Shop.org: Macy’s Nails Multi-Channel Marketing

Shop.org’s Annual Summit in Las Vegas got off to a great start on Tuesday morning with a keynote from Macy’s Chairman, President and CEO Terry Lundgren. His presentation gave multi-channel marketing more than lip service. He espouses a multi-channel ideology as many do, but he backs it up with a very strong example from a Macy’s campaign currently in market.

Good multi-channel marketing must have higher expectations and accountability. With so many channels in play, broader results are expected, and Macy’s delivered. Macy’s partnered with spokesperson Clinton Kelly from TV’s What Not to Wear and set out across the country to choose 15 Macy’s stores and 15 women per store to get complete makeovers (hair, makeup, clothes – the works). Using social, direct digital, and traditional marketing channels, Macy’s spread the word about the program. Eventually 225 women from all over the country were chosen – more makeovers than Kelly has performed in the entire lifetime of his television show – and Macy’s simultaneously raised awareness for their brand, positioned themselves as a trusted partner and built loyalty by empowering women. Oh, and they increased sales in both the short term with incentives and sales and the long term with strategic loyalty based programs.

Interestingly, mobile is another channel Lundgren demonstrated enthusiasm about entering. He spent several minutes of his presentation building up excitement for an iPhone app set to launch later this year. While an iPhone app is certainly an excellent tool for Macy’s, and it will most likely meet the minimum requirement for success (did we sell more stuff??), it appeared as though the Macy’s strategy was revolving more around an iPhone app than an app. The reality of the mobile space requires complete investment in the channel tactic. Investing resources only in an iPhone app is good, but it is not a full app strategy, reaching only a small percent of mobile device users. Perhaps a larger roll out from Macy’s will yield a more app inclusive strategy, but they can greatly expand their reach within the mobile app space by also developing a clone app for Blackberry and Palm.

The good news for Macy’s – and all multi-channel retailers – is that the customer is becoming increasingly multi-channel, and the trend is here to stay. The key to continuing business growth is to leverage the value of the multi-channel customer, and use technology to bridge gaps between online and offline channels to continue Lundgren’s march toward a 360-degree view of the consumer.

The Lunch Pail