To view the new Macy's campaign Just click on http://www1.macys.com/campaign/macystv_brand_relaunch.jsp
It’s been interesting seeing the nationalization of Macy’s taking place on televisions and in newspapers in almost every major market in the country the past couple weeks. Saying good-bye to venerable names like Marshall Field’s, Hecht Co., Burdines, Foley’s and others, Macy’s has launched a well produced national campaign built around one of my favorite Motown songs-- Martha Reeve’s and The Vadelas’ “Dancin in the Streets”. In many of the cities mentioned in the song, Macy’s banner now hangs high in shopping center after shopping center. The new campaign extols that the excitement of Herald Square is now being generated in market after market. Or is it?
Federated CEO Terry Lundgren is confident that the consolidation of the stores under the famous Macy’s logo will bring positive sales trends to the chain of stores that have been floundering the past several years. Maybe, Mr. Lundgren should listen more closely to his new theme song. Yes, the customers are not only dancing in the streets, but they are also spending more of their time shopping there as well. Part of the problem with today’s department stores is that they are still anchored in regional malls where today’s customers no longer dance around every week, much less shop. The customers are now excited about the new downtowns and neighborhoods where stores are cropping up more regularly and where customers love the convenience (and the ambience) of being able to park and shop right in front of the store. It holds true for the “Power Centers” which are being built all around town, including many on the same sites where defunct regional shopping malls were recently razed. The excitement of Macy’s flagship on Herald Square just doesn’t exist in the next great Town Center mall and the customers know it. They also know that the stores there haven’t branded themselves to their customers by providing an exciting—OK, at the very least, pleasurable —shopping experience.
What’s more they aren’t addressing the stiff competition from the Targets, Kohl’s, and others who are not only offering as much fashion but also doing it more conveniently and at a better price. Last week in a presentation to retail marketing executives, Michael Francis, Target’s CMO, said that their store’s biggest share of market gains are coming from the department stores. Wal-Mart has been taking share for years with price and selection. Target now takes it with fashion and the excitement that department stores were known for when they identified closely with the communities in which they were located.
The new “Streets” campaign is well executed, the message is clear, and the media weight will bring higher awareness for the Macy’s name—as if they needed it. However, it does not give me—a veteran of 8 years in the department store business—or any other customers a reason to shop a store that they haven’t visited in months. They have not given a reason to abandon Kohl’s, Crate & Barrel, or Men’s Warehouse and come back to the mall
So, Macy’s is everywhere. Now why should we shop there??
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
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4 comments:
Ken, always enjoy your articles and I think you nailed this one.
I would add that the Macy's name is not "household" in Chicago and probably a lot of other places as well.
Ken, your observations continue to enlighten and be "right-on", as far as I'm concerned. And, it continues to fascinate me how the (advertising) lessons learned over the last century continue to be ignored by so many of the high powered, so-highly-paid Brand managers & their advertising VP cohorts.
The great Albert Lasker (1880-1952), considered by most pundits to be the founder of modern adverting, considerd advertising "news". In 1904 Albert met John E. Kennedy who said he could define for him what advertising really was! Mr. Kennedy then went on to say, Advertising was "Salesmanship in print;" which had to incorporate "a Reason Why". This definition changed the course of advertising forever, especially after Mr. Lasker, a few years later, hired Claude C. Hopkins, still considered the greatest copy-writer whomever lived and who wrote the most influencial book on advertising "Scientific Advertising" (along with his "My Life in Advertising).
As you describe it, Ken, Macy's still (in this day & age) is treating advertising as "news;" "Dancing in the Streets" merely informs consumers of the name change and fails to provide a "reason why" the Macy brand should be shopped, why it provides a differentiated benefit!
Unfortunately, Macy's approach is contributing to the death of the department store industry. Over a decade ago, I saw the distinguished retail consultant Mr. Levy present at a conference the observations that no retail industry sector ever had gone out of existance...they just shrunk to a single chain or so. Since that fateful observation, the Variety Stores sector and the Catalog Showroom sector have gone the way of the Dodo bird: they are extinct. My prediction: the Department Store sector is next!
Macy's 'play' is to consolidated under one brand to eliminate costs. As customers continue to defect because of the lack of a complelling "reason why" to shop Department Stores, cost containment won't be enough. Without a compelling "reason why", without a serious reinvention, "Dancing in the Streets" will become "Death on Main Street," in the next score of years.
…just read your story about Macy’s. Yes, of course you’re right, but you omitted a key factor in the selling business: customer service.
As you know, I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. Shopping at the F & R Lazarus Company was a special occasion. Fred and Robert Lazarus started their business there in the mid-1800s, and their store dominated downtown. Several buildings, several stories, their own parking garages (plural – three of ‘em, 3 or 4 stories each as I recall, each covering about a city block). Everyone shopped there. Okay, downtown shopping was the only game in town then, but still, they dominated the retail department store market in Columbus and sold everything, kitchen sink included. [Blog readers: I’m writing about the 1950s. Ancient history.]
Great customer service was their hallmark. Free delivery in Central Ohio, included. Here’s a story that was very typical of service there. For several years I bought all of my shoes from one salesman in the men’s shoes department. I remember one particular pair of shoes had been worn for nine months when a seam around the toe box started to come apart. I went to the salesman to buy a new pair. I told him that the seam had begun to separate on one of my shoes. Before I could say another word, he said, “Well, Steve, I can have them fixed for you or I can replace them with a new pair.” Notice the word replace. He took the worn shoes and gave me a new pair. No charge. I walked out wearing new shoes.
Of course I went to Lazarus to buy all of my clothes and anything else that they sold that I needed to buy. I even got my trumpet there and took trumpet lessons in the music department. Service breeds loyalty.
Now, switch back to Macy’s, and to all of the other big box stores out there today. Selection is narrowed to those goods that move the fastest and produce the greatest profit margins. Customers have to search for a salesperson, and they are usually young, inexperienced employees who hire on at entry level wages and are unprepared to provide the level of services that should go along with people willing to pay full retail prices. I’ve been to Macy’s here – the old Lazarus stores in Indianapolis, but it’s usually now my store of last resort. Yuppie goods, extremely high prices, no sales staff to provide service. I have to carry the merchandise to check-out kiosks and stand in line to pay.
If I need to buy a suit – I go to one store, Brooks Brothers. I’ll pay the highest price, get quality merchandise, and get full personal attention of a knowledgeable salesman. What I don’t get at Brooks Brothers is aggravated.
The point is that service that should go along with full retail pricing just doesn’t seem to be there at the big stores. Should Macy’s even want me to shop there? If so, how should they attract me?
Just who is Macy’s market?
Hi Mr Banks! Karen and Ira's daughter, Laura, here – and I must say, your reputation amongst the “Gourmeteurs” precedes you (and rightfully so). I couldn’t agree with you more re: Macy*s. Double negative. I agree with you.
At first glance/sound bite, I expected the holiday red and snow white Macy*s TV spot to end with a red bull’s eye… not a red star. Had it been a Target spot, the ad dollars may yanked more heavily on my purse strings. Macy*s isn’t selling product. They’re selling us, Americans, their newfound real estate – across the lower 48. And now that their star spans the country (like the red bulls eye), what does Macy*s have for us to buy?
Image (ie: branding) only gets you (them) so far.
After watching Macy*s holiday spots, I was left without an urge to shop, without a want to buy, and without a feeling of excitement. I was, however, left with the feeling that... something was missing. This “something,” in the land of retail promises, - where we reside post Christmas with bellies full of turkey, shiny new iPods in hand, and fresh clothes on our backs - is sure to found somewhere else.
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