Value Proposition and Positioning

Ann Taylor was founded in New Haven, Connecticut in 1954.  It is part of the Ann Inc. company along with its other divisions, LOFT, Ann Taylor Factory, and LOFT Outlet. All together Ann Inc. has 984 stores, 275 of those stores are Ann Taylor.

Ann Taylor is one of the leading specialty retailers for fashionable women’s clothing, serving clients across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The Ann Taylor mission is “to inspire and connect with our clients to put their best selves forward every day." Ann Taylor employees make that mission a reality with their strong commitment and clearly defined set of values. Their values include: they work hard as team, they are committed to their brands, they are driven to perform, and they are constantly improving to stay ahead of the industry. 

"It all starts with offering great fashion, service, quality, value and personalization. We are focused on making sure we offer our clients a well-balanced-assortment and outstanding value."

 Target Market

Their target customer is an affluent career-minded women who is in her early 30’s to mid 40’s. Her style is conservative and classy, but she still wants to look fashionable and in style. 

                                                    Brand Positioning

Ann Taylor embraces its image of offering modern and trendy clothes with a classic twist. She is elegant and stylish, yet traditional. She is a business woman. She wants to buy high quality, tailored products that are appropriate for the office and for business meetings, but are still fashion right and versatile. Ann Taylor is focused on building strong relationships with its current customers, as well as new.

Ann Taylor has become a well-known resource for quality suits, separates, dresses, shoes and accessories with a feminine, polished approach to updated classic style. Ann Taylor is included in the "better" price category.

SCM, CRM, Brand Awareness, and Customer Behavior

SCM- Supply Chain Management

Ann Taylor uses omni-channel, or multi-channel technology to fulfill customer orders. When a customer is ordering online and the inventory is out of stock, the order gets filled from the stores. Associates are able to locate, in real time, a desired item anywhere within the store-wide inventory, complete the sale at full price, and drop-ship the item to customers.

This type of system has two major benefits. One benefit is that customers are more satisfied and the second is that stock-outs are lowered and on-hand inventory is reduced, which creates a more efficient supply chain process.

CRM- Customer Relationship Management

Ann Taylor is driven to connect with their customers everyday. Their main priority is to make sure their customers are satisfied and happy. They work hard at maintaining current customer relationships and building new ones.  To keep customers connected, they send out frequent emails with exclusive offers and style tips for their customers. Customers are able to create an account to easily manage and access account and order information through the Ann Taylor website, as well as contact customer service with any questions or concerns about orders and products. They also build relationships with their customers through social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, where customers are able to leave comments about the brand. 

"Our client is at the center of everything we do."

Brand Awareness

Social Media Platforms

Ann Taylor uses several different types of social media to increase their brand awareness. Ann Taylor uses Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Ann Taylor has over 1 million Facebook followers. They also have a blog, Youtube channel, and Instagram. 

Celebrity Endorsements

Ann Taylor also uses different celebrity endorsements to campaign their collections. Their celebrity ad campaigns have proven to be a success and have driven more customers to shop the brand. Ann Taylor has had celebrities like Katie Holmes, Naomi Watts, and Demi Moore endorse the brand. Currently, Kate Hudson is the face of the brand.

Customer Behavior and Attitude

Ann Taylor has attracted a loyal following of clients who rely on the brand for their everyday wardrobing needs. Ann Taylor provides their customer from season to season with the pieces they look for. Their customers love their offering of sophisticated style, versatility, and outstanding quality and fit. 

SWOT Analysis

Addressability 

Strengths: If you create an account with Ann Taylor, it saves your billing and shipping information for quick and easy check outs on every order.

Weaknesses: You are required to create an account with Ann Taylor for any purchase. No guest check out if you are not a frequent Ann Taylor customer.  There is not a wish list option to save items you may want to purchase in the future.

Threats: Personal information (credit card numbers) could be potentially stolen by hackers.  

Overall: Ann Taylor could improve their addressability towards their customers.

