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Campaign Plans Book!
By: Allison Cossman, Natalie Stern, Jennifer Buechel, Dana
Narens, Allison Stein, Joshua Benjamin
Designing Persuasive Communications Group 8
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1) Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..3
2) Situation Analysis………………………………………………………………………4-13
a) Company analysis…………………………………………………………………........4-6
i) Sales trends……………………………………………………………………………4
ii) Environmental trends - regulatory, economic, cultural (i.e. healthy)…………………5
iii) Skills and resources – financial, brand variety, technology, equipment……………5-6
b) Consumer analysis…………………………………………………………………...…7-8
c) Market analysis
i) Information to be included in company, product and consumer sections
d) Product analysis…………………………………………………………………….......8-9
i) Product life cycle, distribution channel
e) Competitive analysis…………………….…………………………………………...9-11
3) Consumer insights – results of group research……………………….……...11-13
4) Problems and opportunities (SWOT)………………………………………..….14-15
5) Product positioning……………………………………………………………..……..16
6) Objectives – include both marketing and communication goals…………..…..16
a) Target
b) Intended effects
c) Time period
7) Budget……………………………………………………………………………….…..17
8) Marketing Communication Strategy…………………………………………..18-24
a) Advertising strategy………………………………………………………………..18-19
i) Creative ……………………………………………………………………….18-19
(1) Objectives and strategy
(2) Rationale
(3) Ad executions
ii) Media………………………………………………………………………….20-22
(1) Objectives and strategy
(2) Rationale
(3) Tactics (with flow chart)
b) Sales Promotion…………………………………………………………………....23-24
9) Objectives and strategy…………………………………………………………...23-24
10) Rationale……………………………………………………………………….…….23-24
11) Execution Tactics…………………………………………………………………..25-29
a) Other MarComms…………………………………………………………………25-28
i) Public relations…………………………………………………………………25-26
ii) Direct marketing……………………………………………………………….26-27
iii) Internet
iv) Events/Cause-Related Marketing………………………………………………...28
b) Evaluation…………………………………………………………………………..29
i) Sales
ii) Advertising
iii) Sales promotion
iv) Other MarComms
12) Reference list…………………………………………………………………………..30
13) Appendix…………………………………………………………………………….31-49
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While the department store industry has suffered a slight decline in sales in the past few
years due to the economic recession, many large department stores such as Macy’s have
maintained positive profits from its use of big sales offering significant discounts. After 2008,
many consumers were fearful of spending money due to the state of the economy and a decrease
in the amount of employment opportunities. Simply put, people lost faith in the market. This is
where Macy’s stepped in to provide consumers with great discounts on name brand clothing and
home goods items, strongly emphasizing discounts in their advertising campaign centered around
the slogan, “The Magic of Macy’s.” Macy’s was able to retain its sales through purchases
primarily from an older demographic of females 40-55 years old. However, Macy’s once strong
brand image got lost in the clutter, both figuratively and literally. Many Macy’s stores featured
disheveled displays and their marketing strategies felt desperate, reflecting a cheap department
store opposed to a luxury department store.
Due to the recent influx in the marketplace, as Macy’s marketing team, we realize that
something needs to change. Through our emphasis on sales and discounts, we have lost the
appeal from one of the top-spending consumer markets: males and females ages 18-24. These
individuals either still have disposable income from their parents or their own disposable income
from their first post-graduation job. They desire the latest trends and styles and are willing to pay
a little extra to have them. This demographic is tech-savvy and enjoys always being connected
with others as well as being able to interact on an instant basis. For this reason, the majority of
our proposed marketing campaign consists of online media and consumer engaging promotions.
What follows is a detailed explanation of Macy’s current brand position in the
marketplace and a clear definition of who the current target market is. We outline the strengths
and weakness of the company, and analyze potential opportunities for Macy’s to expand into the
college-aged market. Following, we introduce our new target demographic and how we plan to
transform their traditional, disorganized association with Macy’s to an association with Macy’s as
a trendy, one-stop-shop for young adults. Our proposed “Macy’s Makeover Campaign” applies a
variety of different media vehicles and promotional tactics that aim to engage and interact with
our new target consumer.
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Company Analysis
Sales Trends
As a whole, the department store industry offers an expansive range of retail items.
Macy’s carries a variety of mid-level priced merchandise including apparel, home goods, fashion
accessories, cosmetics, and fragrances. The demand for department store goods and luxury items
is largely based upon the disposable income of consumers. By the end of 2011, Macy’s is
expected to experience a 2% revenue increase (IBISWorld). This is slightly above the expected
revenue of the department store industry as a whole, which is an increase of 1.9% in the last five
years (IBISWorld).
The entire department store industry has suffered since 2006 as Americans adapted to the
convenience and cheap prices offered by online retailers. While industry profits were reported at
6.9% of sales in 2006, profits are estimated to drop by 3.8% in 2011 (IBISWorld). This is also
partly attributed to new competition of warehouse clubs and discount superstores that include
Costco, Target, and Wal-mart. With the addition of new competitors, the number of industry
operators is also expected to drop at an annual rate of 3.6%. Approximately 308 department
store operators are estimated to remain in 2011 (IBISWorld). Presently, Macy’s expects to
contribute year-end revenues of $25.5 billion to the industry’s expectation of $192.1 billion in
total profits (IBISWorld). Department stores are predicted to return with vigor in the upcoming
five years with an estimated annual industry revenue increase of 1.0%. By 2016, IBISWorld
speculates that the department store industry will reach revenues of $201.5 billion.
Until the 2008 economic recession, the average American household income showed
general increases throughout the past decades, even reaching record highs in the 1990s. However,
the recession negatively affected most households and discretionary spending slowed dramatically
as unemployment rates, housing prices, and markets spiraled into upheaval. In 2008, Macy’s
reported $5.4 billion in goodwill impairment charges. After a 4% sales loss in December 2008
alone, Macy’s announced 11 closings of under-performing stores (IBISWorld).
Since the department store industry determines consumer demand by households’
perceptions, it is important to consider factors such as business conditions, inflation, and
government economic policy (IBISWorld). In 2008, consumer sentiment declined a devastating
25.5% and continued to fall throughout 2009. This especially hurt Macy’s after the launch of a
new focus on customer service. Restructuring divisions and employees proved to be an expensive
alteration. Since then, however, consumer sentiment has increased and consumers are predicted
to return to times of high unrestricted spending (IBISWorld). This was exemplified in 2010, when
Macy’s experienced a $518.0 million income growth credited to resilient store performance
(IBISWorld).
Lastly, demand is heavily dependent on holiday seasons. According to the US Census Bureau,
32% of industry sales are generated between the months of October and December, the time of
gift-giving festivities (IBISWorld). Macy’s infamously hectic “Black Friday Sale” lures consumers
into stores at midnight after Thanksgiving. While the sale appeals to shoppers looking for hefty
discounts, Black Friday has become a tradition in the American holiday shopping frenzy.
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Environmental Trends
Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of environmental threats and consequences,
which is why Macy’s is continuously working to improve its efforts in maintaining an eco-friendly
corporation. This fall, Macy’s partnered with Voluntary Industry Commerce Solutions (VICS)
Association, a leader in “green” retail initiatives to begin its transition from traditional, clear
apparel hangers to matte-black hangers, which are manufactured from recycled plastic
materials. Since Macy’s uses approximately 300 million hangers annually, this implementation
will significantly reduce petroleum-based resins traditionally used in the production of clear
hangers. The full transition between hanger materials is expected to be complete by Spring 2012
(Macy’s Inc., Sustainability Actions).
In 2010, Macy’s also installed over 130,000 energy-saving LED light bulbs in 95 stores
nationwide. This year, the second phase of the project continues with an additional installation of
280,000 bulbs in 200 stores. During these two years alone, Macy’s has reduced its national
energy use by close to 73% (Macy’s Inc., Sustainability Actions). The company is also reducing
foam packaging in its in-store restaurants. Macy’s cut their stores’ foam consumption by 50% in
2010 by replacing current products with those made of recyclable materials. Moreover, by the
end of 2011, Macy’s in-store restaurants will have eliminated use of foam packaging altogether
(Macy’s Inc., Sustainability Actions).
While the actual store environment has made strides in developing energy-efficient
solutions, Macy’s struggles to show the same initiatives in the products they sell. According to an
MSCI study, Macy’s scored 3.7 out of 10 in the category of raw material sourcing, falling slightly
below the 3.8 Department Store Industry average. Approximately 65% of Macy’s revenue is
earned from cotton and/or leather apparel, home goods, and accessories (MSCI). Abusing such
materials may have negative societal consequences for Macy’s as the company continues with its
efforts to promote environmental health consciousness (MSCI).
In addition to improvements in environmental sustainability, Macy’s has also extended its
efforts within the realm of social responsibilities. According to MSCI, Macy’s scores above
average within the Department Store subset and all other retail subsets concerning labor policies
(MSCI). Since 1995, Macy’s and its vendors adhere to stringent regulations regarding sweatshops,
child labor, human trafficking, and slavery (Macy’s Inc., Vendor Code of Conduct). Macy’s
partnering manufacturers must abide to the national laws against forced child labor, working
conditions, and other regulations. Macy’s issues a contract within every order placement to
reemphasize this agreement and states the legal repercussions that follow for both the
manufacturers and Macy’s if these standards are unmet. Vendors must also comply with
unannounced routine inspections to ensure that conditions are in line with Macy’s ethical
standards of integrity (Macy’s Inc., Vendor Code of Conduct).
Company Mission, Culture, Skills
As one of the most recognizable department stores in the world, Macy’s maintains its
market share dominance through its unique company culture and its plethora of advertising,
promotional, and publicity activities. Macy’s is the leader in the luxury department store market
with a particularly well-targeted niche among middle to upper-class women. Macy’s devotion to
this specified target is a key reason the company was able to not only survive, but thrive during
the post-recession years. In a recent Mintel study spanning over three months during 2008,
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shoppers made nearly twenty times the amount of trips to Macy’s compared to Neiman Marcus,
the closest competitor within the luxury department store industry (Mintel).
