[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Press Play >> now for a 45 second video message from Ken.<\/p>\n
It seems like it\u2019s the same old story when the monthly retail sales reports come out. The chains that have been doing well (like the new Kohl\u2019s that I just visited) continue to maintain their comp sales growth and the others (like most department stores) can\u2019t figure out what\u2019s happening in the marketplace.<\/p>\n
A couple of reports this month pointed out what\u2019s wrong with these stores. It\u2019s the brand, stupid! An article in the New York Times talked about Macy\u2019s strategy backfiring and that the new consolidated brand had forgotten about what made May Co. and Marshall Field\u2019s so successful. It went on to say that the reason customers weren\u2019t going to the stores as much was because there weren\u2019t enough \u201cdeals\u201d (as in coupons and promotions) and therefore the customers were opting for other chains (like Kohl\u2019s and Target). CEO Terry Lundgren stated that Macy\u2019s moved \u201ctoo far, too fast\u201d from the promotions and basic merchandise (like Dockers) that the previous chains built their volume on and that they would have to \u201cbacktrack\u201d to get some of those customers back. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the problem and those customers that only shopped because of a coupon only accelerated the downfall of the previous department stores. Wouldn\u2019t it be much better to give people a reason to shop at your stores other than the \u201cstars\u201d (like Martha Stewart and P Diddy?) have stuff there to sell? The new campaign for the \u201cglobal Macy\u2019s brand\u201d really fell short in creating any reason to shop there or to expect a better experience than the specialty and discount chains have been offering. Department stores, when they were the heart of retailing, made shopping an exciting experience or at the very least a place for special purchases. As they have expanded and consolidated, there simply is nothing special about the stores. And a discount coupon or loads of 50% off Dockers or Liz Claiborne isn\u2019t really special, particularly when they are always on sale. Who shops for regular price at a department store anyway? I happen to agree with the consolidation of all the former store names under the Macy\u2019s logo. It is a legendary brand with a lot going for it. But all of these stores aren\u2019t on Herald Square and the experience is nothing special. What Macy\u2019s needs to figure out is what the brand should be so that it can have a special relationship (aka a brand) with its new and future customers. Until they define the brand better, all the coupons in the world won\u2019t reverse the downward trend and the disgruntled customers of the former stores.<\/p>\n
Another report came out that after 20 years, the Bombay Company\u2019s new owners were abandoning the US and were just going to operate the Canadian stores. I knew the dollar in Canada had grown in value, but not that much! The articles generally stated that Bombay\u2019s demise was due to its (and many other smaller stores\u2019) failure to compete with the big box and larger specialty chains. That may be true but it\u2019s not all a matter of size that matters. For the 20 years, I could never really figure out what Bombay\u2019s reason for being (a key element to a successful brand) was and why anyone would shop there. Sure the stores were neat and the merchandise was nice, but why should I go there? They never developed a brand that was based on the customer and the result was that the chain was always \u201cjust there\u201d. Maybe they will do better in Canada, but I am surprised that they lasted as long as they did. There are plenty of smaller sized chains (like Coach, Christopher and Banks, Hollister) that do very well because they have a great brand strategy and they execute it very well in the store, everyday.<\/p>\n
Without a great brand strategy, a retailer can blame poor performance on a lot of other reasons (like the weather) but what they really need to do is take a good look inside and find out what they really stand for with the customer and then communicate that more effectively.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Press Play >> now for a 45 second video message from Ken. It seems like it\u2019s the same old story when the monthly retail sales reports come out. The chains that have been doing well (like the new Kohl\u2019s that I just visited) continue to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}