For Talbots and Loehmann's, It's Tough Being an Old-Time Ladies' Boutique
Talbots (TLB) and Loehmann's (ARCABL.UL) are currently providing a valuable lesson in what happens if your brand doesn't reinvent itself and stay up with the times. Both recently announced store closures, at a time when other retailers are starting to do well again and department and discount stores are adding units again.
Why have these two old-time names in womenswear floundered? Five reasons:
Distracted owners. In Loehmann's case, the chain is now owned by floundering United Arab Emirates conglomerate Dubai World (DBWLD.UL), which has far bigger problems than this 60-store chain.
Clinging to the past. Talbots recently jettisoned its 279-unit casual J. Jill chain and all 78 of its kids' and mens' stores to concentrate on fixing Talbots. It would have been smarter to concentrate on sylish J. Jill and spin off Talbots to new owners who perhaps could have reinvented the brand to be relevant to career women.
Slowly shrinking instead of busting a move. Both these chains need radical action to stage a turnaround. When a chain steadily closes stores, it's demoralizing to the staff, and they lose their drive to sell the merchandise in the remaining stores. For Loehmann's, the chain will close 15 of 60 stores, while Talbots plans up to 100 stores closures through 2013. If the stores aren't performing, it'd be better to get the pain over with so stronger locations could receive more merchandising attention. Or the physical stores could close altogether and either of these brands might have a more profitable future as a catalog-and-ecommerce operation.
No outreach to younger women. Both brands have the same problem in that they were hot decades back, and their core audience has now aged out of their target demographic. So their audience keeps shrinking. They should have seen this coming ages ago and done something about it.
Marketing irrelevance. Quick, name a memorable ad or slogan by either of these brands. You can't. On the plus side, if it's not clear what the brands stand for anymore, that opens the door for a reinvention. Who says Talbots has to be about middle-aged career women forever? Maybe gifting some younger shoppers with merchandise in exchange for "haul" videos could introduce these apparel brands to a whole new crowd.
Photo via Flickr user dandeluca
Update: Loehmann's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in mid-November. The company used Chapter 11 previously in 1999.
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