The “way to shop” a name change is from the inside out
Retailing is a tough business. Start to fool around with things that have drawn people to a particular store for generations and it becomes even tougher. Fool with the very name of the store and it has the potential to become downright unpleasant. When Federated Department Stores merged with May Department Store Co. last year, it acquired a number of venerable brand names, Marshall Field’s among them. For those of you unfamiliar with the venerable city of Chicago, Marshall Field’s is more than a place to shop. It’s one of the cherished symbols of the Windy City. It’s a department store associated with all sorts of traditions, from the landmark-status architecture of its flagship store, to its clocks, to its luscious Frango mints. When Federated announced that it was going to rename its newly acquired Marshall Field’s stores as Macy’s, it signaled some very unwelcome winds of change. People were up in arms, staging demonstrations, signing petitions. How do you successfully change the name of an institution, in essence rebrand it, without losing equity, not to mention new generations of patrons? You take a good look at what made the store an institution in the first place. You identify the things that drove the emotional connection people had with the store, and do your best to keep these traditions intact. In the case of Marshall Field’s, now Macy’s, it means keeping up the tradition of the elaborately decorated Christmas windows. It means selling made-in-Chicago mint-flavored, Frango cheesecakes. It means keeping the store’s designer boutique, 28 Shop, right where it’s always been. Perhaps most important, it means communicating to the loyal employees that they are a vital reason the store has been so many loyal customers.
There’s no question that the Federated decision to change the names of over 400 of its newly acquired stores to Macy’s was a very smart and extremely rational business decision. Being able to focus resources on Macy’s as a national brand rather than fragmenting resources across multiple brand names affords it great economies of scale in advertising, operations, and manufacturing. Its ability to attract thousands of people to Macy’s who have experienced it only through the Thanksgiving Day parade is a tremendous opportunity. Its ability to keep those loyal to their local shopping destination is a bit more difficult. By recognizing that people care more about store traditions and values, rather than the name on the awnings, was an incredible insight. Keeping the emotional connection will, hopefully, keep these partisan shoppers coming in. While the Marshall Field’s name will appear on, yes, one of its traditional bronze plaques by the front door, the bigger signage will clearly state Macy’s. Federated understood that the “way to shop” a name change was from the inside out.