Juicy Airports

Like most other luxury brands, Juicy Couture has been struggling through our current economic times, resulting in 13% decline in the 3rd quarter. But don’t let that fool you… Juicy is still willing to drop the big bucks in hopes of making it. While other companies are cutting back, the designer brand now owned by Liz Claiborne is going forward with a plan to set up shop in airports across the world.

With locations including JFK International Airport, Athens Airport, Taiwan TaoYuan International Airport and Miami International Airport (where they will launch) Juicy hopes that these new spots will be perfect for reaching their target market.

Senior VP of global marketing at Juicy Couture, Ellen Rodriguez commented on the brand’s new strategy saying:

“We know that our customer is traveling and she’s in the airports. Women are always wearing our tracksuits, especially to travel in. We just don’t think she’s being targeted by other retailers in these airports, so there’s a real opportunity there for us.”

Sounds great, aside from the fact that if they’re traveling in a tracksuit, odds are the customer is probably already wearing it when they get to the airport...

But Juicy must be doing something right- they managed to keep sales up to $600 million dollars last year and like all other designer brands, hope to come out of the recession thriving as they were before.

Representatives of the brand told WWD that the new airport shops will be designed “to showcase the best of what Juicy is known for” including watches, charms, baby gear, sunglasses, and the almighty tracksuit. Selective stores will also feature specialty city-specific merchandise, like their newly-designed shirts with the slogan “Choose Miami.”

Skeptics say these new airport shops will make or break the company because of the magnitude of their cost in such tough economic times, but it seems like Juicy has the utmost confidence!

I think they might be onto something..and if all else fails, Juicy Couture has some of the most loyal shoppers of any brand out there. I mean, who else could sell the same pair of pants and jacket at $200+ for over ten years now and still have customers begging for more? Best of luck, Pam & Gela!