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Non-Tech : The Gap -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John T. Hardee who wrote (18)	3/25/1998 10:09:00 AM
From: John T. Hardee	Respond to of 189

EMPORIUM---- 9 March 1998 Teens' Clothing Sales Are Hot, Women's Not by Isadore Barmash Go figure it. The teen's apparel business is very strong, spurring retailers catering to the 13- to 24-year-old market to ecstatic expressions, but the larger-sizes or women's field is slowing down. The reasons for this dichotomy within one gender have to do with whether America's retailers know how to establish consumer awareness of their "brand," a.k.a. as the "store name" and the "store's merchandise" or if they don't. So far, according to some sources, retail chains such as Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF), American Eagle Outfitters (Nasdaq: AEOS), the Gap (NYSE: GPS), dElia's (a catalog seller) and Finish Line (Nasdaq: FINL) (retail footwear) are cashing in on their teen expertise........... But others such as the Limited (NYSE: LTD), Talbots (NYSE: TLB) and Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN) are running into difficulties connecting with women judging by their recent sales results. "The most important trend we perceive in specialty retailing -- one that gained importance in 1997 and should continue to separate the winners from the losers in 1998 -- is marketing/advertising," says Dorothy S. Lakner, a senior retail analyst at CIBC-Oppenheimer Company, New York. She notes that in 1988 the Gap debuted its award-winning "Individuals of Style" campaign, featuring black-and-white photos of people wearing Gap basics. When critics complained, she said, the chain countered that the campaign not only brought attention to the Gap brand but also brought customers to the stores. In 1997, Ms. Lakner went on, Gap was named "Marketer of the Year" by Advertising Age. She adds, "We believe that in the 1990s, as consumers have less time to spend wandering the malls than they had in the 1980s, even retailers with the 'right stuff' in their stores need to broadcast this to consumers." Who are the weakest links in the specialty apparel chain? "The women's apparel retailers," she says