Macy’s mission statement is one aspect of the company that helps segment itself from its
competitors. One excerpt from the mission statement is as follows: “We are moving faster than
ever before, employing more technology and concentrating our resources on those elements most
important to our core consumers” (Macy’s). In fact, Macy’s recently implemented a program
called “My Macy’s” which allowed for greater specialization among individual stores for frequent
shoppers (Mintel). Additionally, Macy’s is making attempts to incorporate technology and social
media platforms into the shopping experience. A mobile application is scheduled to release that
will assist shoppers with fashion reviews, coupon accumulation, and other benefits
(Mintel). Macy’s uses Facebook to address negative publicity as well as to engage and interact in
direct dialogue with consumers. By staying in-sync with consumers and continuing advertising
expenditures, Macy’s does a phenomenal job of increasing company sales and maintaining their
market share.
Macy’s has over eight hundred stores throughout the United States and for 2011 alone;
Macy’s has already reported a 5% growth in overall sales for the year (NYT). Compared to
luxury department store competitors, Macy’s distinguishes itself through its name’s high
recall and advertising dominance. A reason for Macy’s market share dominance can be
attributed to the prevalence of the Macy’s name intertwined with traditional American Culture
through ingenious branding opportunities and advertising campaigns. The primary example of
one of these branding opportunities is the yearly production of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day
Parade. The Thanksgiving Day Parade has been sponsored by Macy’s in New York City since
1924 and has become synonymous with the American holiday. Also, Macy’s hosts a firework
production in New York City annually during the Fourth of July. The company’s association
with major American holidays has helped them maintain positive associations with the brand
name as well as drastically increase brand equity.
In addition, Macy’s uses other branding strategies including product placements on shows
such as “Desperate Housewives”. This is a great use of advertainment due to the fact that
product placement in shows with target demographics that overlap with the target demographics
of those who shop at Macy’s are ideal. While Macy’s clearly focuses on the American consumer
through cultural association efforts, the company also focuses on appealing to minorities and
other ethnicities. Macy’s created programs such as “Encanto Latino”, a program dedicated to
celebrating Hispanic Heritage in various Southwestern stores with higher concentrations of
Latin-American consumers. It is crucial to note that Macy’s does not attempt to explicitly define
its core consumer by any demographic that may be deemed offensive or exclusive. As a result,
Macy’s appeals to multiple fast growing minority segments such as Hispanics, Asians, and
African-Americans who accounted for nearly 40% of department store shoppers from November
2008 through December 2009 (Mintel).
Traditional advertising has played a major role in Macy’s success, thus far, but Macy’s is
beginning to catch up to the current trends of new media advertising. The company’s records
indicate that in 2009 the firm spent $1.1 billion on advertising, which leading to 34% increase in
online sales in the first Quarter of 2010. (Mintel). Surprisingly, almost 50% of Macy’s advertising
expenditure was dedicated solely to newspaper advertising (Ad$pender). While many critics
doubt the effectiveness of focusing mainly on traditional advertising in today’s world, Macy’s use
of cross-platform branding and advertising strategies have allowed the company to maintain
market dominance and ensure strong brand equity.
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Consumer Analysis
Current Consumers
According to Simmons, Macy’s consumers account for 20.5% of all department store
customers. Operating over 800 stores in all geographic regions of the U.S., it is not surprising
that the vast customer base reflects great geographic diversity comprised of a wide range of
multicultural ethnicity's. Caucasian consumers make up 70.9% of Macy’s shoppers, while African
American, Asians, and Latinos represent the majority of remaining Macy’s consumers. Statistics
show that Asian individuals are 125% more likely to shop at Macy’s than the general population.
Also, the majority of customers are females, making up 68.7% of current Macy’s shoppers with
an index number of 128. Males make up 31.2% of the Macy’s consumer base with an index
number of 70. While the majority of Macy’s shoppers are ages 40-55, 18-34 year-old shoppers
also comprise a significant portion of the consumers.
Of those who shopped at Macy’s within the last three months, 65% are married.
However, consumers’ educational backgrounds vary significantly. Individuals who graduated at a
college level or above make up 39.5% of Macy’s shoppers with an index number of 147 . Most of
Macy’s shoppers are currently employed, either working full or part-time jobs. Full-time students
are 26% more likely than the general population to shop at Macy’s. 75% of Macy’s consumers
have an annual household income of $60,000 or above. According to Mintel, those with an
annual household income of $100,000 + are more likely than those with lower incomes to have
shopped at Macy’s in the past year. The majority of Macy’s customers are brand loyal and shop
at Macy’s an average of 1-2 times per month. Those who fall in the 25-44 age represent the most
brand loyal segment of consumers, representing the highest concentration of a particular
demographic who visited Macy’s five or more times in the past year.
Consumer Motivations
According to a Mintel report on department store retailing, low price is the number one
consumer motivator to buy in today’s poor economic climate. 49% of Americans hold off on
purchases until items that they want are on sale. Those who reported coupons as the reason he or
she goes to a new store increased from 25% to 29% in recent years. Simmons research also found
that those who strongly agree with the statement “coupons draw me to stores I don’t often shop
at” are 42% more likely than the general population to shop at Macy’s. Macy’s consumers who
answered strongly agree to the statement “I always shop for specials or bargains” had an index
number of 125. Amongst 18-34 year-old individuals, 20.9% of those sampled claimed to always
look out for special offers on products when shopping. 68% of consumers will shop at discount
outlets such as Wal-Mart, rather than department stores due to lower prices. However, high
quality and name-brand goods may be a more important motivator than low price for some
customers. 25.6% of Macy’s customers agreed strongly to the statement “it is worth paying extra
for quality goods.” Macy’s customers are 37% more likely than the general population to strongly
agree to the statement “I am always looking for a name brand.” Convenient location is another
important shopping motivator. 19.2% of 18-34 year-old individuals report a convenient store
location as an important factor behind their motivation and decision to go to a particular store.
30% of shoppers will not shop at department stores if they are not conveniently located (Mintel).
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Consumers’ Ideal Shopping Experience
Based on a Mintel report, Macy’s customers care about having an easy shopping
experience that fulfills their individual needs. Macy’s customer research revealed that the decline
of sales in the upper Midwest were due to Macy’s misunderstanding its consumers. In reaction to
this realization, Macy’s began the “My Macy’s Program” to tailor merchandise assortments and
shopping experiences to fit the needs of each unique consumer, specific to each store’s
geographic location. The ability to give different consumers at each Macy’s location a
customized shopping experience helped to increase sales. 49% of respondents in a Mintel
customer survey agreed to the statement “I like to make my shopping trip as short as possible,”
which led Macy’s to begin incorporating more simplicity and convenience into the “Macy’s
shopping experience.” This survey also showed that the 18-34 demographic enjoys a social,
interactive, and entertaining shopping experience. 53% of respondents in this age group said they
enjoy shopping as a social activity. This demographic also enjoys telling others about “deals or
cool items” in the store. By engaging this demographic with interactive store displays, social
media, new technologies, self-checkout registers, and a fun shopping experience, shoppers may
be more inclined to visit their local Macy’s.
Consumer Life Values
Simmons finds that Macy’s primary consumers tend to be social individuals who care
about their friends and family. 73% of surveyed Macy’s customers strongly agreed to the
statement “I enjoy spending time with family.” Consumers who strongly agreed that “friends’
opinions of a store influences whether or not I will shop there” are 58% more likely than the
overall population to shop at Macy’s. Many Macy’s consumers value the environment,
demonstrated by the fact that 47.3% of customers strongly agreed to the statement, “packaging
for goods should be recycled.” Those who strongly agree with the statement, “I would pay more
for an environmentally friendly product” are 52% more likely to shop at Macy’s than the rest of
the population. Consumers who strongly agree with the statement, “I like to stand out in a crowd”
are 45% more likely to shop at Macy’s than the general population. Through our qualitative
research, we aim to learn more about consumers’ values, passions, hobbies, and how Macy’s, as a
company, a brand, and a department store, fits into their lives.
Product Analysis
Macy’s Inc. operates department stores that sell a wide range of products. The company
is primarily operated within the United States. Macy’s operates both retail stores and websites
under two brands: Macy’s and Bloomingdales. For the purpose of this product analysis, we will
solely focus on the Macy’s brand (MarketLine).
Product
Macy’s retail stores and Macy’s website sell a wide range of products including: men’s,
women’s and children’s apparel and accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings, and other
consumer goods (MarketLine).
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Distribution Channels
As of January 2010, Macy’s Inc. operated 810 stores in 45 states throughout the U.S.,
District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Macy’s also conducts e-commerce business under
Macys.com (MarketLine). The specific assortment of products offered varies by the size and
location of the store and is based on the characteristics of customers in the particular trade
area. Most stores are located in urban or suburban, densely populated cities in the U.S. The
company focuses on many specific market brands that are sold exclusively at Macy’s. For
example Rachel, by Rachel Roy is sold only at Macy’s stores. Madonna and her daughter’s
2010 “Material Girl” line is also an exclusive Macy’s line. In the fiscal year of 2010, exclusive
and limited-distribution merchandise at Macy’s rose to more than 42% of total sales. Macy’s
focuses on multichannel integration, meaning that, “[The store] continue[s] to emphasize the
integration of stores and online sites at Macy’s and Bloomingdales. This has helped us to create
a (360-degree view) of the customer so we can serve her needs across channels, which in turn
drives sales in both stores and online” (MarketLine).” This has helped our marketing team to
fully understand who the Macy’s consumer is, what his or her specific needs are, and how we can
accommodate them both in-store and online.
Product Life Cycle
Based on revenue analysis done in MarketLine, it can be concluded that Macy’s is in the
maturity stage of its product lifecycle. In 2010, the company recorded revenues of $23,489
million during the financial year ending January 2010. In comparison to 2009, this was a
decrease in sales of 5.6% (Marketline), but because Macy’s opened in 1929, this recent slight
decrease in sales merely provides evidence that Macy’s is now entering the maturity stage of its
life-cycle. Its sales are beginning to level off, fluctuating between periods of slight increases and
decreases in sales revenue.
