new president and CEO of ANN, Kay Krill, wanted to reestablish the brand name focusing on the importance of the customer and remembering the long term success of Ann Taylor, “enough women still need to dress up for work”.
Branding is a potential problem for ANN because the risk of salvage value within ANN and LOFT brands. Because of the lower prices LOFT offer, customers might bypass Ann Taylor. Out of over 900 stores, LOFT has 500 because of the more moderate pricing strategy. The retail store only focus on one type of product item instead of different products for different customers. The risk is greater because of a potential decline in sales in one
Founded in 1954 by Robert Liebeskind, Ann Taylor starting out in New Haven, Connecticut, is first stand-alone store. Ann Taylor was considered a store for the busy socially upscale women- polished, refined and versatile women. Although Ann Taylor wasn’t a real person, her persona lived up to the character of the customer. Ann Taylor has been one of the most popular women’s clothing companies in the United States. Ann Taylor has four divisions; Ann Taylor (ANN), LOFT, LOFT outlet, and Ann Taylor Factory. There are 929 stores in 46 states and 231 manufactures and vendors.
Ann Taylor’s current strategy was designed for professional women whose time was limited and was drawn to Ann Taylor total wardrobe strategy, personalized customer service, store layouts and continual flow of new products. Within their divisions, Ann Taylor’s purpose is to the working customer and with this being their primary focus, these divisions have been successful. With ANN having multiple divisions this could hinder growth with each division-competition. ANN could become its own direct competitor with its division. Because nowadays the working environment is more casual; LOFT had become the competition for Ann Taylor because they were more oriented toward casual clothing. With the new president and CEO of ANN, Kay Krill, wanted to reestablish the brand name focusing on the importance of the customer and remembering the long term success of Ann Taylor, “enough women still need to dress up for work”.
Branding is a potential problem for ANN because the risk of salvage value within ANN and LOFT brands. Because of the lower prices LOFT offer, customers might bypass Ann Taylor. Out of over 900 stores, LOFT has 500 because of the more moderate pricing strategy. The retail store only focus on one type of product item instead of different products for different customers. The risk is greater because of a potential decline in sales in one