PLANO, Tex. — J.C. Penney Co. Inc., seeking to focus on consumer lifestyles and expand its private labels, will roll out a new women’s brand called E. 5th in September that offers clean, classic styling for what the chain’s executives view as an underserved customer.
The traditional career line will include pants, pantsuits, blouses, jackets and sweaters retailing from $22 to $68 in all of Penney’s 1,019 stores, as well as in catalogues and on the company’s Web site. Officials did not set a volume goal for the brand, but Liz Sweney, executive vice president and general merchandise manager for women’s apparel, said it was expected to be among the retailer’s top five women’s brands in two or three years.
It is part of an overall effort to make an “emotional connection” with shoppers, Ken Hicks, Penney’s president and chief merchandising officer, said Tuesday during the company’s annual two-day conference for Wall Street analysts at headquarters here.
The chain is targeting four key lifestyles: conservative, a practical, conventional and understated fashion approach; traditional, the largest segment, which is about comfort and looking smart; modern, the fastest-growing segment, keying in on a customer open to change who watches trends and integrates them into apparel, and trendy, the shopper looking for the latest styles who will push the envelope. Executives said this is the smallest and youngest category, as well as the one most important to Penney’s growth because it “helps us establish our fashion credibility with consumers,” Hicks said.
“We’re aligning all our brands to fall within each of these segments,” he said.
The strategy is to create “an emotional connection that builds loyalty, which, in turn, builds better sales and profit growth,” Hicks said.
Executives said Penney’s is determined to shorten production time and challenge fast-fashion chains H&M and Zara. The retailer wants to lure customers who shopped at May Department Store units, which are being changed to Macy’s nameplates after Federated’s acquisition of the company.
Penney’s also views bridal customers — average age, 27; there are 50,000 weddings in the U.S. each weekend — as a major untapped market. New TV spots will target brides-to-be.
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Penney’s, which last year doubled the size of its in-house design team to more than 100, wants to get fashions to stores in 17 weeks from the time of conception, said Peter McGrath, executive vice president and director of product development and sourcing. Essentials, such as jeans and khakis, and core products, like innerwear, should be on shelves within 25 weeks.
“We’re responding more immediately in delivering fast fashion,” he said. “We will have items in stock so that our fashion customers will rely on us for newness and reliability.”
The retailer, which sponsors the Academy Awards and last week announced a deal to put Sephora units in Penney’s stores starting this fall, plans to be the exclusive retail partner of the MTV music video awards.
As Penney’s expands its more than 30 private brands, which constitute in excess of 40 percent of overall sales, the goal is to be “very aggressive in telling the world about J.C. Penney and finding new windows of opportunity to build the business,” said Mike Boylson, executive vice president and chief marketing officer.