Competitive Analysis
Gaining a Competitive Advantage
One of Macy’s largest threats is the intense competition that exists not only directly in its
department store category, but also indirectly through other retailers such as superstores and
online retailers. Despite the fact that Macy’s has built strong brand equity since 1929, the
company’s greatest threat to its success is still its competitors. For the department store category,
the key success factors, according to an IBISWorld report, are “[...] based on price, product
range and quality, promotional offers, customer service levels and store location” (“Department
Stores in the U.S.”, 21).
Barriers to Entry
There are several barriers to entry that pose a challenge to competitors attempting to
enter the market. The most prominent barrier is the tremendous amount of capital necessary to
establish a high quality department store. Most operational costs end up allocated to paying
employees’ wages, which in turn, makes it difficult to properly maintain the upkeep of the
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building equipment and store establishment. It is also difficult for department stores to
consistently maintain product differentiation and develop unique products. Lastly, the history of
longstanding department stores provides difficult competition for those looking to enter the
market. New department stores lack the relationships that existing department stores, such as
Macy’s, have established with vendors and suppliers.
Direct and Indirect Competitors
If a customer cannot find what they are looking for at a Macy’s, their likely next choice of
department store would be either J.C. Penney, Sears, or Kohl’s. According to Market Share
Reporter, total sales for 2010 were $23.6 billion for Sears, $17.5 billion for J.C. Penney, and
$17.1 billion for Kohl’s. In 2010, Macy’s ranked second among these competitors with $23.4
billion in sales. According to IBISWorld, department stores like Macy’s fared better than more
upscale department stores in the tough economic times of the recession. Nevertheless, throughout
the recession, Macy’s and its competitors all still faced a decrease in revenues. From 2006 to 2010,
Macy’s revenue dropped $1,967 million (IBISWorld). Results were similar for competitors. For
example, Sears’ revenue dropped from $47,882 million in 2006 to $38,557 million in 2010.
In the U.S., Macy’s Inc. holds 13.3% market share, while globally they hold 7%, which is
just below the global market leader, Sears, who holds 7.8% market share. It is important to point
out that stores in the discount department store category are Macy’s direct competitors. However,
if shopping at Macy’s was not an option, consumers may look to specialty stores such as Nike,
Lucky Brand, and other brand-specific stores for goods they need. This being said, these specialty
stores, at times, emerge as viable competitors to Macy’s as they offer similar items to what Macy’s
carries. Lastly, the strongest, indirect competitors to Macy’s are discount merchandisers including
Target, Wal-Mart, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Luxury department stores could also be considered
indirect competitors to Macy’s since these stores’ carry some of the same products as Macy’s, but
their target markets vary significantly. Customers who shop at stores like Neiman Marcus and
Saks Fifth Avenue have different wants and needs than Macy’s shoppers.
Direct Competitors’ Advertising Strategies
Aside from the aforementioned keys to success, there is a significant difference in the
amount of capital spent on advertising. Advertising is an essential component to the department
store category because it creates the known product differentiation necessary to emphasize a
particular store’s competitive advantage over others in its category. According to Advertising Age’s
“Top 33 Advertisers of 2010,” Macy’s ranked 19th with $1,417 million spent on advertising.
Meanwhile, in 2010, J.C. Penney spent $1,317 million, Sears spent $1,778.6 million, and Kohl’s
spent $1,017 million. Aside from Sears, Macy’s spends significantly more on advertising than its
competitors. For the purpose of our budget later in the campaigns book, we will use the $1,417
million as our baseline to determine our budget for the campaign.
Department Store Industry Strengths and Weaknesses
Competitors in the department store category encompass a series of important strengths,
but also a variety of drawbacks. SWOT research from an April 2011 MarketLine report indicates
that, despite Macy’s strong brand equity, one of its biggest weaknesses is its decline in overall
market retail sales. The presence of the overall decline in market retail sales, is especially
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important to Macy’s since its target consumers were likely more affected by the current economic
crisis than the target consumers of Saks Fifth Avenue or Neiman Marcus. Macy’s target market
are not individuals who possess the large disposable income that the primary shoppers of luxury
department stores do.
On the other end of the spectrum, J.C. Penney suffers from low brand equity and low
production levels, but still primarily focuses on customer service, which strengthens their
customers’ trust. On the same note, Sear’s has difficulties with suppliers in Canada, but one of
the company’s greatest strengths is its implication of the layaway program. This program helps to
increase spending for low-income consumers with limited budgets because it allow them to pay
for goods overtime opposed to at once. Finally, Kohl’s carries exclusive national brands, which
gives the company the ability to contend on the same level as its department store competitors.
However, Kohl’s has experienced excessive product recall, which has subsequently led to a
decrease in customer confidence in the company.
Consumer Insights
Focus Group Insights
We conducted a focus group on Tuesday, October 25 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. The focus
group consisted of twelve University of Michigan students ages 18-22. Comprised of a variety of
majors, there were 5 males and 7 females from Michigan, New York, Chicago, California, and
Florida. We used a laddering technique throughout the focus group session, beginning by asking
participants about individual shopping habits and behaviors, and then moving on to
understanding their shopping values, attitudes, and motivations. The general consensus among
the group was that while they rarely actively seeked out Macy’s as an ideal shopping outlet, they
will shop at Macy’s if there is a large sale or if they happen to pass through the store in the mall.
Most participants preferred shopping in-store rather than on Macy’s website because they
found it to be cluttered and disorganized, many stating that there simply were better online
shopping alternatives. Amongst the participants, the most popular stores for clothing shopping
included Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, J. Crew, and Urban Outfitters. These stores were named as
favorites because they carried chic brands, were organized, and had helpful, young, and trendy
employees. Individuals were driven to shop at these retail outlets because of the societal prestige
that is associated with the store’s name; something that they did not associate with the Macy’s
name.
When discussing general shopping motivations, the men said they chose to shop based on
necessity and convenience, and were not overly concerned with brand names. Female
participants said that they shop out of the desire to improve their image or as a leisure activity.
Most participants said that they preferred shopping for fun with their friends and shopping on
their own if they needed something specific. One of our main goals throughout our focus group
discussion was to understand participants’ associations with and attitudes about Macy’s. All
participants agreed upon the fact that Macy’s employees were unhelpful and did not exemplify a
desirable image to college-aged students. Participants said the physical store was disorganized,
dirty, and depressing. However, on a positive note, they did also note that Macy’s stores in large
cities, such as New York and Chicago, were more orderly, cleaner, and carried a better selection
of products. Many participants admitted feeling unsatisfied and anxious upon leaving Macy’s.
Although the general feelings towards Macy’s were negative, participants said they would
prefer to go to there over its competitors such as Kohl’s and J.C. Penney because Macy’s carries
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better brands. Participants also associated Macy’s with positive values and images such as
tradition, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Christmas, and children. Yet these associations
with traditional values made this demographic less inclined to shop there because they desired
feeling in-style and cool.
Not even one of the participants could recall Macy’s current slogan, “The Magic of
Macy’s,” and only three recognized it after being told. The majority recalled Macy’s use of many
celebrities in advertisement, but claimed this tactic was not effective. All participants noted
Macy’s heavy use of promotions and coupons, but felt this made Macy’s seem desperate and
cheap. Several participants believed Macy’s constant television and print advertisements and
promotions were more harmful than helpful to Macy’s image. For instance, a 21-year-old male
from Michigan said, “To our age group, exclusivity is synonymous with cool. Macy’s loses its
exclusivity by being on TV and advertising a lot.”
Overall, participants were uninterested in Macy’s with its current image and only shop
there at Macy’s stores out of convenience or for extremely low prices. They felt that Macy’s could
improve its image with less frequent advertising and also by creating a cohesive image of class
and sophistication throughout Macy’s stores nationwide. These changes could lead to an increase
in this young demographics’ inclination to shop there. Based on participants’ responses, this
demographic needs more incentive to choose to shop Macy’s over its competitors, a suggestion
being the store’s ability to make them feel unique and trendy.
Survey Insights
We composed a survey using surveymonkey.com that focused on the Macy’s store and
brand, and customer opinions towards it. 85 responses were collected and of those 75 were
female and 10 were male. While this is not an even ratio of males and females, it is still a large
representation of the college aged demographic. Survey respondents’ ages ranged from 17-26
with the majority of respondents were ages 18-21.
Our most significant findings showed us that 49.4% of respondents stated that they only
shopped at Macy’s once every few months, and 31.8% said they shopped at Macy’s once a year.
Very few respondents reported shopping at Macy’s weekly or even monthly. This was extremely
significant because we realized that our target demographic does not shop at Macy’s a lot and
thus we needed to change that. Although not many of our consumers rated Macy’s at their
favorite department store, Macy’s got much higher ratings than did JC Penny, Sears, and Lord &
Taylor; three of Macy’s direct competitors.
The most popular category to shop for at Macy’s was women’s clothing which we
expected but we want to increase this even more and additionally we want to increase men
shopping at the store. Another important finding was that a sale did not make a big impact on
whether consumers’ would shop at Macy’s or not. This is something we predicted would happen
because people in our demographic are more concerned with trendiness than they are with
getting the best deal.
Overall, our survey results provide insight into what the college age demographic of
consumers want from a shopping experience at Macy’s. This demographic does not shop at
Macy’s often, and when they do it is for a specific reason, such as a sale or a need for a particular
item. Our results clearly show that Macy’s should expand its promotional tactics to include more
creative and diverse advertising tools, since the target demographic seemed to only recall Macy’s
use of online advertisements and its multitude of coupons. Furthermore, based on the survey
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responses, it is evident that Macy’s customer service, store policy, and its current social
perception are all problems that must be addressed in our new campaign strategy.
Ethnographic Study Insights
For the ethnographic study aspect of our research, we went to study Macy’s stores on two
separate occasions: once on Saturday, October 29, 2011 and once on Monday, October 31, 2011.
