I’m looking at a website from a high end top name retail brand (who shall remain nameless but the first name is an LA burger joint and the last name is an island) making their way into our industry. They announced the triumphant entry into our market (how we managed to survive without them for this long must be a mystery to their management) with a supplier blast offering 50% off samples.
Of course, as a retailer’s line, they are typically paranoid. Guys like this usually are when they jump into the promotional market trying to bolster flagging retail sales. In their core business they are kings, and as such, pass gas through silk. You know what they say… “It’s good to be King!” So they can be excused for stupid business decisions. After all, Kings can do what they want… right?
Well, no, that’s not how it works in the New World. These guys are probably seeing a dramatic decline in the $100+ shirt market in resort wear and need to find alternatives to keep their jobs. Like high end retail lines before them, they probably view the promotional market as ripe for the picking. After all, we’re the place that the people who like to wear those shirts live and work. Add the fact that we have 30,000+ sales outlets and our value increases immeasurably.
So why am I ragging on them if they are so good? Well, I’ve been here and done this before. Away back in the last century, a prominent golfwear designer brought a prominent golfing actor into the limelight of the garment business. They had great success in the green grass food chain and decided to leverage it into our business. They hired a very competent sales manager to teach us how to sell expensive clothing. He lasted a few years and was released, I think, because he knew what he was doing and they didn’t agree with him.
Within a three year period, I represented them plus a major sports manufacturer and a major shoe company who brought their “must have” goods to the market. Ten years later, two are gone completely and one is simply coasting on tepid sales. All three subscribed to the policy of arrogance that these companies tend to adopt, thinking that we simply have to sell their high priced product. They don’t know that there are a lot of good quality products for sale at reasonable prices, regardless of the label.
Last week I received a call from my cousin for this exact brand. Since I didn’t know that they were ready to premier the line to the thirsty crowd, I steered her to another well known industry (but not retail) brand. They will be very happy with their selection and they will save thousands of dollars as well. More importantly, they will love the fact that the shirt they ordered will be in their hands very quickly because it will be embroidered in house instead of having the supplier do it.
I’m always reticent to let a blanks provider do the embroidery. Years ago I bought shirts from a very high end sports clothing company for my company’s tradeshow use. I had to use their embroidery, which, frankly, sucked. They totally destroyed a sixty dollar shirt with a two dollar stitch job. I wound up buying thirteen shirts from a friend at her retail location and took them to my embroiderer who really did a spectacular job. So, while I have seen this new player’s massive multi-thousand stitch embroidery on the retail rack, I don’t trust anyone who has not made it a point to digitize a piece of crappy art and turn it into a silk purse like we have to do every day in this business.
Lest you think I’m being prissy, to be fair, if we provide a letter on our letterhead stating that we will embroider it, they will allow us to do so. If you wonder why they do this, it is probably because they don’t want to sell a $100+ sample at 50 back on the chance that one of us will buy it for personal use. (Oh, perish the thought… we might actually wear what we sell!)
Contrast that with the Indian sounding line name I represented in the nineties when the intelligent sales manager remarked that I looked a little ratty and maybe I’d like to buy some samples to replace my wardrobe and show off how good his clothes look. (I bought about a thousand dollars in samples and still wear some of the things I can still fit in today.) In the meantime, any time someone asks, I tell them the line name and extol their virtues.
I never wish anyone ill so I won’t say that I will raise a toast to the arrogant and stupid if and when this line drops off the supplier charts. But, I probably will use them as an example of what not to do in some of my classes.
If I were to take the reins of their sales effort for a day I would do the following things:
1) I would cheerfully offer the sample sale to all comers and encourage them to wear the samples on sales calls as well as display in showrooms. (Oh, wait… how many of us have showrooms anymore? Silly me… WE are the showroom!)
2) I would fix the website and make selecting men’s and women’s matching styles easier. Unlike the resort market, we frequently need to source matching styles and colors for corporate events and meetings. Many (if not most) suppliers treat me and women as separate and distinct entities and make it a chore to look for coherence in the line.
3) I would let anyone embroider the shirt. If they screw it up, I would cheerfully sell them replacements at the same price I sold them the first order of blanks.
4) I would do pretty much anything I could to counter the impression that my company is run by a bunch of retail clothing snobs and pricks.
5) I’d then move a lot of goods out the back door and fill the increasing number of orders as fast as I could ship.
That’s what I’d do.
Happy Selling!