Jaclyn Smith's at Her Kmart Peak but Cristina May Eclipse Her
Kmart celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Jaclyn Smith brand at a splashy New York media party, even though it's just given its namesake a job that might not suit her and is preparing to launch a new brand designed to attract Latino shoppers that may quickly overshadow Smith.
Casa Cristina was developed by Cristina Saralegui, who is famed for her Spanish-language talk show. It is launching at both Sears and Kmart where it will complement exiting exclusive Smith and Ty Pennington brands. Sears Holdings has made a habit of tapping television celebs for brand fodder. In Smith's case, the television show was Charlie's Angels, which ran in the 1970s but it isn't a syndication darling today. It can be had on DVD, though, and episodes are available on Hulu.
While Cristina's fit with the target audience seems right, Kmart lately has been asking the Jaclyn Smith brand to stretch in ways that add a lot of tension. Kmart chief merchandising officer Mark Snyder told me that recent juniors and swimwear product launches are more than just an expansion of the product line.
"We want to attract the younger end of the demographic," he said.
But, whoa, consumer would have to be around 35 to even remember it Charlie's Angels in its first run and about that age to have any interest in its syndication heyday.
Snyder had a response, saying younger consumers identified with Smith's "great beauty" and "great style."
Maybe. Or, maybe that's true with certain Kmart customers.
Kmart has set Smith up as a paragon of Middle American style, and that should appeal to Kmart's traditional customers. They may not provide Kmart with big growth opportunity. Too much competition from Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Kohl's (KSS), Dollar General (DG), etc. But Kmart can't afford a major Anglo erosion as it pursues a more likely growth opportunity with Casa Cristina and consumers who identify with her.
With a private labels created at its Puerto Rico division and brands developed with Latin -- and, unfortunately flash-in-the-pan -- celebrity Thalia, Kmart has pursued the Hispanic consumer, suffering setbacks but seeming to learn from its mistakes. Critically, it has learned about the value of crossover appeal, which is important even within the Latin community.
Rooted in nations diverse as Spain, Mexico, Cuba and Argentina, which have contrasting histories, aesthetics and values, Hispanic tastes are anything but singular. Only a few celebrities cross over community boundaries, but Saralegui -- who Snyder characterized as the Latin Oprah in a well-worn observation -- is one of them due to a very long stint on Spanish-language television. Thus, Casa Cristina has a genuine chance of widespread acceptance among Latinos.
Selena Gomez and her Kmart brand have a shot at even broader popularity. Her television show Wizards of Waverley Place has proven popular on The Disney Channel so she already crosses over even beyond the Spanish-speaking community to encompass the broadest possible audience in the United States. By that I mean that she's also appeared as a guest on Hannah Montana.
Evidence that Kmart sees Gomez as a multi-cultural asset rests in her primary positioning on Kmart's new teen/tween website, stylesip.com, one that's only demographic focus is youth. So, Jaclyn Smith doesn't have to assume the full burden of Kmart's youth push. She only has to extend the Gomez momentum.
Kmart clearly is slicing and dicing a customer base that once was served by Martha Stewart in home and Kathy Ireland and Jaclyn Smith in apparel. Their appeal was considered universal enough among potential customers to require few demographic distinctions, and with Ireland and Stewart gone and Smith is left to help Kmart hold pool of customers being drained by a swarm of competitors. But it's a new wellspring of Hispanic consumers who represent the key to Kmart's revitalization.
No mainstream retailer in the United States has yet established itself as a clear favorite for any group of Latin consumers, never mind the comprehensive demographic. They all are trying, whether Walmart with Mas Club or Kohl's with its Daisy Fuentes brand. But, given their consistent inability to broadly satisfy Hispanic consumers, it would seem as if Kmart has as much chance at coming out on top as any retailer, and, given that incomprehension, the fact that it keeps coming back with new, better refined ideas suggests it has a better shot then many.
One interesting side note: Smith's daughters attended the Kmart event and were called out, in a tentative way, while her mother supervised festivities from a stage that offered a fashion show of her products. Could Kmart be testing the possibility of a Jaclyn and daughter paring a la Madonna and Lourdes? It doesn't seem probable, at lest not yet, but it does seem possible.
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