Interactivity

Strengths: Customers can contact Ann Taylor’s customer service through email, phone, fax, and by mail. Ann Taylor also interacts with their customers through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, and through their blog. They also send customers frequent emails with current promotions and sales, as well as order confirmations and order tracking when an order is placed. Customers are also able to write reviews on their purchased products.

Weaknesses: Ann Taylor can take up to 24 hours to respond to customers through email and up to 5 days through mail. The site also does not offer live chat, which is an important feature many different sites now offer customers.

Opportunities: They have the opportunity to add live chat and improve any other customer service issues.

Threats: Competitors who offer better customer service.

Memory 

Strengths:The memory of the Ann Taylor website is adequate. The site stores billing, shipping, credit card, and other customer account information. 

Weaknesses: Customers just have to sign in using their email and password to access any of their information. The site does not personally greet you or remember you and no personal information is available to you until you log in.

Control

• Anntaylor.com has good contol and easy navigation.
• The site has a good key word/item # search engine. 
• Customers can shop by new arrivals, must-have looks, apparel, shoes, accessories, petites, tall, sale, weddings & events, and the lookbook.
• The shopper can further narrow down their category selection to something more specific. For example, if the shopper is browsing apparel, she can narrow the category down to knits and tees, dresses, denim, etc.
• Customers can easily add products to their shopping bag and are able to easily access their shopping bag once they are done shopping the site.
• Links to customer service, store locators, corporate information, careers with Ann Taylor, Ann Taylor credit card and gift card information, privacy information, and the site map are easily located on the bottom of every page. The link for Ann Taylor’s sibling site, LOFT is also found in the bottom left corner. 
• The sign in page, blog link, order status, and company shipping information are easily found in the top right corner of the homepage. 
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Accessibility

• The Ann Taylor site is easily accessible.
• Customers can access the Ann Taylor site from from any Ann Taylor social media page like their Facebook page, Youtube channel and their Pinterest page.  
• All desired information about the company and orders are easily accessible on the site.

Digitalization

Strengths: The site’s images and information load quickly and the images are crisp and clear. Images are able to be enlarged to show close detail of the products.

Weaknesses: Shoes are not given a 360 degree view option and not all products are given enough product views.

Opportunities: Could include videos of models wearing the products so customers can get an even better sense of the product details and movement. 

The Ann Taylor Blog

The Ann Taylor blog is a key feature linked to the Ann Taylor website. On the blog, customers can view past and current Lookbooks, create your own looks using their style builder, watch videos on their Youtube channel, and read about current style tips and view Ann Taylor’s favorite new arrivals. You can also get up to date information on current Ann Taylor promotions and sales. All Ann Taylor products mentioned on the blog are linked directly to the website for easy shopping. 

The set up of the blog is very easy to use and is nicely organized. It does not overwhelm the viewer. Everything is organized from most recent to oldest so the first page greets you with the most current promotions and sales and the newest trend tips. 

Brick and Mortar Store vs. Online

The Ann Taylor brick and mortar store and website both offer a great shopping experience for the Ann Taylor customer. The brick and mortar stores offers a nice product selection and the products are nicely organized so the customer can easily find what they are looking for. Sales associates are eager to help customers with anything they need.  The website has a larger product offering, with online exclusives and more petite and tall options. Their wedding and event merchandise is also featured online. Online purchases ship at a flat-rate of $8.95 or free on orders of $175 or more. The Ann Taylor mission “to inspire and connect with our clients to put their best selves forward every day" is apparent when both shopping in the store and shopping their online store

Merchandise Assortment and Price Point

Merchandise Assortment

• Ann Taylor has a large merchandise assortment in store, but offers even more products with online exclusives and more sizing options.
• Ann Taylor offers many products in tall and petite in addition to regular women’s sizes.
• The merchandise categories include: 

 
• Apparel: Blouses & Tops, Knits & Tees, Sweaters, Dresses, Suits, Pants, Shorts, Skirts, Jackets, Denim, Swim
• Shoes: Flats, Heels, Platforms & Wedges, Special Occasion, Sandals
• Accessories: Jewelry, Sunglasses, Scarves, Handbags, Belts, Spanx, Intimates, Legwear
• Wedding & Events: Wedding Dresses, Bridesmaid, Cocktail