On Saturday, we observed individuals’ shopping habits at Somerset Mall in Troy, MI, and on
Monday, we went to Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor, MI. We found these shopping experiences to
be similar, but to still contain numerous differentiating factors. Although speaking to Macy’s
customers in-store was not as successful as we had hoped, we were still able to investigate many
aspects of Macy’s inside operations.
In both our weekend and weekday experiences an the two different Macy’s locations, we
found the stores to lack quality customer service. Greetings and recognition were non-existent in
what was otherwise a very beautiful and welcoming atmosphere. However, the two store’s
physical appearance was inconsistent. While the weekday shopping experience at Somerset Mall
was fresh and clutter-free, the weekend experience at Briarwood Mall was just the opposite.
Taking into account that the mall is at its busiest on Saturdays, it is even more imperative to
maintain a satisfactory appearance when presenting to a larger customer base. This ethnographic
research gave us a sense of what our focus group participants felt when they shop at a Macy’s.
Please find a detailed explanation of our two separate Macy’s visits in the Appendix.
Conclusion of Consumer Insights
Overall, our qualitative research reveals that males and females ages 18-24 are aware
of at least some of what Macy’s has to offer, yet this demographic still shops there infrequently
and does not regard Macy’s as their first choice retail outlet. We found that our demographic
shops at Macy’s due to the low prices, convenience, and the wide variety of goods offered.
Unfortunately, we found that our target market does not feel excited about shopping at Macy’s,
finds the in-store experience sub-par, and does not have a high social perception of the store.
These problems present opportunities for Macy’s to redefine its image to people 18-24 in order
to become the first-choice shopping outlet for this demographic. We hope to create an
advertising campaign that will encourage young consumers to associate Macy’s with images of
trendiness, class, and quality in order to get them excited about shopping at the Macy’s store.
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Strengths: Macy’s has strong brand equity and exclusive merchandise, which attracts many
consumers. Within the past few years, they have enacted initiatives to enhance company
efficiency even in the light of a weak economic backdrop. The company has been in operation
for over 150 years, positioning Macy’s as a well-recognized name in the department store sector
(MarketLine). Macy’s has additionally improved its profitability through high market
penetration in the U.S. as well as a wide product portfolio. At the end of the fiscal year ending in
January 2011, the company had revenues of $25,003 million, which was a 6.45% increase from
the 2010 fiscal year. Macy’s also witnessed an increase in its profitability ratios. Increasing
profitability ratios indicates the company’s sturdy performance and its ability to deliver the
returns expected by its shareholders. In terms of high market penetration, Macy’s has positioned
itself extremely well in the market, which gives the company an edge over its competitors. Within
the U.S., Macy’s operates 810 retail outlets in 45 states across the US, District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, and Guam. Macy’s also offers products through direct-mail catalogues and through
online services. Macy’s extremely wide product portfolio gives it the ability to maintain a diverse
consumer base (ONESOURCE).
Weaknesses: Macy’s weaknesses include a recent decline in comparable retail sales and
litigation that have led to negative publicity of the company (MarketLine). Additionally, the
declining market share in the department store sector as well as the declining liquidity position
are also weaknesses of Macy’s at its current state. In terms of market share, the company’s
compound annual growth rate for revenue was below the sector average, which could be
attributed to a variety of reasons, including weak competitive position, lack of brand equity and
loyalty amongst younger demographics, inferior products and services, or a lack of innovative
products and services. This decline could potentially hamper Macy’s plans for global expansion
(ONESOURCE).
Opportunities: In terms of opportunity, Macy’s stores showed some signs of economic revival
in the housing market that provides some hope for the home furnishing sector as a whole.
(MarketLine). The recovering U.S. economy provides yet another opportunity for Macy’s. The
U.S. global output is expected to grow by 2.7% throughout 2011. The recovering economy offers
growth opportunities across all sectors including opportunities to increase marketing and
promotion activities. Online shopping is another area with room for growth for Macy’s. A sound
presence online would help the company enhance its sales and its brand awareness with user
friendly features (ONESOURCE).
Threats: Lastly, Macy’s faces threats in the marketplace such as high unemployment rates in
society and low customer confidence in Macy’s as a brand. As discretionary spending is
pressurizing and labor wages are rising, Macy’s can expect an increase in expenditure and an
increase in intensity of competition (MarketLine). Another threat at the moment is Macy’s lack of
a strong global presence. The company depends largely on the North American market to
generate its revenue, which makes the brand susceptible to regional factors. Another threat to
profits is rising manpower costs. In January of 2011, the government increased the minimum
wage from $7 to $8 an hour. As always, competition is another threat. Since Macy’s competes
with department stores, specialty stores, off-price and discount stores, general merchandise stores,
new and established forms of home shopping, and manufacturers’ outlets, the company faces
many different facets of competition. Some of Macy’s direct competitors have greater financial
resources, access to more merchandise, and greater market penetration. Lastly, a major threat to
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any clothing retailer is the fast changing pace of fashion trends as well as pricing pressure. The
fashion industry is inherently characterized by the short life cycle of its products, its dependence
on innovative trends, the seasonality of sales, and possibility of abnormal changes in weather
conditions. This is significant because this can change the products purchased based on climate
(ONESOURCE).
Strengths
Weaknesses
! Market share dominance
! Decline in overall market retail sales
! Value
! Weak competitive positioning
! Brand loyalty and equity amongst 25-
! Lacking brand equity and loyalty
55 year olds
amongst younger demographics
! Variety of brands and items
! Convenience
! Scale
Opportunities
Threats
! Increase sales in new markets
! Direct and indirect competitors
! Online shopping
! High unemployment rates
! Recovering U.S. economy
! Lowe customer confidence in Macy’s
! Economic revival in Macy’s home
goods market
brand
! Lack of strong global presence
! Short life cycle of products in fashion
industry
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Current Production Positioning
Currently, Macy’s products are not positioned properly in many consumers’ minds. As our
consumer insights show, many individuals in the 18-24 demographic view Macy’s items as cheap
and have negative associations with the brand, and thus its products. Macy’s customers view the
products as inexpensive but also not the highest quality or trendiest styles. Through our
campaign, we aim to move Macy’s into the high quality range while maintaining the reasonable
pricing strategy that individuals want. The current positioning of Macy’s products leads us to our
objectives below.
Objectives
Through analyses from our three different research methods, we have come up with our main
objectives for our campaign. Below, we have identified two specific communications objectives
and one specific marketing objective.
Communication Objectives:
1) Establish top-of-mind awareness of the Macy’s brand name in 60% of 18-24 year old
men and women within the next 12 months.
2) Establish brand associations with Macy’s as both a trendy, classy and sophisticated
brand amongst 40% of customers ages 18-24 within the next 12 months.
Marketing Objective:
1) Increase total sales by 30% by customers ages 18-24 over the next 12 months.
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Using the task-objective method, we estimate the total budget for our proposed campaign
to be approximately $68,660,792. This figure includes all estimated costs ranging from public
relations, to sales promotion, as well as advertising costs. A major expenditure in our public
relations strategy is the cost of using Adrian Grenier and Rachel Bilson as the faces of our
campaign. Smaller finances include distribution and printing costs for our coupons. It was
decided that expenditures regarding social media such as information technology and a salary to
pay the individual in charge of social media outlets will be included in the advertising portion of
our budget. Furthermore, the distribution and manufacturing costs for the sample goodie bags
and water bottles are noted in their own category in the budget. Interestingly, most of our budget
is allocated to advertising rather than sales promotion.
Advertising comprises the largest portion of our budget and represents our largest
advertising investment at approximately $31 million. Based on one exposure per episode, we
estimated the cost of our budget based on the fact that there are approximately four new episodes
per month in a weekly show. Because of the pulsing strategy we are instituting regarding
television commercials, these commercials will only be shown during January, March, April,
September, October, and December. Shows that have the highest television ratings will feature
two exposures per show. One example is ESPN’s Monday Night Football. Additionally, we have
decided to run interstitials on ESPN, Comedy Central, and CW which will be advertisements
directed at viewers who watch television shows on these networks online. The increased demand
for this advertising space is evident as $4.2 million is solely dedicated to these advertisements.
Internet banners are also an integral part of our advertising strategy as we have banner ads on
many of the websites of magazines and television networks we are advertising on. Internet
banners estimates are based on monthly payments. The estimated advertising expenditure
incorporates the pulsing advertising strategy we chose to employ by emphasizing Internet
advertising on the selected websites during the months of February, May, June, July, August, and
November. These months were chosen because we did not want advertisements on a network’s
website during the same time period an advertisement will be shown on the network’s television
channel.
Print magazine advertisements represent our second largest advertising investment with
approximately $17 million allocated between 10 different magazines. Each monthly issue will
feature one full-page advertisement and we will hold a contract with each magazine for one full
year. However, we chose to use a quarterly advertising strategy in Vogue magazine and a biweekly strategy for People. These slight changes help cut some unnecessary costs without impeding
our overall marketing strategy. Please see the Appendix for a descriptive breakdown of the
budget.
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Advertising Strategy
Creative
Macy’s has a long history of brand loyalty from shoppers around the world, yet this
market is made up particularly of women ages 40-55. Macy’s esteemed brand equity can be
attributed to its strong personality as an American culture icon, and its exceptionally high brand
recall. Macy’s high recall can be partially attributed to its 150-year-old brand platform that is
based on a slogan “The Magic of Macy’s.” Maintaining Macy’s existing brand equity is
imperative in order for the company to uphold its success amongst its loyal adult female
demographic. Therefore, we chose to create a campaign that will not only sustain and build from
Macy’s current brand platform, but that will also add new perceptions of the brand aimed at
appealing to a younger demographic. The campaign titled “The Macy’s Makeover Campaign”
will run with the slogan “Make Yourself Over with Macy’s.” Our creative objective for this
campaign is to establish perceptions of Macy’s as trendy, classy and sophisticated amongst the
target market of 18-24 year old men and women.
This campaign relies heavily upon brand image strategy in order to achieve its goals.
