Nautica puts experience at heart of new strategy

dubai - Brand's revamped flagship store at The Dubai Mall promises greater customer engagement

US fashion brand Nautica has relaunched its flagship store in The Dubai Mall, with the promise of greater customer engagement. Patricia Canavan, vice-president and GM of Nautica, recently spoke to Khaleej Times about the brand's plans for the region, its push into the digital sphere, and how the brand is engaging with customers. Excerpts of the interview:

Q. What can customers expect from the new store?
A. The new store concept is a departure from our old one. It offers a much more sophisticated approach when it comes to showing our products. We have been debating on different product propositions for a while now, and we knew that the brand needed new articulation with our customers for it to be relevant.

Our brand was founded in 1983; and for any brand that has been in the market for this long, it is necessary to find ways of being relevant to younger consumers, without ignoring your older customer base. With this new store, we are looking to delight both our loyal and new customers.

Q. How important is the UAE to Nautica's plans for the future?
A. The UAE is a very important market for us. Our whole brand is centred around the concept of water. What immediately comes to a customer's mind when they hear about our brand is sailing. The UAE, in many ways, perfectly epitomises what our brand stands for. We have plans to increase the number of stores both in the UAE and the GCC in the coming years.

Q. How is the brand engaging with different shopper demographics today?
A. While we have always been associated with the bold colours of the sea and water, we know that more needs to be done to engage with our younger millennial customers. Millennials today are interested in retro trends, and at the same time, they are very conscious about social responsibility. They want to know where their outfits come from, how they are made, if they have made a positive impact on the community where they are sourced from, and whether they are created sustainably at every step of the process. Brands today need to have a corporate social responsibility programme that resonates with the millennial demographic, if they want them to become loyal customers.

Millennial customers also like authenticity in their products, and this makes them very independent as shoppers. They are very fickle, so we have to be very nimble in our approach when targeting them.

Q. How important is in-store experience to the brand?
A. Today, it's not all about brand strength. Customers want to experience a brand when they enter a store. This is why visual experience is so crucial. With our new store, we have focused on lifestyle execution and visual merchandising. We want customers to feel comfortable when they enter our stores, and we have done this by creating a very soothing visual environment paired with excellent customer service.

Q. How is Nautica going digital in the UAE and the region?
A. Our plans for the future include an increased focus on our digital segment globally. Digital is a priority for us and we are doing a lot of research on how customers want to be approached through digital channels. Right now, we don't have plans to set up an exclusive online retail platform in the UAE, but we are open to the idea and will continue to explore how we can integrate that into our plans for the future. We are extremely pleased with what we have accomplished with our partner, Apparel Group, and we look forward to many more successes with them in the future.

- rohma@khaleejtimes.com