With spinoff stores, Talbots now seeking share of men's market

By Naomi Aoki, Globe Staff, 9/8/2003

HINGHAM -- When you think Talbots, you might think sweater sets for women who lunch. Or maybe gabardine suits for the ever-so-professional working woman. But you almost certainly think classic. These days, however, Talbots is taking classic on a gender-bender. After half a century in women's clothing, the retailer is reaching out to men. As it does, its executives are bandying about terms like "laboratory," "test," and "experiment."

"It's worth us testing," said Arnold B. Zetcher, chairman, president, and chief executive of Talbots Inc. of two new store concepts opening Wednesday in the Prudential Center in Boston.

With more than 900 stores, the retailer is looking for new ways to grow its business. It has already rolled out several new types of stores: Kids, Petites, Acces-

sories & Shoes, and Woman. But now Talbots is taking its biggest gamble yet. It shipped its first menswear catalog nearly a year ago, and opened its first three Talbots Mens stores in April. This week, Boston gets a look at its first Talbots Mens store. Boston is also the site of the first-ever Talbots Collection store, featuring a slightly pricier and more fashionable line of women's clothing.

The Collection line is sold in about 85 Talbots stores, but Zetcher wants to see if it can stand on its own.

Despite two years of research, dozens of focus groups, and extensive study of other men's stores, Talbots' foray into menswear is still in experimental mode. Men spend $50 billion a year on clothes, and Zetcher sees the potential for hundreds of Talbots Mens stores. Done right, menswear could prove to be Talbots' biggest growth driver in coming years.

"We're not in a hurry," Zetcher said. "We'd rather take the time to make sure we do it right."

Zetcher won't say how much Talbots is investing in its Mens store -- only that the investment is so small as to be immaterial to its bottom line.

In the fiscal year that ended January, Talbots logged $1.6 billion in sales and $120 million in profits. Its solid finances allow the retailer to experiment with different niches. But faced with a maturing women's business, the company needs a growth strategy that will work.

To that end, Talbots six years ago set out to broaden its appeal beyond the sensible and classically styled clothes that attract an intensely loyal customer base among women between 35 and 55.

In an attempt to court women in their late 20s and early 30s, Talbots began flirting with trendier styles and shorter hemlines. The move was a disaster, angering its loyal customers without attracting the younger set.

The company quickly returned to its classic roots, and though the marketing flop seems a distant memory, Talbots is still searching for its next big thing. So far this year, its sales in stores open at least a year -- a key indicator of a retailer's health -- are down 3.6 percent over the same period last year.

The sluggish economy teamed with Zetcher's reluctance to discount is largely to blame. But that doesn't change the fact that Wall Street is looking for Talbots to turn its same-store sales around.

"Talbots is testing the waters looking for another growth vehicle," said Adrienne Tennant, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. "But to make this work, they are going to have to draw men -- not just women -- into the Mens store."

Talbots is targeting the male equivalent of its female customer -- men between 35 and 55 looking for quality at a fair price.

The attire runs from casual to dressy, but excludes suits. Its ties ($65) are made of handwoven silk in an array of red, yellow, green, blue, and orange hues. Its sweaters (from $85 to $175) are knit from cashmere, pima cotton, and merino wool. Its dress shirts ($75) are made of Italian cotton.

In Talbots style, it is paying attention to every detail. Zetcher wore many of the clothes himself before the first Talbots Mens catalog was mailed last October. He asked the designer to add coin pockets inside the right-hand pants pockets and narrow the bands on the back of the ties for a better line.

Stores are laid out to cater to men and the way men shop -- fast, as if they are on a mission. The awnings out front are a steely grey and the doors are mahogany instead of the signature Talbots red. Step inside, glance around, and you can quickly scan the store's entire inventory all the way to the shirt wall and the tie wall. Even the tissue paper is pin-striped.

Outside the fitting rooms is a lounge area with leather sofa chairs for the girlfriend or wife. Talbots is counting on the fact that most of men's clothing purchases are influenced by women, and that many of the purchases are actually made by women for men. The logic is simple: Talbots' loyal female customers will buy Talbots menswear for the men in their lives, and introduce men to the store.

"It's a very logical next step for them," said Kathleen Seiders, an associate professor of marketing at Boston College. "It makes sense."

Nonetheless, Seiders said, success isn't a foregone conclusion. Rivals such as Brooks Brothers are bound to fight to protect their share of the market. Talbots' strong association with women may prove its biggest challenge, she said. Men don't want to wear a woman's brand, and women don't want to buy clothes for men that men won't wear. The success of this experiment depends on the brand's ability to cross over to men -- something Seiders said is nearly impossible to predict. "That's why they are testing it," she said.

Though all six Talbots Mens stores are laid out similarly, each are positioned differently. In Westport, Conn., the first of the six stores to open, Talbots Mens is a block down the street from the traditional Talbots store for women. In New York, where the Mens store opened last week, it is next to the flagship store on Madison Avenue with a walkthrough on the main floor and a connecting stairway to Kids.

In Boston, the store will be connected to the new Talbots Collection and existing Talbots Kids stores -- about three blocks from the flagship Talbots store on Boylston Street. In the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania, Talbots Mens is a few hundred feet from the Talbots store for women. In the Worthington Mall in Ohio, Talbots and Talbots Mens are next to each other and connected by a walkthrough.

The variation is no accident. It is part of the experiment and meant to answer certain questions, such as: Are men more likely to walk into a store that stands apart from the women's store? Does the store need to be next to the women's store to succeed? Are men more likely to shop in a mall or a downtown area? In short, Talbots is looking for just the right formula to establish its Mens brand.

Zetcher expects to open another six to nine stores next year, then pause to study the results before forging ahead with a big rollout. Zetcher may seem maddeningly methodical. But he recalls with some mirth how he was criticized for coming late to the e-commerce party. He spent months tinkering with the prototype of Talbots.com. But the online store, which opened in 1999, was profitable from the start.

"We're going to gather information and learn as much as we can," said David Dirienzo, vice president of Talbots Mens. "We're going to get feedback, capitalize on the biggest successes, and address what needs improving before going forward. Again, that's a formula that's worked for Talbots in past."

You might call it innovation with a classic touch.

Naomi Aoki can be reached at naoki@globe.com.