Rather than focus on low prices and sales as Macy’s current advertising does, “Macy’s Makeover
Campaign” attempts to change its target audience’s feelings towards Macy’s using emotional and
psychological appeals. Our goal is to make men and women ages 18-24 think of Macy’s in a new
light, as a more hip and stylish place to shop opposed to a tradition department store where one
can always score a good deal.
To begin the creative strategy, we developed a main focal point that addresses the
campaign’s opportunity to establish new, positive perceptions of Macy’s amongst its target
audience. The focal point of the campaign provides reasons how consumers can make themselves
over to become trendier and classier by shopping at Macy’s. We aim to position Macy’s as hip
and youthful. Currently, Macy’s is positioned in our target demographics’ minds as traditional
and poor quality in comparison to competitors such as Bloomingdales and Nordstrom. The
current position prevents the target market from feeling motivated to shop at Macy’s because
they prefer to shop at stores that are regarded by their friends as more hip and fashionable.
In order to get consumer’s to rethink how they position Macy’s, we have developed a
unifying idea that revolves around the slogan “Make Yourself Over with Macy’s.” The idea
centers around celebrities Adrian Grenier and Rachel Bilson in hopes that their “coolness
approval” will help motivate 18-24 year old men and women to make themselves over by
shopping at Macy’s. The unifying idea focuses on positioning Macy’s as a prime facilitator for
becoming more fashionable and more trendy. This idea will utilize a mixture of print
advertisements, television advertisements, product placement, public relations strategies, and
sales promotions in order to fulfill its objectives. To employ physical continuity, we will use the
slogan “Make Yourself Over with Macy’s” and the celebrity endorsement of Adrian and Rachel
throughout every aspect of the campaign. The use of these mainstream, trendy icons along with
the slogan will also help the campaign establish psychological continuity in the target market’s
eyes by emphasizing the feeling of excitement and by establishing images of trendiness. The use
of hip, fashionable celebrities with vibrant personalities, bright colors, a memorable slogan, and
relatable, realistic college students as makeover subjects of the campaign will create an
unforgettable campaign that excites and motivates the target market.
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This campaign will be successful partially due to attempts to not overtly look or sound like
an advertisement. All forms of advertisements will revolve around a makeover storyline, reflective
of popular reality television programs and movies in which characters receive makeovers,
changing their lives for the better. By appearing more as entertainment than as an advertising
campaign, this campaign will likely gain attention and likability from its target audience.
Furthermore, The Macy’s Makeover Campaign aims to interact with the target consumer
through its use of a video contest in which young individuals will be invited to submit videos to
the Macy’s Makeover Campaign website, telling Macy’s why they deserve a makeover. Chosen
winners will be offered a variety of prizes. The advertisements will also incorporate real life,
relatable 18-24 year old individuals that will help the target market to make a deeper connection
with the campaign and will allow this younger demographic to form a stronger, closer
relationship with Macy’s.
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Media Strategy
Target Audience
Macy’s upcoming 2012 Makeover Campaign is targeted toward younger consumers,
specifically males and females ages 18-24. We aim to appeal to this audience in the comfort of
their typical environment, the college campus. Our campaign incorporates the social, academic,
and recreational elements that make up the “college” atmosphere. Through the first fiscal year of
our advertising campaign, we will maintain a nationwide geographic target.
Exposure
Previous research indicates that our target consumers admire exclusivity in the brands
they purchase. In order to obtain this status, our advertising strategy highlights the importance of
reach over frequency. By producing celebrity endorsed, gender-specified campaigns, we strive to
increase our reach of nationwide college-aged consumers by 50%. Our goal is to create
immediate brand recognition and awareness through a self-establishing message. We want our
target market to create their own personal connection with Macy’s Makeover Campaign as our
campaign focuses on the individual needs of the target demographic. This being said, our
advertising campaign will be executed with a message that does not require endless repetition nor
high ad frequency.
Timing
Overall, we plan to execute Macy’s 2012 Makeover Campaign with a continuous
advertising timing strategy. However, independently, each selected media vehicle follows a
unique timing strategy in order to maximize its effectiveness and contribution to the campaign as
a whole. When combined, our different media vehicles will maintain consistent coverage of
advertisements. Pulling from our research on consumer insights, our target audience desires a
brand that practically speaks for itself, a brand that requires as little advertisement as possible.
Individuals of our target demographic do not want a brand that has to try hard; they want a
brand that is effortlessly cool. We have carefully selected media vehicles that allow for continuous
yet subtle publicity and promotion for Macy’s. Across the media board, we chose to place
emphasis largely shaped to the seasons in order to introduce Macy’s upcoming seasonal trends.
Because our target consumers are mostly college students or recent post-grads, our timing
strategy will also conform to the academic schedule, i.e., fall “back-to-school” as well as spring
break and summer vacations.
We also plan to feature a similar increase in advertisements surrounding the release date
of HBO’s Entourage film, which stars Macy’s 2012 male celebrity endorser, Adrian Grenier. Due
to the current unavailability of the film’s premiere date, our film-focused timing strategy cannot
be fully disclosed at this time. Hypothetically, we plan to increase advertisements at the time of
the film trailer’s release, prior to the film’s release, throughout its duration in cinemas, and then,
again at its release to home entertainment systems.
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The Media Mix
Internet
Many of our most prominent advertising strategies incorporate the Internet. Ranging
from user-created videos to fashion blogs, our campaign is in-touch with the fact that college
students spends the majority of their time on the computer. While survey insights suggest that
Internet ads may be ineffective, we have faith in this medium as a great way to communicate
with our target. Our Internet ads have replaced those of home mailings. We aim to deliver our
campaign in such a way that exhibits respect of the consumer’s time, wants, and needs. With a
college-aged demographic, we felt that a bombardment of mailings at temporary university
addresses or permanent, but rarely visited homes, was not only an annoyance but also ineffective
use of our advertising budget. Internet advertising will also allow Macy’s to track campaign
effectiveness. We plan on utilizing evaluation measurements such as number of click-throughs
and consumers’ duration on sites.
Our online campaign strategy is comprised of magazines’ websites, television networks’
websites, and blogs. We plan to utilize web banners, including rich media and interstitials.
Banner ads will be featured on ten magazines’ websites, which coincide with the magazines we
plan to use for our print ads. Interstitials will be featured on three network television sites,
including the CW, Comedy Central, and ESPN. Individuals frequently use these sites in order to
watch online episodes, which involves wait time while waiting for episodes to load. By placing our
video advertisements on these sites, we hope to compensate for our target’s tendency to fastforward through commercials on television. The particular networks chosen overlap with the
television networks that will feature Macy’s televised commercial advertisements. Lastly, our
marketing team has created social networking accounts that will enable consumers to directly
communicate with our brand. In an effort to create a strong social media presence for the
campaign, we will utilize a Macy’s Makeover Twitter and a Macy’s Makeover Facebook page.
Our online presence also involves a Macy’s Makeover blog that includes infrequent exclusive
“Celeb Posts” from our two celebrity endorsers as well as an original campaign website created
specifically for Macy’s Makeover Campaign, which will update consumers regarding store
updates, sales and contests. Our campaign website will also provide consumers with fun
interactive games where they use Macy’s products to create and style their own outfits.
Our banners and social media advertisements adhere to a pulsing timing strategy, with
heavier emphasis during the months of February, May through August, and November. This
strategy is based around an average academic vacation schedule, which is a likely time for
students to not only have free time to surf the Internet, but also to make purchases. This schedule
works to compliment our television advertising schedule. Combined together, our Internet and
television advertising create a continuous full coverage digital campaign. Similarly, our interstitial
adhere to a continuous advertisement schedule, but have no periods of specific emphasis.
Print
In an effort to increase a high-class perception, Macy’s has selected 10 popular magazines
to feature full-page print advertisements. Each chosen magazine ad will illustrate either the male
or female campaign, depending on the primary readership of the specific magazine. With a focus
on subtlety, each issue of the 10 magazines will feature just one full-page advertisement per issue.
Most of the chosen magazines release 12 issues per year. For magazines that are distributed
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monthly, we chose to place our ads in each edition. Men’s Health, Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and
Women’s Health produce just ten issues per year, so we will place an ad within each edition. On
the other hand, People releases 54 weekly issues. We decided to advertise within 27 issues,
following a bi-weekly schedule. Lastly, Vogue, due to its exclusivity and prestige is extremely
expensive to advertise in, so we have selected only the months of January, May, September, and
November to place our ads.
Television
When it came to allocating televised advertisements, our marketing team was especially
cautious. We recognize that college students often use Internet resources to watch their programs
at their own convenience opposed to tuning in on the specific time and night of the week that
their favorite shows air. In the same light, recording devices, such as DVRs, limit viewer
attention by providing the ability to fast-forward through commercial breaks. With this in mind,
we have carefully crafted a flighting timing strategy for our televised advertisements. We plan to
air our televised ads during the months of January, March, April, September, October, and
December. As mentioned earlier, this nicely compliments our Internet advertising schedule and
allows the Macy’s Makeover Campaign to maintain full coverage. These months were also
chosen on behalf of students’ academic schedules, reflecting the start and end of both the Fall
and Winter semesters.
Our ads will air on six networks, specifically during prime-time programs. Macy’s ads are
featured in anywhere from one to four different shows, depending on the network. Whether the
male or female campaign is featured also depends on the primary gender of each program’s
viewership. This includes the female-targeted ad featuring Rachel Bilson, the male-targeted ad
featuring Adrian Grenier, or the neutral ad that contains a generic message that encompasses the
campaign’s overall “makeover message.” Each of the selected female-targeted programs airs once
a week, with the exception of E!’s Chelsea Lately, which airs every week night at 11 p.m. Macy’s
has chosen to run televised commercials during this program on both Mondays and Thursdays.
Out of all the chosen television programs, our marketing team is especially enthusiastic to run
our ads during The CW’s new hit show, Hart of Dixie, which stars our female celebrity endorser,
Rachel Bilson. This show will also include a small amount of product placement in episodes
throughout the season.