Price Points

• Shoes range from $28 (flip flops) to $248 (event)
• Apparel ranges from $28 (basic tank) to $198 (suit jacket)
• Accessories range from $28 (earrings) to $168 (handbag)
• Wedding and event products range from $22 (intimates) to $1700 (wedding dress)

Integrated Marketing Campaign

Ann Taylor has many core product that drive customer sales. The company has seen great success by paying close attention to fashion trends and quickly responding with updated looks. They have also seen success from their marketing campaigns that feature celebrity ambassadors, like Demi Moore, Katie Holmes and Naomi Watts.

For my marketing campaign, I would develop a series of television commercials featuring the current brand ambassador, Kate Hudson, wearing the brands latest fashions that will air on the major television networks. The actress will be shown wearing the latest Ann Taylor fashions in normal, everyday settings to show the customer that she too can wear these clothes the same way Kate Hudson can. The commercial will also be featured on the brand's Youtube channel, Facebook page and Twitter. The commercial series will drive customers to the brand's website. 

 

Site Aesthetics

The Ann Taylor website is very clean and simple. The website has a white background that is accented with all black lettering in the Ann Taylor font. The site is easy to navigate and products are easy to find. The majority of the products are shown being worn by a model, which is helpful to the consumer to see the fit and detail of a product. The images are also able to be zoomed in on so the consumer can see the details close up. The background of the image is a light grey so no product details get lost in a background that is too light or too dark. Customer reviews are also available, which are helpful when trying to decide whether or not to buy an item. Product information for each product  is listed. The site is a great reflection of the Ann Taylor brand. 

Fraud and Security

Privacy & Security 

The Privacy & Security page on the Ann Taylor website informs customers about the information that ANN Inc. collects from them. All the privacy information is broken down into several frequently asked questions. It talks about how information is used, other sites and services that may use information about customers, how information is shared, how to unsubscribe, and what should happen if there are any privacy policy changes among other information.

Terms of Use

The Terms Of Use page describes all terms and conditions of using the Ann Taylor site. It covers all topics of the site from merchandise availability to your account to international use and many more. Any changes made to terms of use will always be available to the consumer under the Terms Of Use tab on the Customer Service page.

Editorial and Descriptive Writing

Each product on the site has a detailed description with fabric content and the key features of the product you are viewing. Since the site currently features summery pieces, many of the product descriptions touch on the topic of summer, whether it be fresh-picked florals or sun-kissed prints. The site is well detailed for the most part, but is missing helpful measurements of their products. 

Ethical and Compliance Issues

The Ann Taylor site is an interactive and accessible site. It appears to comply with the ethical issues of collecting data. They offer some procedures for customers to opt out of Ann Taylor marketing and information sharing with advertising members and other select companies. 

References

Ann Taylor Refernces:

Website:
http://www.anntaylor.com/

Blog:
http://blog.anntaylor.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AnnTaylor

Pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/anntaylorstyle/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/AnnTaylor

Ann Inc.:

http://anninc.com/privacyPolicy.asp

Other References Used:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/12/05/ann-taylor-ceo-reveals-her-most-important-career-lesson/

http://www.trefis.com/stock/ann/articles/181301/factors-behind-ann-taylors-bright-sales-outlook/2013-05-08

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/anntaylor-stores-corporation-history/

http://investor.anninc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=78167&p=irol-irhome

http://www.wstreet.com/investing/stocks/20416_somewhat_reversing_course_on_ann_taylor.html

http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/11/ann-taylor-brand-christine-beauchamp-forbes-woman-style-customers.html

http://risnews.edgl.com/old-magazine/Supply-Chain--Inventory-Efficiency39566

http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailbestpractices/ig/Company-Mission-Statements/Ann-Taylor-Stores-Mission-Statement.htm