Blair gets younger

Best known for selling low- and moderate-priced apparel and housewares to men and women over the age of 50, Warren, PA-based Blair Corp. wants to prove that it's young at heart. To that end, the company is launching Crossing Pointe, a women's apparel catalog. Targeting the 37 million U.S. women ages 36-54, the new title presents clothing that's more stylish than Blair's traditional wash-and-wear polyester fare.

"The Blair customer file has been aging for some time," says John Zawacki, Blair's president/CEO, who took over for Murray McComas in January. "In 1965, the average age of the Blair customer was 47; today it's 65. We realized we had to find a way to bring that younger demographic into the fold."

In mid-June, the $522 million Blair mailed 5 million Crossing Pointe catalogs. Though most were sent to prospects from cooperative databases such as Abacus, some recipients were Blair customers who had bought apparel from the company's Two Twenty product line.

Blair created the somewhat more fashionable Two Twenty womenswear line in 1993 for the same reason the company is launching Crossing Pointe: to increase the number of baby boomers in its house file. Within the past 12 months, roughly 1 million Blair customers have bought at least one Two Twenty-branded item from the Blair catalog.

"Crossing Pointe is trying to convey that good clothing doesn't have to be expensive," Zawacki says. The average price point is $35, and most of the apparel is private-label.

The catalog's lifestyle-oriented creative deemphasizes price as a selling point. For instance, the copy for a $39.99 knit cardigan notes that it "gives you options for every occasion." And according to the copy, a $39.99 A-line skirt "flaunts your assets, lightly skims your faults."

More launches to come

Because attracting younger buyers is a major initiative for Blair, the company has several more new catalogs in the works. In December it expects to test-mail a 220 Hickory catalog featuring the Two Twenty product line. And to win over younger men, it plans to test a Scandia Woods catalog, selling the casual men's apparel line of the same name, in October.

Several other company initiatives focus on branching out in other ways. Earlier this year, Blair mailed its first business-to-business catalog, Blair Custom Wear, selling shirts, jackets, and accessories that can be customized with a company's name or logo. And in time for the holiday season, the company plans to launch the Blair Shoppe Gift Gallery.