Fri 1 Jun 2007
Federated (cough, Macy’s) replaces marketing chief after 15 months
Posted by Daniel under Current events
It seems Federated Department Stores, Inc. thinks it has found a cure to its recent ills.
Owner of Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, Federated canned its marketing chief, Anne MacDonald, after only 15 months on the job, Bloomberg News reported
After acquiring Marshall Fields, May Department Stores and other local department store chains, company brass decided MacDonald wasn’t doing a good enough job promoting the Macy’s brand through the buyouts.
“Macy’s missed the opportunity to brand itself effectively in that first year and to build loyalty and connection with potential customers,” said Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic Retail in New York. “When you are a behemoth company taking over local companies, you really need to give people a sense of why it’s an exciting thing to come to your town.”
This sure as hell didn’t happen in Chicago, did it?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
June 1st, 2007 at 10:53 am
I’m glad that woman was fired. I mean, there has to be something wrong if a huge successful store like Macy’s can’t even promote itself to the many Chicago shoppers. When it comes down to it, a store is a store - albeit no Fields - but if Macy’s charmed Chicagoans from the beginning, it would never have lost this many sales.
Not to mention Macy’s would have been able to welcome the ‘abandoned children’ of Fields (including myself) into its new foster home.
June 1st, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I don’t know… I just think Chicagoans are a bit stuck in the past sometimes. I couldn’t believe the way people here rejected such a popular brand.
It’s as if people here want it both ways… Always the Second City screaming for 1st place attention, but not really progressive enough to embrace some of the big-time stuff. I can’t say this one was MacDonald’s fault, not the Chicago fiasco.
‘kweenkong’
PS Congrats on your 100th visitor! You’ll have had thousands more very soon. ;0)
June 1st, 2007 at 7:33 pm
It’s not being stuck in the past, it’s the fact that if Fields went to NYC and tried to take over the big Macy’s there, they wouldn’t be too happy either.
June 1st, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Thanks, Kween. Actually, that was the first time I cracked 100 visitors in one day. Maybe I should clarify that…
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:43 pm
I don’t think any marketing chief could have saved Macy’s from what happened in Chicago. From an outsider perspective with absolutely no retail marketing experience, I think the position was destined for failure. And it didn’t help that so many high-fashion vendors were upset about the buyout and ultimately left Field’s for competitors like Nordstrom. Nordstrom is getting all the sloppy seconds and loving it.
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I agree with Todd. Macy’s doesn’t carry nearly as much high-fashion as Fields use to. They tried to salvage the image of the ‘28 shop’ by redesigning the actual shop, but what’s the point if the only real high-end fashion that’s left is Missoni?
I wouldn’t say Nordstrom is getting sloppy seconds, they just have always had a younger generation of customers. Now instead my grandmother being loyal to Fields, she tags along with my mother who is in her 40’s and a frequent Nordstrom shopper.
June 4th, 2007 at 11:36 am
I’ve always experienced superlative service from every department in Nordstrom, in more than one store, including Michigan Ave. Nordstrom doesn’t need anyone’s seconds. But Macy’s State Street, which is “doing badly,” isn’t doing anything to ingratiate itself with customers who actually go in the store. You would think that Macy’s State St management and employees would be making a special effort, but they aren’t. (Looptopia doesn’t count. Window displays don’t count. African plants don’t count. A survey doesn’t count.) No one in that store gives a badger’s ass.
June 4th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Yeah, and from what I understand, the old Fields displays were much better.