Branded to Fit Her Style

In 21 years at Newport News, Geralynn Madonna has become the chief ambassador for this fashion-forward catalog brand. Having studied fashion at F.I.T. in New York before making her way into the catalog industry at Lane Bryant, Madonna moved in 1981 to Newport News’ predecessor, Avon Fashions. Starting as an assistant buyer in the swimwear department, she was quickly promoted through the ranks, first to buyer, and then on to director, vice president of merchandising and executive vice president before landing in her current post.

Madonna has seen the catalog through a series of changes, including a leveraged buyout in 1987 and the purchase of the business by Spiegel Corp. in 1993. The catalog became Newport News in 1994.

Today, Madonna overseas all company-wide operations, from recruiting to finance to design, manufacturing and merchandising.

This month marks the official relaunch of the brand, including a new logo, new catalog layouts and merchandising, as well as upgraded product selections. Driven by customer research, the changes are intended to reflect and support the customer and her changing needs. Madonna spoke with Catalog Success about the importance of branding.

Branding Means Knowing Your Customer

Newport News began a renewed focus on brand in 2001. Of the importance of branding, Madonna asserts, “It’s the key role in any retail business—across every channel. It defines your uniqueness to the customer. What’s your point of differentiation?” She believes brand is defined through a combination of, “the type of store you operate, how you merchandise the product, and the product itself.”

With this latest and most comprehensive brand makeover, “We wanted to define attributes to expand and elevate our brand position.” Madonna says to accomplish this, it had to first take a close look at its core customer—who is she and what does she want? What drives her to buy? Extensive research was begun in September 2001. In all, five different studies were done to examine customer views, including a Brand Equity Study.

Of the study findings Madonna says, “We learned that our customer is very feminine; she loves to be a woman. She’s a fashion addict and wants to be noticed when she walks in a room. She does not have a large disposable income, but wants the latest fashions. She loves to dream, she loves getting the catalog and spending time with it. It’s an escape for her, a form of relaxation.”

Merchandising the Brand

With all of this customer knowledge, Newport News focused on ways to push its strengths. “We positioned ourselves as a ‘Real Fashion, Real Value’ brand, and looked for new ways to merchandise up and down the chain,” says Madonna. As part of the rebranding, catalogs were revamped to feature editorial content and fashion advice. “Our goal is to not be just another catalog in the mail”

The editorial approach to catalog merchandising led to creative establishing different sections of the catalog similar to magazine departments: Splurges and Steals, a Glamour section, “As seen”—showcasing apparel that appears in fashion magazines, a Question & Answer section featuring topics such as what to wear to work, shapefx—”designed to make the body you have look like the body you want.”

The brand also is gaining exposure in the fashion press by appearing in catalog advertisements in magazines such as Marie Claire.

Fast-track Product Development

Having learned how important being “on-trend” is to her customers, Newport News has worked heard to shorten its merchandise time to market; 20 percent now is on a fast track development cycle. Overall, the catalog’s average product development time is down from 16 weeks to 12 weeks—an amazing feat considering every one of the 30-plus catalogs the company mails annually contains new items. “Every time we mail, we put new merchandise in the book, including in sale media and in each season,” says Madonna.

Strong relationships with suppliers helped Newport News forge ahead with its lofty goals. “We are 100-percent private label which gives us some more control over our merchandise production.”

Processes and Pay-offs

The changes to the Newport News brand have affected every person within the company. “We had a company-wide internal program to get everyone up to speed on the changes,” notes Madonna. “Numerous kick-off meetings were held in virtually every single part of the business.”

An all-out branding campaign more than a year in the making wraps up this spring with the remainder of the catalog changes. Among the finishing touches: a new logo, dropping the $0.99 from the end of prices and cleaning up the page layouts. What did not change: the value-oriented pricing. “We made sure not to raise prices and risk alienating customers—even as we stepped up product quality,” says Madonna.

Core customers also were handled with care when it came time to introduce the relaunch. This month, along with the 140-page bound book—the company’s first bound catalog—customers receive an “Editor’s Letter” from Geralynn Madonna explaining the changes.

Newport News is looking for several pay-offs from the rebranding process, says Madonna. “We hope to gain stronger brand identification, improved emotional connection with our customers, increased customer satisfaction—and to hopefully reach out to different customer groups.

Plans are in place to keep growing the brand. In the second quarter of 2003, she reveals, “Newport News will partner with a boutique in New York to continue to move the brand forward.”

Alicia Orr Suman is executive editor of Catalog Success magazine.