Sticking with our core principle of exclusivity and staying within the constraints of our
advertising budget, we will air just one advertisement per show. The only exception to this
pattern is during ESPN’s Monday Night Football, during which two Macy’s advertisements will air.
Because this program may have the greatest viewership of our male target, an emphasis of our
male campaign is crucial.
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Sales Promotions
Objectives and Strategy
Through our sales promotions, we have many objectives that we hope to achieve. Ideally,
our sales promotions will be of great interest to our target market of college students. By
increasing interest in various exclusive Macy’s brands as well as the company brand in general,
we will achieve the recognition and appreciation necessary to facilitate an increase in sales within
the college demographic. The sales promotions will hopefully stimulate the demand among
students ages 18-24, which will also lead to an increase in sales from our target
market.
Rationale
Although the reasoning for our sales promotions varies individually for each promotion,
each one has been implemented with a specific goal in mind. Our sampling promotion is
extremely necessary for our campaign because brand trial and awareness is imperative to the
success of Macy’s sales among 18-24 year-old individuals. Similarly, most of our sales promotions
aim to positively alter the current unfavorable brand perception of our target market. It is
important to note that our sales promotions are created to appeal to the college-age demographic
without eliminating the current loyal Macy’s customers.
Tactics/Execution
There are four main tactics that we plan on administering for our sales promotion
including, Macy’s Makeover Sample Bag Giveaways, Macy’s Makeover Sport Water Bottle
Giveaways, student-only discounts, and more strategic sales.
Sample Bags
To increase trial and awareness we plan on sending Macy’s goody bags to 30 of the
biggest college campuses. Each bag will contain samples of Macy’s products, specifically targeted
to males or females. For example, the female bag will contain a lip gloss, makeup samples, and a
small bottle of perfume. Similarly, the men’s bags will have sample aftershave, cologne, and
moisturizer. Our plan is to partner with different brands that are sold at Macy’s who could
provide samples for men and women alike. A partnership such
as this would allow the cost of the bags to be shared between
Macy’s and the chosen vendors whose products would be
featured in the giveaway. Initially, these sample bags will be
distributed to all sororities and fraternities at the 30 largest
college campuses including campuses such as Arizona State
University, Boston University, and University of Central
Florida. If this endeavor is successful at the largest 30
universities, we plan to look into future sample bags to be
distributed more broadly to campuses around the United
States.
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Water Bottles
Another sales promotion that would be beneficial to Macy’s for
gaining brand awareness among college students is distributing water
bottles at Big 10 schools’ sporting events. Plastic water bottle giveaways
with the Macy’s logo will strengthen the brand’s involvement on college
campuses, thus gaining more respect and loyalty from college students.
We plan on starting with the Big 10 schools, which includes twelve
schools, because we believe those schools will provide Macy’s with the
largest reach to college fans due to the sporting event attendance by
students at these universities. The water bottles will be shipped to team
cheerleaders or other sport-related organizations to distribute at wellattended football and basketball games.
Student Discounts
One of Macy’s significant deficits is their lack of appeal to students. Many retailers offer
special student discounts. For example, J. Crew offers a 15% student discount to all students who
can show university identification. On the same note, Macy’s plans to offer 15% off to students
on their purchases when they present a student identification card. This is very simple promotion
to implement, and it is highly likely that those living on a student-budget will appreciate the
discount and thus, be more inclined to shop at Macy’s.
Strategic Sales
We noticed that the frequency of Macy’s sales seems to dilute the perceived quality of the
Macy’s brand in the eyes of college consumers. We do not want college students to view Macy’s
as a cheap or “always on sale” retailer. Thus, we suggest that sales promotions be more
strategically placed around times that students will be purchasing apparel, home goods, and
cosmetics instead of consistently running sales advertisements in a desperate attempt to drive
consumers to the store. For example, we want to minimize sale frequency to include only a backto-school sale, a sale at the end of the school year geared toward students recruiting and featuring
professional attire, a traditional holiday sale, and lastly, a graduation
sale on home good products for those who will be outfitting new
apartments and homes. We hope that by utilizing this minimalist tactic
for sales that we will create a sale experience that feels special to those
who purchase a Macy’s item and actually get it on sale. This is the
opposite of Macy’s current sale approach where many will not even
make a purchase if the item is not on sale.
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We have design a four-part public relations strategy; including celebrity endorsement, a usergenerated video contest, a top blogger contest, and a press release/press kit.
Part 1: Celebrity Endorsement
For our celebrity endorsement we have selected two celebrities, one male and one female
to be the face of the “Macy’s Makeover Campaign.” Adrian Grenier, the star of HBO’s hit series
“Entourage” is not only currently in the limelight, but also is looked up to by many males ages
18-24 as a celebrity and role model who is both cool and trendy. He has previously partnered
with others in the fashion and apparel industry. This past June, he curated a sale for online
retailer GILT in which he included some if his personal favorite eco-friendly apparel and
accessories. Because of his laid back, cool attitude and his previous collaboration within the
fashion industry, Adrian is the perfect male to act as our “Macy’s Celebrity Style Advisor.”
For our female demographic, we have chosen Rachel Bilson as our celebrity endorser.
Rachel Bilson is a famous actress known originally from the hit prime-time drama, The O.C., and
is currently the star of The CW’s new show, Hart of Dixie. She is known for being a trendsetter and
even has her own monthly column in InStyle magazine. In the past, she has partnered with
Sunglass Hut as their creative director, and she recently launched a website called ShoeMint that
offers discounted prices on a variety of shoes each month. She is extremely well-known both in
the industry and in the media for her great fashion sense, and therefore, she is the perfect female
talent to represent Macy’s new image.
Part 2: User-generated Video Contest
The “Macy’s Make-Yourself-Over Challenge” is a contest that gives young people the
chance to be featured in the Macy’s Makeover Fashion Show which will launch our new
campaign and is discussed below. The winner will get a makeover by Adrian Grenier or Rachel
Bilson and will also get the chance to walk in one of the three (NY, Chicago, LA) Macy’s Fashion
Shows alongside 20 professional models. Runner-ups will get gift cards to Macy’s as well as
tickets to one of the three shows, depending on geographic location. Contestants will be asked to
create an original video telling us why he or she deserves or needs a “Macy’s Makeover.” They
will then upload these videos to the Macy’s Makeover Campaign Website where they also have
the opportunity to view other contestants videos. The winners will be chosen by Adrian and
Rachel. This interactive contest is a great way to promote interaction between the brand and the
target consumer.
Part 3: Press Kits
For our PR strategy, we will design a press kit modeling that of 2011’s, but that will be
solely focused on our target market for the “Macy’s Makeover Campaign.” This press kit will be
sent out, along with a press release explaining “Macy’s Makeover” and what Macy’s “new look”
will entail. This press kit will be sent to out popular fashion magazines such as Vogue,
Cosmopolitan, and GQ.
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Part 4: Guest Blogger Contest
People in our demographic of 18-24 are the first generation of young adults to have
access to everything online. Blogs, in particular have become extremely popular and people within
our target demographic the most likely demographic to have their own blogs. As part of our
efforts to create a better online presence for Macy’s, we aim to establish a place for Macy’s in the
blogging world. Although, Macy’s currently has the “MBLOG”, this blog lacks excitement. We
have proposed another contest in an effort to attract young, popular fashion bloggers and fashion
followers to the Macy’s Makeover Site. To kick off our contest, we will have one well-known
fashion blogger “guest blog” daily for a week each for the first month. Coinciding with this effort
to create buzz surrounding the revamped Macy’s fashion blog, we will have a place on the blog
where ordinary contestants can submit a link to their own personal fashion blogs. Aspiring
fashion bloggers will be instructed to post an entry about an experience using Macy’s to
makeover something whether it be their style or their dorm room. They will then have the option
to become the “Macy’s Guest Blogger of the Week.” We plan to “discover” and choose a new
guest blogger each month. The fashion blog will be run primarily our internal digital marketing
team when there is not a guest-blogger.
Direct Marketing
Our designed direct marketing campaign is not as complex as our PR, Internet, and
Event campaigns. We plan to distribute coupons on college campuses: once during welcome
week and then again during December around holiday time. We do not want to over-distribute
coupons because we are trying to maintain the new high-end, trendy image of Macy’s. Although
many young shoppers enjoy the occasional coupon and deal, we want to rid of the association of
Macy’s with being just a place to get a great deal. We will rely more on email to directly promote
sales and new arrivals of brands and products.
Internet
Our Internet campaign will rely heavily on Facebook and Twitter to directly interact with
consumers. We also plan to launch an original website, specifically for the Macy’s Makeover
Campaign at www.MacysMakeover.com. This site will provide information and links to all of our
contests as well as provide a space for consumers to interact with each other. In addition, the site
will feature an interactive game where you can “Make Yourself Over with Macy’s.” Consumers
will be able to upload pictures of themselves, their dorm rooms, their bedrooms, and use Macy’s
apparel, accessories, home goods, and more to virtually design outfits and rooms. Their creations
can be shared with family and friends and will include links to Macys.com to purchase the items
used in the interactive game. Macy’s will also launch a @MacysMakeover twitter hold. This
account will be used for a few purposes:
1) Promoting the new trendy image of Macy’s. This is a twitter account directed towards
our younger consumers and will therefore involve promoting contemporary products and
lines.
2) Promoting our fashion shows and events.
3) Promoting our blogger contest and our user-generated video contest.
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Rachel Bilson and Adrian Grenier will also periodically tweet about Macy’s trends, the
winners of the makeover contest, and live tweet from the fashion show events around the country
from their personal twitter accounts.
Our Facebook page will also be used to heavily interact with consumers. Although
Macy’s already has a Facebook page, we also plan to launch a Macy’s Makeover Facebook page
as well. Users can become a fan of the page and “like” the page. Also on this page, we will also
post the entries from the user-generated video contest, so that users can comment and “like” their
favorite videos. Further, top outfit and dorm room designs from the website’s interactive games
will be posted on the Facebook page. There will also be exclusive sales promotions for those who
are “fans” of the Macy’s Facebook page. This will work as a way to promote customer
interaction with the Macy’s brand, and increase awareness about the campaign.
