Macys: The Marketing Issues Challenges

This post raises many excellent points regarding the marketing issues challenges. First, I would like to address the advertising of luxury products. Kotler and Keller (2016) highlight the importance of targeted branding and a selective approach to the luxury products industry image. However, labeling Macys as a high-end, luxurious brand may be a stretch. The significant challenge for Macys was the fact that they often dont have the best prices, the best merchandise or the best experiences (Can Macys Save Itself? n.d.). Additionally, the recovering strategy that Macys bets on is discounts, which is not a very common strategy for a luxury brand. Your interpretation of the direction that Macys should take with delivering great merchandise and the best in-store experience is that it must retain its premium image (Can Macys Save Itself? n.d.). I would argue that Macys never had such an image in the first place, and thus, retaining customer loyalty, which Kotler and Keller (2016) stress is vital for luxury brands, might be difficult. Hence, Macys channel and brand images consistency do not and should not hinge on the luxury aspect.

Furthermore, the issue of competition arises for Macys, which has been made known to struggle with its physical locations rather than online retail. You state that [b]rick-and-mortar establishments have a significant advantage over online retailers: location since it allows for quicker purchases. Indeed, as noted in E-Commerce and Consumers (n.d.), a business may not achieve the same speeds as large companies unless they have forward-deployed inventory. While Macys has numerous stores across the country, it may lack the power to compete with giants like Amazon. The latter can perform the same operations faster and at a lesser cost. As Sutherland (2009) notes, appropriate expertise allows identifying the segment that requires altering rather than tediously trying to rework the entire strategy. Hence, the method Macys should pursue to survive the post-pandemic world is to optimize some aspects of its product delivery rather than drastically reworking the entire system. You mention the hybrid approach that Target took on during the pandemic: perhaps, Macys should continue with a similar process but rethink the value of all of their physical locations.