Macy’s and Mass Mediocrity
Via Church of the Customer - The WSJ asked a rhetorical question: “Can a splashy ad campaign featuring the likes of domestic entrepreneur Martha Stewart, tycoon Donald Trump and singer-actress Jessica Simpson help revive Macy’s sagging fortunes?”
Macy’s is going to spend $100 Million so these people can tell us how much they love Macy’s. (What’s love got to do with it? Nothing second-hand about it…The store is going to carry a bunch of “great celebrity name brands” with the “names” being - ta-da! - guess who?)
Uh-huh. Like any of them would actually shop there. But even if they did…
[WARNING: Graphic unwanted mental image may occur if you read the following sentence!]
Unless The Donald is going to dress in a wedding gown and spank a naked Jessica with a spatula over in Housewares Live! In Person! twice a day - I can’t see how this is going to help increase store traffic, much less revenues.
As for those “great celebrity name brands” - why would anyone rush to buy furniture just because it’s being sold under Trump’s name?
Back in their heyday, department stores were marvelous, magical shopping experiences. For example, in my childhood, Neiman-Marcus was a thrill to visit, even (especially) when you couldn’t afford the merchandise - and eating in their tea room was just the best. But then all the big stores started looking the same, carrying the same products and throwing constant sales. Department stores stopped being fun and became a mindless exercise in mass consumption. And, if you’re simply looking to stuff your face, any all-you-can-eat buffet will do.
Related Posts from the Archives:
Do I Care Who’s Talking At Me?
Bridging The Gap Between Product and Customer
I’m stylin’ with my Ed McMahon ‘tini.
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Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, brand, branding, Macy’s, advertising
Photo Credit: cumulo-nimbus, Flickr - detail from mannequin cocktail party
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August 31st, 2007 at 7:29 am
What’s sad is that it doesn’t have to be that way (at department stores, that is). Last fall when I went to Harrod’s in London, I thought, “This is what these kinds of stores are supposed to be… and this is what they do better than anybody else.” Harvey Nichols is also still a real deparment store (where I couldn’t afford a thing, even if I wanted it; we were in there with a friend, she wanted to look at fabulously expensive handbags). It was fun! Macy’s is never, ever fun.
Of course with the exchange rate, even the handful of little toys I picked up for my nephew for Christmas were ridiculously expensive. Fortunately, the London taxi car set was a hit.
August 31st, 2007 at 7:31 am
One Macy’s I can vouch for as being a true shopping experience is the one in Center City Philadelphia. The building, originally a John Wanamaker’s dept. store, dates back to 1911, and Macy’s has been putting lots of money into restoring the gorgeous interior, including the world-famous Wanamaker Organ. The organ is the largest in the world, takes up an entire side of the spacious seven-story court in the center of the store, and is played at noon and 5:00 every weekday. They also have special concerts throughout the year, and a traditional Christmas light show that busloads of children come to see for miles around every Holiday season. All this in the shoe and men’s wear departments!
When I lived in Philly I used to love to stroll through the store, just to see the beautiful architecture or listen to the organ. Obviously not every Macy’s can be an heirloom like the John Wanamaker building. But if they could find a similar way to make each location have a unique draw, even if it’s unrelated to shopping, then they’d be on the right track.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Ted has a great point, but also the achilles heel of department stores. “It used to be” is the issue; the downtown flagship stores were all bought up but the magic wasn’t. Over time my guess is that Macy’s will unfortunately regress to the mean and the spectacular locations will become more like the Mall stores.
BTW; going downtown to shop in my younger days has great memories; I can still remember the wooden escalators in one store and the smell of fresh roasting nuts as we walked past a shop. Lively displays and magic in the event sure beat sale prices.
It is difficult to recapture the past but my kids love going to eat at the Nordstrom Cafe; and are picky about it - the downtown store has a better menu than the Mall!
Hopefully shopping magic will continue to some degree….