January 4th, 2023, Clifton Mark
With several companies reporting difficulties in recruiting staff over the past year, attracting and retaining talent has become a major priority for brands. This is especially true in the retail clothing sector, which has been hit hard by the phenomenon, with many workers quitting their jobs to seek work in other sectors. Even if the sector as a whole is seeing worker attrition, some apparel brands are still seen as coveted places to work. Which are they?
YouGov BrandIndex tracks 55 clothing store brands on 16 metrics related to brand health. One of these is “reputation” which is a measure of how proud people would be to work at the brand. Reputation is a net indicator which subtracts those who would be ashamed to work at a given company from those who say they would proud. Here are the ten clothing stores where Americans would be proudest to work:
Founded by eponymous designer, Ralph Lauren is an iconic fashion brand in America. The brand has been associated with glamour since at least the 1970’s, when the cast of Hollywood movies such as The Great Gatsby and Annie Hall sported Lauren’s clothing. This reputation remains intact, with a net of 23% of Americans saying they would be proud to work for the company. Other major brands atop the reputation list are affordable clothes retailer Old Navy and Ann Taylor, which offers classic-styled clothing for women.
Many brands are particularly concerned with their reputation opinions of younger generations, especially if their staff skews young. For the 18-24 year-old age group, Ralph Lauren and Old Navy still appear in the top two but the rest of the list changes significantly.
Ann Taylor does not enjoy the same reputation among 18-29 year-olds as it does in the broader population. However, pop star Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty brand comes in at number 4 with a 13% net Reputation score. H&M (11%), Zara (10%) and Aerie (9%) also appear in the top ten for 18-29 year-olds.
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YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. Reputation score is based on the question: “Imagine you were looking for a job (or advising a friend looking for a job). Which of the following companies would you be PROUD/EMBARRASSED to work for?” and delivered as a net score between -100 and 100. Scores are based on a sample size of 3000 and 41000 adults between December 28 2021 and December 27 2022. Learn more about BrandIndex.