Ann Taylor Persona

I was reading one of my favorite blogs – Brand Autopsy when I was delighted to see a post about a major woman’s clothing retailer who had joined “the enlightened ones” – they were using personas to gain a better understanding into their customers and to develop new marketing and merchandising.   

But just as I was starting to do my happy dance (a spontaneous act of joy which a friend once remarked looks like a butt spasm), I did a double take – they created a persona – singular.   

To arrest the sales decline at Ann Taylor, the company has hunkered down and refined who the Ann Taylor customer is. The company’s marketing and merchandising teams have created an Ann Taylor persona, a richly articulated description of the prototypical Ann Taylor customer. Every marketing and merchandising decision at the company is now made based upon the Ann Taylor persona, appropriately named … Ann.

Ann is a married 36 year-old working mother of two children with a household income of $150K. She leads a busy, sophisticated life and her idea of dressing down at work is wearing a velvet jacket with jeans.

In comparison, the Ann Taylor Loft customer is a married thirtysomething with children, works in a laid-back less corporate environment, and has a household income between $75K and $100K.

Ok – so it looks like maybe they created two personas - one for each Ann Taylor division.   But I just have to ask – how many tens of thousands of women shop at each division?   Can you really condense tens of thousands of women into one persona?   And can you say Stereotype?   Both are “married”.    (of course – there is no such thing as single women out there) Both have children.   (2.4 just didn’t sound right so they made it 2).

News Flash - 27% of all households are headed by a single female.  And unmarried childless women have way more time to shop than their “married with kids” counterparts.   Even if the majority of Ann Taylor customers are married with kids, do you want to ignore everyone else?

I’m sure these personas go way deeper than the quick snapshot presented here – but I do find the information interesting – age and household income.  I’m not sure how much age really tells you – I think life stage is far more important.   I wore Ann Taylor when I was younger and trying harder to impress people.  But now that I’m older I don’t get dressed up as often and prefer Ann Taylor Loft – so I’m the exact opposite of their personas. 

And how do you address merchandising with one persona?   Take Ann Taylor Loft - Part of your audience is a skinny group of flat chested fashionistas who want the latest halter top, and another is more typical heavier women who has breasts and still wants a sexy top, but wants one she can actually wear a bra with.    

One can live on the Internet and barely watch TV, and the other can watch TV every night but hardly ever go online – how do you determine which media channel is the best to reach her when you only have one persona?

I don’t want to sound too negative here. I applaud anyone who will do persona work. And I’m sure Ann Taylor will see some big improvements from their persona. But I’d challenge them to go one step further – create several personas and address each the way she wants to be addressed.   The more you speak to the average, the more average your message becomes.

Comments

[Michele Miller]

You read my mind, Holly - caught Brand Autopsy's post just before stepping on a plane to CA this afternoon. My first take was "Great!" then was surprised to see that the marketing heads are still narrow-minded enough to think that one persona is enough.

Looks like we have to wake them up a bit, eh? :-) More from me on this via email tonight, after meetings here in Thousand Oaks.

I'm loving your blog - great stuff!

[Dan Gordon]

But clearly, Ann Taylor isn't doing too badly. The one persona thing is working for them. Sometimes focusing small means winning big, rather then potentially sending a mixed message to their audience on who they cater for.

Marketing isn't about including everyone all the time, its about carving out a niche. The other "personas" you talk about can go find stores that cater just for them, thats the beauty of the market we find ourselves in today as consumers.

[Mike]

Do you have an RSS feed for your blog?

[Spike Jones]

Great post, Holly. You're right, it's a step in the right direction, but they need to be careful that they don't take a brief success and try to make it all things to all people. I don't understand this growing trend in many industries that has marketers thinking, "We did great in that narrow sliver of the market, so let's take that idea, flatten it out and try to appeal to the masses. Boy howdy, we'll all be rich!"

So sad.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to Ann.

Keep up the great writing.

[Mary Schmidt]

Well, as you note it's a step in the right direction. But, I've got a sneaking suspicion that this is so much marketing hoo-ha. The reality will be more nice, but nothing special clothes. And, I say that as an Ann Taylor customer...but I also shop at Target - and get basics such as the little tops for much, much cheaper (and same quality) at Tarzhee.

[Annie]

Glad to have found your site. I'm a former marketer - I stay at home with my two kids, I'm 35 and I shop at Ann Taylor Loft hee hee! I love it when I fit a target demographic so well ;)