Macy's Pushes Back on the Back-to-School Competition

Week 7

Macy's Merchandising Inc.

Macy's Pushes Back on the Back-to-School Competition

Called the "pressure cooker" by David Moin, back-to-school shopping  is being set in motion by such retail giants like GAP, Nordstrom, J.C.Penney, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Kohl's. Currently stores like GAP Inc. are attempting to make a turnaround  for the back-to-school season; while others like Belk are not even sweating over this "pressure cooker". Macy's is also one of the retail giants who are not sweating the competition. With additions to their back-to-school shopping such as Keds, Teen Vogue, mstylelab juniors, Maison Jules, and QMack, Macy's appears to be on top of its game with adding new fashion styles to attract the teenage customer during the prime time for school shopping.  Macy's will also be offering Facebook contest's to win $500 gift cards, fashion shows, a chance to win a New York trip and consultation with a Teen Vogue style expert, and a chance to win a free shopping spree. Macy's further pushes its marketing scheme by placing its name on coffee cups and pizza boxes on select college across the nation along with offering a chance to win $20,000 to pay off student loans. This marketing scheme is very different as opposed to last year with creative being built around social media.  

After learning about this information, I actually brought this up to my Human Resources head. Since she was the one in charge of my project (White Space for Millennial Textile Dorm), I thought she would find this tidbit of information interesting. When I brought up the article, she was delighted to hear that I was keeping up with the current Macy's initiatives. She also commented that, "the marketing strategy you read is a true testament to you and the other interns work. All of what you guys have been working on is to provide us information on how you guys shop, what you guys are looking for, and how we can best deliver those items…. You are currently witnessing the marketing ideas of other interns from last year, and next year or even this coming fall, your group's work could also be seen."

Hearing that Macy's actually values intern's input, and takes our ideas into account was an amazing feeling - another great reason why Macy's continues to grow and is a retail giant.

Moin, D. (2013, July 18, 2013). Battle for Back-to-School Market Share Intensifies. Retrieved on July 18, 2013 from: http://www.wwd.com/retail-news/retail-features/battle-for-back-to-school-market-share-intensifies-7058160?full=true

Week 7 Journal Post

July 21, 2013
Week 7

With my Macy's internship coming to an end, I have had time to realize my strengths along with weaknesses in corporate life. I have learned that my abilities to bridge both the business and creative sides and understand each are a valuable asset in the fashion industry. I have also learned that my professionalism, the way I presented myself at work, and networking skills are also things to be prided on.  I would not are rate my self as the "perfect" intern, since I was not aware of all the functions of product development, however, I do feel that I performed as the "ideal" intern. I always arrived 30 minutes to 1 hour before my boss, and was always proactive in asking for new projects and always providing a helping hand. I also maintained a positive attitude through out the entire internship process and also was the leader for my internship group project.

There are however areas that still need improvement in myself, as should everyone else. I am still working on my communication skills, since my fear of public speech has not subsided. But as I always say, practice makes perfect.  I have also realized that I must work on my excel skills. Excel is a huge factor in product development, and anyone who wants to be in product development must be a wizard at this Microsoft Office suite. And last but not least, I also need to work on my time management/ multi-tasking skills… Coming into this internship, I thought I knew the meaning of multi-tasking, but I was completely wrong. I frequently asks for tips from my boss on how to make my time as efficient as possible along with having frequent touch bases to make sure that I was on task. 

Having this internship experience was definitely an eye opener. I now understand how working in corporate life is really like and if I am truly fit for the job. Working with Macy's has been a great experience. Everyday, I was excited to go to work. The reason is because I was treated as a part of the product team and as a product assistant - not an intern. I also loved the fact that my office was very social and had a family-esc quality to it. I honestly can not say that I have had a bad experience in this internship. The only issue was the amount of work Macy's expected from us interns (especially on the group projects). On a few occasions, I actually had to work overtime to finish our project, but it was all worth it in the end when we presented our idea, product assortment, sales plan, and marketing strategy to the executives of Macy's.