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Events/Cause Related Marketing
Part 1: Fashion’s Night Out Event
Fashion’s Night Out is a retailer event that has gone on for the past three yeas. The event
is held in September right before fashion week in all major U.S. cities. It is especially popular in
New York and Los Angeles. Fashion’s Night Out was initially started to promote spending
during the recession and has proved to be a great success. Each year different celebrities and
public figures host the event at different stores; meanwhile consumers can shop and mingle.
As a part of our campaign, we propose that during the same time frame as the high-press
Fashion Night Out events in cities like NY, LA, and Chicago, Macy’s in surrounding areas of
college campuses get involved. It is possible that we could incorporate the winners of the blog
contest and/or the video contest as the hosts of Fashion’s Night Out at Macy’s on their college
campus, allowing them to represent a youthful Macy’s voice and talk amongst other students
interested in shopping and the latest trends.
Part 2: Fashion Show Campaign launch party: Hosted by Rachel and Adrian
This fashion show will signify the launch of our new campaign. Taking place three
different times, first in New York, then in Chicago, and finally in Los Angeles, Rachel Bilson and
Adrian Grenier will host the public fashion show and industry leaders with brand’s sold at
Macy’s will be invited to attend. The winners from the Macy’s Make-yourself-over Challenge will
walk in the show along with about 20 professional models after receiving a “Macy’s makeover.”
Part 3: Cause-Related Marketing
Macy’s has always been involved with cause-related marketing and even with the
implication of our new campaign, we will continue to do so. In the past Macy’s has partnered
with the American Heart Association, Feeding America, Make-a-Wish Foundation, and more
than 100,000 other local and national charities. We will continue this tradition as it adds to
Macy’s overall brand equity.
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Evaluation
Since our proposed marketing strategy involves multiple different media components, it is
necessary that we incorporate proper measures of evaluation for the majority of the aspects of
our campaign, specifically for the purpose of creating efficient future campaigns. We plan to
utilize concurrent testing and post-testing. It is imperative that we track our campaign from start
to finish, so that we can determine which new factors of our campaign were cost effective as well
as which factors were effective with regards to helping Macy’s transform its brand image from
traditional and cheap to sophisticated and effortlessly cool. By incorporating post-testing methods,
we hope to obtain consumer’s feedback and opinions after the completion of our campaign.
These results will be used in comparative analyses with our initial consumer insights research as
well as with our findings from our concurrent testing throughout the campaign.
The television aspect of our campaign focuses on reach over frequency. We have found
that the 18-24 demographic associates too many advertisements with desperation. In order to
evaluate the efficiency of our television commercials’ reach throughout the campaign, we will
record the Neilson ratings for number of households reached per program. Our television
commercials only run during prime time on popular channels during carefully chosen television
series. Although we will have one male, one female and one neutral television commercial, we
plan to measure all of them together. We want to see the effectiveness, defined by reach, of
Macy’s TV commercials as a whole, not the effectiveness of each individual commercial.
Next, to evaluate our magazine advertisements, we plan to track the number of copies of each
magazine that features a Macy’s advertisement that are purchased throughout the year. For all
but two of our magazines, we are placing an advertisement in each issue that is distributed
throughout the year. The only magazines that we will not place an ad in every issue are Vogue,
due to its exclusivity and expensive prices, and People, which is a weekly magazine. We will look
at the amount of magazines sold the months and weeks chosen.
The majority of our promotions’ effectiveness will be evaluated through post-testing. We
plan to send “sample goody bags” to sororities and fraternities on the top 30 largest universities
nationwide. Following the campaign, we plan to send surveys to the sororities and fraternities
who received the goody bags to see if they had any effect. Similarly, with our Macy’s water bottle
promotion at Big Ten sporting events, we plan to send out surveys via email to students at the
university. The sales promotion that we plan to evaluate through concurrent testing is the student
discounts at Macy’s, similar to J. Crew’s student discount. We want to offer all students with a
university identification card a 15% discount. We plan to track the number of individuals who
use this promotion by having employees key in a specific code at checkout.
Lastly, to evaluate our use of MarComms and innovative online techniques we plan to use
concurrent testing as well. Specifically for our campaign, we will create an original Macy’s
Makeover Campaign website, which can be accessed from the Macy’s shopping site and includes
interactive makeover games, a blog with fashion advice, a place to shop the latest fashions. There
will also be a blog contest where aspiring bloggers can enter to be the “Guest Blogger of the
Week.” We want to track the number of video submissions, the number of unique click-throughs
on the campaign’s site, as well as the total time spent on the site per visitor. Our campaign also
features the use of social media networks. The Macy’s Makeover Campaign has its own Twitter
as well as its own Macy’s Makeover Campaign Facebook page. We plan to track the total
number of followers and “likes” on the fan page to see if we were successful in creating a strong
online presence for Macy’s within our target demographic.
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(2011). Ad$pender [Macy’s]: TNS Media Intelligence. Retrieved from
http://adspender.kantarmediana.com/adspender/Pages/Home.aspx
(2011). MarketLine Macy’s Inc. Retrieved from www.datamonitor.com
(2011). Macy’s vendor code of conduct. Macy’s Inc. Retrieved from
http://www.macysinc.com/AboutUs/Policies/vendorconduct.aspx
(April 2011). Macy’s, Inc. announces new sustainability actions. Macy’s Inc. Retrieved from
http://www.macysinc.com/aboutus/sustainability/2011-sustainability-actions.pdf
(August 2011). Department stores in the U.S. IBISWorld. 15, 24-29. Retrieved from
http://clients.ibisworld.com/search/reportfinder.aspx?cid=1&ctid=0&st=45211
(September 2011). Macy’s Inc. MSCI ESG Research. Retrieved from http://www.msci.com/
(August 2010). Department store retailing. Mintel. Retrieved from
http://academic.mintel.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/sho
w&/display/id=482739
(2008-2009). Spring 2009 NCS adult survey 12-month. Retrieved from Experian-Simmons-Oneview.
(June 2011). Advertisers: 1 to 33. Advertising Age
(2008). Macy's Company Statements & Slogans. Retrieved from http://company-statements-slogans.info/listof-companies-m/macys.htm.
Websites Utilized for Budget:
! http://www.menshealth.com/mediakit/adv_rates.html
! http://www.condenastmediakit.com/
! http://www.seventeenmediakit.com/r5/showkiosk.asp?listing_id=4241538&category_id=31772
! http://www.instyle.com/instyle/static/advertising/mediakit/instyle/generalad.html
! http://www.people.com/people/static/mediakit/media/pdf/ratecard.pdf
! http://www.womenshealthmag.com/files/mediakit/WH-MediaKit-2012-Rates.pdf
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Focus Group Details
Ages and Locations
-18, NY
-18, Michigan
-19, Chicago
-20, California
-20, Florida
-21, Michigan
-21, Michigan
-21, New York
-21, New York
-21, Michigan
-22, Michigan
5 male, 7 female
1.How often do you shop at Macy’s?
-Rarely
-Never
-Never
-Couple times a year
-If there is a huge sale
-Pass through on the way to the mall
2. Why don’t you go there?
-San Diego: our Macy’s isn’t nice, would prefer Nordstrom or Bloomingdales
-Macy’s Ann Arbor doesn’t have very nice Brands-if we were in Chicago or a major city may be
more likely to go
-No one kind of niche, lots of brands, nothing makes you go: cluster
-Looks depressing: Macys has multiple counters, lots of empty counters, looks depressing
-Employees: depressed, don’t seem excited, not happy
-Macy’s not paid on commission-They have no motivation
-Nordstrom tends to hire trendier, younger people
-They should put more appealing things through the isles
-It’s dirty
-Seems like Macy’s is ALWAYS advertising for a sale everywhere
-Would compare it to Khols-Would go to Macy’s before Kohls
-Better brands at Macy’s before Kohls
-Would not just be walking around Macy’s-not perusing-know what they are going to get before
they go there
-Never feel satisfied after going there
3. How do you feel about the Briarwood Macy’s
-Hate it
-Mess, everything is everywhere
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-That represents briarwood
-Macy’s doesn’t help you relax, stressful
-Employees over 65-so old
4. What do you think of when you think of Macy’s?
-bridal registries: buying a toaster oven
Age group
-Grandma, get that vibe from the employees
-Dressed better
Bad job advertising nice stuff
-Found out for the first time this year you could get Bobby Brown Makeup, Chanel Makeup
*Make all Macy’s like Chicago/NY Ones-then they would be more likely to shop there
-They all said would shop there
5. Why do you shop at Macy’s?
-Would only be shopping for suits-guys
-Shoe department is the one thing they like, good price and somewhat good selection
-Would go to buy the same product at Nordstrom over Macy’s
-Don’t go there for home goods
-Prefer Macy’s to Bed Bath for home goods
6. Which Macy’s advertisements can you recall?
-Macy’s 20% off sale
-Jessica Simpson, P.Diddy, etc-celebrities
-Celebrities seem like a last resort
-Be more successful if they advertised what Brands they have
Other Department store advertisements
-Really nice stores don’t need the commercials
-Never see commercials for Bloomingdales, SAKS, etc.
-TV advertisements make them look cheap, magazine doesn’t do that
7. What would they rather see in a Macy’s Ad
-Show the store In a nicer way
-Less stuff
-Something chanel or nicer-available at Macys
-Make it seem luxury
-6 celebrities in each ad-too much-cluster
-Shopping: if your exclusive its cool, showing ads on TV doesn’t really do anything, give me an
INCENTIVE to come to the store
-Macy’s looses its exclusivity by being on TV and advertising a lot
8. Why do you go shopping in general?
-boredom
-need something-guys
-they decide based on price, location, is it nice, right now not too concerned with brand
-Desire to look better than the people around you, look unique
-Wouldn’t go to Macy’s to improve your image
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9. What is Macy’s slogan?
