Quite frankly, the Urban brand organization became too siloed, with too little communication across functional areas. The great creativity that has been the hallmark of our success became stifled.
Each brand leader is focused on ensuring that the brand relationship with its customer is strong and differentiated. To accomplish this differentiation, we plan to offer her even more unique product and talk with her in new and exciting ways.
Like Free People, the Urban brand is planning to grow by expanding product assortments, expanding the brand reach and by improved marketing.
Terrain has seen a strong uptick in brand awareness and direct-to-consumer traffic from their inclusion in the Anthropologie Group.
We believe there is no fundamental structural changes in the young-adult market. There are, of course, fashion changes, and the success of each brand depends on the accuracy with which it predicts those changes.
We have built brands that resonate deeply with our customers. Our strategy to grow these brands is clear, and we have strong teams in place to execute this strategy. That is our formula for success.
The Anthropologie brand continues to succeed in emotionally engaging its customers while delivering strong financial results.
Going forward, we are mindful of the challenges we face in the competitive retail landscape, but we have demonstrated that our concept of building compelling brands that focus on the customers' lifestyles can produce superior results. We will not waver from that concept.
Repositioning a brand is never easy and rarely without pain. I believe the Urban brand is making the necessary changes that will allow it to more fully engage its traditional customer and return to solid profitability.
The Free People brand plans to drive growth on three different fronts: product expansion, geographic expansion and improved marketing.