From the Editor

From the Editor
Concepts agone, concepts anew

By Alison Embrey Medina, Executive Editor
August 01, 2009

As the financial outlook hovers in head-scratching no-man’s-land, some retail chains are battening down the hatches and winding down yet-to-be-profitable secondary brands in order to focus on their core lines. Abercrombie & Fitch announced it will shutter its 29-store Ruehl chain, a concept that may have had appeal to teens in different circumstances, but its higher price point (read: $300 pocketbooks that say “One Night Stand”) and lack of differentiated merchandise may have been its demise.

Talbots finally unloaded its J.Jill brand—selling the 205 stores to an affiliate of Golden Gate Capital—as part of its efforts to focus on the turnaround of its core business. And The Finish Line exited its unprofitable 75-store Man Alive business, selling the streetwear-inspired line to Jimmy Jazz.

“Retailers are finally realizing that they have to get their own personality back...they can no longer look like everybody else,” Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with market research firm NPD Group, said in a Reuters interview. “Rather than trying to appeal to everybody at all different price points, they are beginning to recognize, ‘You know what, we have to go back to who our core customer is and deliver on the promise.’”

Cohen is right. Delivering to the core customer remains essential in today’s confused retailing scenario. Counteracting the paring down trend, however, several other retailers—some of which have been stuck in staid concepts for several years—are on the concept expansion trail.

Juicy Couture (a division of Liz Claiborne Inc.) debuted its first intimate apparel store—Love G&P—in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas last month, the first of many single-category standalone stores to come from the retailer. Aeropostale opened its first P.S. From Aeropostale store—a casual wear concept aimed at boys and girls ages 7 to 12—at the Palisades Center in West Nyack, N.Y., and the company CEO sees an eventual 500 P.S. stores in the future. Even Baskin Robbins is trying on some new gloves to see if they fit, with two new concepts breaking ground this year—an upscale specialty dessert and coffee bar dubbed BR Café and the low-cost, kiosk-style BR Express.

Best Buy is on the innovation path—and going to places it has never gone before. The company plans to open 40 standalone mobile phone stores this fiscal year (with aims of capturing 15 percent of the U.S. mobile-phone market), and has also quietly begun selling electric bicycles, scooters and Segways at 21 of its West Coast bricks-and-mortar stores. Playing up its popular Geek Squad service component, the company has also announced plans to relocate its in-store Geek Squad kiosks to the center of the floor, surrounding them with illustrations of product capabilities.

Meanwhile, traditionally non-retail service providers—such as American Express, AAA and Highmark Inc.—are entering the retail arena for the first time, opening consumer touchpoint centers to build brand power and awareness.

Speaking of touchpoints and new concepts, DDI has created a few of our own of late. In line with LinkedIn’s well-publicized tagline—“Relationships Matter”—DDI Magazine has started a LinkedIn group (find us at www.linkedin.com), hoping to provide a platform for our readers, advertisers and industry icons to network and communicate freely about the issues and opportunities facing the retail design community. We also are hosting our annual DDI Forum next month, Sept. 11-13, in Washington, D.C. (www.ddimagazine.com/forum), with an intimate agenda focused on interactivity, group discussion and candid dialogue. For updates, follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/DDIForum).

In today’s day-to-day grind where it is easy to feel disjointed, DDI is doing everything we can to keep you connected to the industry we adore. Reach out and tweet someone!

Alison Embrey Medina
Executive Editor
aembrey@ddimagazine.com