Executive Summary:
In 1999 Eddie Bauer was a $2 billion apparel retailer, making 25% of its income from its catalog process and the rest from its 600 stores. Eddie Bauer operated in the textile clothing industry in the United States, Canada, Japan, UK and Germany. The company sold casual and office wear clothing to men and women. Moreover, they also had eyewear, bicycles, furniture and home furnishings. They marketed their products in three segments, retail stores, catalogs and Internet websites. Eddie Bauer had 555 retail stores located in the United States. They produced and distributed over 4 million catalogs annually. Eddie Bauer had a large threat of rivals because there were such vast arrays of clothing stores that sell active wear. Eddie Bauer had close competitors such as GAP, Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria’s Secret, Lands’ End and L.L. Bean being the top five (see Exhibit 2). Their top competitors were not closely related to them when it comes to the number actual retail store locations, but they offered relatively the same catalog and online services. In 1998, there was a 5% decline in same-store sales and bigger decline in profits. Eddie Bauer’s marketing strategy is promoting the concept of Synergy: “One Brand, One Voice, One Customer” to their products line men’s and women’s under the Eddie Bauer name, office wear as AKA Eddie Bauer, and furniture and furnishings as Eddie Bauer Home through Retail, Catalog, and I-media Channels.
The Goal is to modify the synergy in the channels. It’s in the company’s best interest to keep the synergy for the sake of maintaining an external appearance of the brand mantra of “One Brand, One Voice, One Customer. Changes will be made to synergy in areas that are hurting the company while still ensuring synergy for the customer externally.

Introduction The retail clothing industry has many different players that