Nikki Baird

Claiborne and Penney: A Marriage Made in ...

August 17, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Last October when Liz Claiborne announced the brand had entered into an exclusive deal with J.C. Penney, many thought it would probably be a bigger win for the retailer than the brand. Do you think the J.C. Penney deal could mark the final chapter of the Liz Claiborne brand or is this the beginning of a bright new future for the business?      [more...]

I haven't looked at how the Claiborne brand is being executed in JC Penney in a long time. (Maybe that's part of their problem.) When Claiborne first started developing exclusives for JCP, I thought the look was nice but the price was not -- it always felt about 15-20% higher priced than other brands that JCP carried. If Macy's was having a sale, you could get the "real" Claiborne for about the same price as the full price "knock-off" at JCP.

But a lot has changed at the retailer since then, and it seems like they have learned a lot about managing brands (vs. managing products). What they've done with Sephora and with Ralph Lauren in their stores is executed very well, and I don't think Claiborne's CEO is too far off when he says that JCP is a great steward and can be a strong partner for an apparel brand.

Whether Claiborne has made some risky decisions or not, the issue won't be the partnership itself, it will be execution -- the right look for the right price, communicated to consumers in a way that they respond to.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?