Macy's rolls out biggest ad campaign
Store nameplate conversions prompt all-out Federated push
Tribune staff reports
September 6, 2006, 7:58 PM CDT
CINCINNATI -- Federated Department Stores Inc. will promote the conversion of 400 stores into Macy's with its biggest-ever advertising campaign beginning this week.
The marketing push, which starts Thursday, will make Federated one of the largest advertisers in the U.S. this year, Chief Marketing Officer Anne MacDonald said, without providing figures.
The company, which also owns Bloomingdale's, was 23rd last year with $1.45 billion in spending, according to Advertising Age.
Macy's first nationwide television campaign will promote the chain's "Way to Shop" theme and use a re-recording of the Motown tune "Dancing in the Streets." The ads come 18 months after Federated announced its $11 billion acquisition of May Department Stores Co. The company is converting stores to the Macy's name Saturday, doubling the total.
The company is ramping up its Spanish-language advertising as it gains more Hispanic customers in Florida, Texas, California and Colorado, MacDonald said. It's also marketing more in Chicago, Minneapolis and Boston, where its Marshall Field's and Filene's stores will disappear. The ads were designed by JWT Chicago.
"It's an invitation to the customer to see why Macy's is better and what they have to offer, and down the road that will be a successful process," said David Heupel of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in Minneapolis. "In the interim, that will create some churn."
The campaign will run into November with "heavy frequency," MacDonald said. The promotion also includes thousands of free $10 gift cards and the mailing of 3.8 million catalogs.
"All around the country, those grand old retail names will disappear overnight," said Wendy Liebmann, president of consulting firm WSL Strategic Retail in New York. "It's one thing when you start from scratch. It's another thing when you kick out the old grandmother."
The company has to win customers made skeptical by their loyalty to the former store nameplates that will vanish, said Stephen Hoch, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia.
While the retailer says it ultimately will save money by advertising one Macy's brand nationally, such ads go only so far to sell apparel that differs from region to region, Hoch said.
The risk is that Federated will spend large sums of money to no avail, Hoch said. "The worst case is that it's a money pit," he said.
James Dion, founder and president of the Chicago-based retail consulting firm Dionco Inc., said the plans for a nationwide program of community service projects that will begin Sept. 15 in selected cities also was a good move.
"I think that any business or retailer has got to be perceived as giving back to the community," Dion told The Associated Press. "This resonates with people that Macy's is not just a big company coming in to suck money out of the local community."
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Tribune staff reports
September 6, 2006, 7:58 PM CDT
CINCINNATI -- Federated Department Stores Inc. will promote the conversion of 400 stores into Macy's with its biggest-ever advertising campaign beginning this week.
The marketing push, which starts Thursday, will make Federated one of the largest advertisers in the U.S. this year, Chief Marketing Officer Anne MacDonald said, without providing figures.
The company, which also owns Bloomingdale's, was 23rd last year with $1.45 billion in spending, according to Advertising Age.
Macy's first nationwide television campaign will promote the chain's "Way to Shop" theme and use a re-recording of the Motown tune "Dancing in the Streets." The ads come 18 months after Federated announced its $11 billion acquisition of May Department Stores Co. The company is converting stores to the Macy's name Saturday, doubling the total.
The company is ramping up its Spanish-language advertising as it gains more Hispanic customers in Florida, Texas, California and Colorado, MacDonald said. It's also marketing more in Chicago, Minneapolis and Boston, where its Marshall Field's and Filene's stores will disappear. The ads were designed by JWT Chicago.
"It's an invitation to the customer to see why Macy's is better and what they have to offer, and down the road that will be a successful process," said David Heupel of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in Minneapolis. "In the interim, that will create some churn."
The campaign will run into November with "heavy frequency," MacDonald said. The promotion also includes thousands of free $10 gift cards and the mailing of 3.8 million catalogs.
"All around the country, those grand old retail names will disappear overnight," said Wendy Liebmann, president of consulting firm WSL Strategic Retail in New York. "It's one thing when you start from scratch. It's another thing when you kick out the old grandmother."
The company has to win customers made skeptical by their loyalty to the former store nameplates that will vanish, said Stephen Hoch, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia.
While the retailer says it ultimately will save money by advertising one Macy's brand nationally, such ads go only so far to sell apparel that differs from region to region, Hoch said.
The risk is that Federated will spend large sums of money to no avail, Hoch said. "The worst case is that it's a money pit," he said.
James Dion, founder and president of the Chicago-based retail consulting firm Dionco Inc., said the plans for a nationwide program of community service projects that will begin Sept. 15 in selected cities also was a good move.
"I think that any business or retailer has got to be perceived as giving back to the community," Dion told The Associated Press. "This resonates with people that Macy's is not just a big company coming in to suck money out of the local community."
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
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