With this internship drawing to a close, I believe the biggest fashion lesson learned is that no one will hold your hand and guide you. You must ask for more projects if you want to learn more, be proactive/ take charge in your learning, ask a TON of questions, and seek outside help if you are stuck.  

Week 6 Current Event:

Week 6 - July 14, 2013

Macy's Merchandising Group LLC

North American Alliance Launches Bangladesh Safety Plan

Summary

Recently, 17 North American retailers and brands released "The Bangladesh Workers Safety Initiative". Among the retailer executives who signed the alliance's pact was chairman, president and ceo of Macy's Inc., Terry Lundgren. This pact is a five year worker, fire, and factory safety policy that will provide 42 million dollars in funds to improve factory conditions in Bangladesh along with training factory workers and owners in safety standards. This initiative was created after the tragic Bangladesh factory fire that claimed more than 1,000 lives. "The initiative is built on five key elements: training, common standards, the expansion of buyer and safety programs, transparency and “sustainable financial commitments,”said Thomas Nelson, one of the pact signers.  The project will include 500 factories and is designed to strengthen a pre-existing fire and safety code created by European companies. The plan will give factory owners access to millions of dollars in loans to facilitate safety improvements and calls for safety inspections of all the factories in the first year of the agreement. In addition, the alliance will create a safety standard for all factories to abide by and will attempt to develop a partnership with the Bangladesh government to have all factories within Bangladesh under the safety standards. 

Co-Worker's Opinion

The brief summary of the article above is actually an interesting one, since I previously had a conversation with my boss and another product manager about Macy's relationship with Bangladesh factories. During a vendor meeting when this idea was brought up, the entire Macy's team went silent with awkward tension in the air. After a quick pause, the director spoke up and told the vendor that Macy's was still uncomfortable to work with Bangladesh and would prefer a company in a country without bad press. After the meeting I asked my boss why vendor's were pushing for Bangladesh. She responded with the fact that Bangladesh factories are one of the best places for vendors to meet our targeted first cost for clothing. The downside to using these factories though is the bad media that these factories have been receiving since the fire that claimed over 1,000 workers lives. As much as Macy's wants to lower the first cost and make a profit, its not worth losing our customers and degrading our reputation. 

After I confronted my boss again with this article and asked her opinions on the future of Bangladesh and Macy's, she took a few minutes to respond. I believe that I took her by surprise.  She then stated, "It is great that you are staying up-to-date on Macy's political campaigns. I was unaware of this initiative. I think it's great that we are tackling this problem. Since it is a constant fight to get the best deal and the lowest cost, we often forget the consequences to those making these goods. I hope that through this program, Bangladesh will benefit and grow along with inspiring other factory owners to improve their conditions. And if your information is correct, then I would assume in the coming months Macy's will begin sourcing with some of the factories outlined in the pact."

Citation/ Link 

Ellis, K. (2013, July 12). 

North American Alliance Launches Bangladesh Safety Plan

. Retrieve on July 9, 2013 from: http://www.wwd.com/business-news/government-trade/us-retailers-launch-bangladesh-factory-initiative-7048431?src=search_links

Week Six Journal Post

WEEK 6

Currently Macy's merchandises clothing, furniture, shoes, accessories, bedding, bath, kitchenwares, and etc.

Are these trends, fads, classics, etc. 

Working in mens wear the classics include the Charter club cashmere which never changes each year.

There is also the Raph Lauren Polos which never change design and hardly ever in color.

Trends that are currently in mens include the color story of Blue. Last year it was a green color story.

But currently prints of island clothes, linen pants, and white popovers are performing extremely well.

 

How does your company set prices?

Our company sets prices on a high low ticket bases where the average unit retail can range from the lowest price which is where Macy's makes the bare minimum of profit to the highest price where it can make double or triple the profit. The Macy's way of selling is definitely based on Markdowns and promotions.

Did you receive any new training this week?

I did receive new training this week. One of the lessons I learned was costing and how to generate a sales plan. A sales plan is what a financial plan is. It is basically figuring out your cost, gathering your receipts, gaining your mark up percents, turnover, and other loads in order to determine the price of goods and amount of sales on average that will be generated.

Experiences you had in dealing with co-workers, customers, boss?