-Star
-Nobody seems to know it
-Think of Christmas-NOBODY knew it or recalled it when we said that other than 4 people
-They don’t think they need a slogan-no other dept stores have it
10. What do you think are Macys’ strengths?
11. What values to you attribute to Macy’s?
-Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade
-Tradition
-Christmas
-Associate the name with something Classy-but certain stores I don’t once im inside
-Parents with little kids
-Turkey
-Kids
-Clothes
-Holidays
-Red
-Old people
-Average
-Sales
12. Do you prefer to shop in store or online at Macy’s?
-Did not like there website
-Big mess
-None of them have shopped online there
-Too many alternate websites that offer cheap clothes they don’t need to go there
13.Who do you think Macys’ competitors are?
-JCPenny
-Would go to Macy’s definetly before their competitors-better in terms of their clothing, etc.
-Not necessarily looking for more for less when looking for clothes
-Unless they are going for hanes white vnecks etc. would go to wall mart, target, etc.
14.What is your favorite store to shop at and why?
-Bloomingdales: have all brands they like, organized, nicer, have everything, don’t have to go to
lots of places, have really good lighting, can actually see the clothes
-Urban-know that you looked at everything in it
-J.crew
-Kohls: convienient
-Macy’s it’s a lot to look through everything, you may not feel like you saw everything. Its hard
because there is a lot you don’t want to look at.
15. How can Macy’s alter its image to appeal to more college students?
-Show the nicer, more luxury side of it
-Stop basing the ads on sales, cheap-don’t always want to hear about blow out sale
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-Price matters
-Nicest luxury brand you can for the lowest brands
-Don’t want to see my clothes next to my grandpas-need to separate sections better for each
target audience
-They are too concerned with getting as much stuff as possible-if they got more selective they
would be happy-they don’t need SO much stuff
-Briarwood Macy’s-not geared towards college students-don’t carry bigger brands. Would go to
bivouac before Macy’s.
-Feel really unorganized
-Make ads more minimal
-More like H and M
-More brand based
-Make clothes look cuter-style them better
-Less sales, or less advertising of sales
16. How they felt about Nordstrom
-Too pushy-too concerned with commission
-Hurting themselves, we get annoyed
-Helpful when shopping for other people, for some kinds of shoppers
17. How they like to shop
-Most on their own if they need something specific
-More social, with friends
Ethnographic Study Details
Saturday’s Ethnographic Findings
Walking into Macy’s on Saturday, a busy shopping day, the atmosphere was incredibly
overwhelming. We were noticeably disappointed by the mess and clutter of the inventory. No
one acknowledged our presence or asked “How are you?”, or “May I help you?” for at least 7-8
minutes. One of our group members decided to “test” an employee on her personable-nature
and helpfulness qualities. Natalie went over to the BCBG counter and explained that she was
looking for business-appropriate skirts and dresses. The saleswoman showed her to a rack of
inappropriate skirts and neon tops, certainly not fit for an interview setting. Natalie tried to move
the saleswoman toward the dress rack, and the woman showed her to a rack of party dresses. The
saleswoman recommended one tight white dress to which Natalie responded, “I’m a little pale,
I’m not sure if that color would look great on me.” The woman looked her up and down, made a
mildly disgusted face and replied, “Yeah...You really are pale!”
After this uncomfortable encounter, we proceeded to the dressing rooms. The stark white
walls and floors did not feel inviting or warm. As soon as we walked into the cramped room, we
saw hangers on the floor, previously tried on clothing messily arranged on the hooks, and trash,
such as Starbucks cups, lying on the ledge. Overall, our Macy’s shopping experience was
unsatisfying, primarily due to the unqualified saleswoman and the depressing, dull atmosphere at
Macy’s. Our ethnographic research provided us with confirmation of the feedback that we
received in our focus group and through our survey responses. To provide a better perspective
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and to confirm that our findings were representative of more than just one Macy’s stores, we
decided to visit a different Macy’s the following Monday.
Monday’s Ethnographic Findings
We attributed the emptiness of Briarwood Mall to the fact that it was Halloween day, as
few shoppers were present during our Monday visit. Again, many Macy’s customers did not want
to provide their insights on the spot, however, much can still be inferred from our observation.
Upon our entrance, we were immediately pleased with store presentation. The organization of
the garments was tidy and welcomed casual browsing. Compared to our previous experience the
same weekend, this was a great improvement of in-store appearance as well as overall shopping
experience among the researchers. The aisles were illuminated with festive winter holiday decor,
encouraging customers to prepare early for the upcoming gift-giving, holiday season. From the
reflective glass cosmetics counters to the gold and polished jewelry brackets, the store itself was an
aesthetic success.
While we experienced great improvement in store presentation, this was not the case with
customer service. Again, we received no greetings or acknowledgement when we first arrived. In
fact, none of us were approached by a Macy’s employee once during our Monday visit. This is
especially concerning when we consider the small handful of customers in the store at the time.
Even as we openly questioned where items were located or how to access the upper level, no staff
members were available to accommodate our needs. Although promotional glossy sales posters
beautifully swung from the tall ceilings, nobody was accessible to answer questions regarding
such promotions, or anything for that matter.
Interested in the competitor’s approach, we also investigated the atmosphere at J.C.
Penney. The store entrance was noticeably more cluttered and disorganized compared to that of
Macy’s. Instead of a greeting from an employee, we were welcomed by dozens of sales racks
sloppily pushed into the main walk way. Overall, Macy’s had created a considerably greater
atmosphere of general cleanliness, organization, and holiday warmth.
Total 2010 advertisement budget: 1,417,000,000
Proposed Macy’s Advertising Budget
Description
Strategy
Cost ($)
Adrian Grenier cost and fees
Public Relations
3,000,000
Rachel Bilson cost and fees
Public Relations
1,500,000
Fashion Night Out
Public Relations
50,000
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Marketing and Promotion for Contest
Public Relations
100,000
Contest winner expenses and prize
Public Relation
10,000
Contest runner up prizes
Public Relations
10,000
Press kit expenses
Public Relations
50,000
Coupon distribution and printing costs
Public Relations
300,000
Charity/Cause-related marketing expense
Public Relations
5,000,000
Public Relations Total Expense
10,020,000
Goodie bag containing samples
Sales Promotions
300,000
Water bottle distribution
Sales Promotions
80,000
Sales Promotions Total Expense
380,000
Internet Banner Advertising
Advertising
5,184,000
Interstitial and Rich Media
Advertising
4,200,000
Social Media – includes fashion blogger salary
Advertising
100,000
Print Magazines
Advertising
17,406,792
Television commercials
Advertising
31,320,000
Product placement in Entourage Film
Adverting
50,000
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Advertising Total Expense
58,260,792
Total Budget
68,660,792
Television Ads/Monthly x 6 months = Total Expenditures
*Prices Per Episode
CW
! Gossip Girl—Monday 8 p.m.—$100K per episode = $2.4 million
! Hart of Dixie—Monday 9 p.m.—$100K per episode = $2.4 million
! 90210—Tuesday 8 p.m.—100k per episode = $2.4 million
! Vampire Diaries—Thursday—100K per episode = $2.4 million
Comedy Central
! Tosh.0—100K per episode = $2.4 million
! South Park--Wednesday 10 p.m.—100K per episode = $2.4million
Fox
! Glee--Tuesday 8 p.m.—100K per episode = $2.4 million
! New Girl—Tuesday 9 p.m.—100K per episode = $2.4million
NBC
! Modern Family—Wednesday 9 p.m.—100K per episode = $2.4million
E!
! Chelsea Lately – Daily 11p.m.—35K per episode = $1.68 million
! Keeping Up With The Kardashians –Sunday 10 p.m.—100K per episode = $2.4 million
ESPN
! Monday Night Football—Monday 8:30-11:30 p.m.—300K per episode x 2 = $4.8
million
! PTI—Wednesday 5:30 p.m.—5K per episode = $840K million
TOTAL TV Budget: 31,320,000 (x 6 Months of Flighting Advertising)
Print Advertisements Based on Given Rates
Men’s Health – 10 issues x 1 ad = 10 ads/$1.8 million
GQ – 12 issues x 1 ad = 12 ads/~$1.9 million
Maxim --12 issues x 1 ad = 12 ads/$2.5 million
Cosmopolitan – 12 issues x 1 ad = 12 ads/$3 million
Seventeen – 10 issues x 1 ad = 10 ads/$~1.3 million
Vogue – 4 issues x 1 ad = 4 ads/$660,000K
Teen Vogue – 10 issues x 1 ad = 10 ads/~$1.2 million
InStyle – 12 issues x 1 ad = 12 ads/$1.7 million
People – 54 issues/2 = 27 x 1 ad = 27 ads/~$1.75 million
Women’s Health – 10 issues x 1 ad = 10 ads/$1.5 million
Total Print Ad Budget: 17,406,792
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Social Media Budget--$100,000: engineers / salaries for maintaining social media outlets.
Rich Media Interstitials – Continuous during November, February, May, June, July, August
Interstials approximately $100K/month
CW: 100K/month
Comedy Central: 100K/month
ESPN: 150K/month
~$1.2+$1.2+$1.8 = $4.2 million
Internet Banners (12 months)
Men’s Health $25 CPM—$25K/month = $450k
GQ $30 CPM—2 million unique users/month—$30K/month = $540K
Maxim $40 CPM—$40K/month = $720K
Cosmopolitan $50 CPM—$50K/month = $900K
Seventeen $20 CPM—$20K/month= $360K
Teen Vogue $25 CPM—700K unique users—$18K/month = $324K
Vogue $25 CPM—1.1 million unique users—$25K/month = $450K
InStyle $25 CPM—$25K/month = $450K
People $30 CPM—$30K/month = $540K
Women’s Health $25 CPM—$25K/month = $450K
Total Internet Banner Budget: 5,184,000
Interstitials: Continuous during November, February, May, June, July, August
Male & Female Print Advertisements:
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Television Commercial Storyboard
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Macy’s Makeover Campaign Twitter Page
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Macy’s Makeover Campaign Facebook Page
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