I actually did have a confrontation with a boss yesterday. I forgot that sending an email is technically working outside of the company and I sent an email to an HR representative. The following day I had to sit down with HR to explain to me why it was not okay to do so and how working off the clock is a legal issue. I apologized and told them that I honestly forgot until after I sent them the email realizing what I had done.

Value of time spent in comparison with experience & knowledge gained?

The value of time spent and the experience of knowledge gained has been about equal. I have learned more things that a typical fashion intern would learn along with being included in many projects where I make the decision of what style or color will be used and giving the okays for designers to change or create new designs.

What are you looking forward to next week?

I am actually excited to learn how to put together a dot com selling report along with an over view of costing. Since The Macy's dot com business is a separate entity for the Macy's brick and mortar, I am interested in seeing the inner working of internet sales.

Macy's View on Competitor's Social Media Campaign

Week 5
Macy's Merchandising Group LLC

Macy's View on Competitor's Social Media Campaign

Recently I discovered an article on the Women's Wear Daily website involving one of Macy's competitors, Nordstrom. In this article, Rachel Brown highlights the new Social Media convergence of online and in-store where Nordstrom has begun to highlight their heavily pinned in-store items on Pinterest. This campaign was carried out through the use of the interest logo on hangtags, cards, and clips that are attached to cloths and accessories. Currently Nordstrom has 13 stores with the Pinterest Logo affixed to their items. These stores are located along the West Coast, Midwest, and East Coast. And each store with these pinterest items are selected and replenished based on a "store-by-store basis"said Johnson, "[W]e can figure out what product is most relevant for a store within the most pinned product.” The amount of products were also decided not by Nordstrom corporate but by the sales associates of the stores.

Upon reading this article, it definitely sparked my interest, since the major concern of Macy's Inc. right now is how to capture the millennial market. Instead of going to my supervisor with this article, I went to my Human Resource head to talk about this newest development. After explaining the article to her and relating it Macy's, I asked for Morgan's thoughts on the matter.

Morgan said, "I think this route that Nordstrom is taking is a great idea. And here at Macy's we have also been working on being connected with the millennial market by heavily investing in our dot com business that is growing substantially each year. Our dot com has been working on its website to include Twitter, Pinterest, and other functions to connect with the millennial market. And that isn't all. Macy's Inc. is utilizing you guys (interns) who are our millennial market to be our think tank each year, by providing invaluable feedback for future initiatives. And with your feedback we have been able to put on successful initiatives like pop up shops and pinterest-abilities on our home page. Like Nordstrom and other competitors, Macy's is always on the look out on how to appease the customer. Our methods may be a little different, but they always produce results."

Brown, R. (2013, July 2). Nordstrom Touts Merchandise with Pinterest. Retrieved July 3, 2013 from: http://www.wwd.com/retail-news/marketing-consumer-behavior/nordstrom-touts-merch-with-pinterest-7034768

Week 5 Journal Update Macy's Inc.

Week 5: Day 35 - July 7, 2013

Since the July 4th weekend has just come to pass. I analyzed Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Celebration along the Hudson River.

Macy's has always been the iconic image of New York City with the Macy's Thankgiving day parade, but I did not know the New York City 4th of July fireworks spectacular was also held by this company. I was recently provided this information through one of my coworkers. She asked me if I was going to the Macy's fire works show for the fourth, then handed a flyer to me (as shown above). Looking at this flyer it was definitely eye catching. Macy's did a great job including all of the images that are picturesque of New York along with providing an amazing visual of a massive concert with the silhouette of Usher on a piano stage. I also discovered from a Macy's employee that Usher collaborated with Macy's to create this flyer. 

I believe this flyer is a fantastic promotional piece. It does not necessarily boost sales for Macy's directly, but does so inadvertently by boosting Macy's PR presents (as the Thanksgiving parade does). It is also amazing that this company collaborates with a famous artist that relates to the millennials' age; while the fireworks cater to all ages young and old. I honestly could not find a way to make this flyer better because it is visually striking, not over crowded, with a great color balance, and a direct message.

Currently in my fifth week  of the Macy's internship, I have had a crash course in Product development. I recently found out that one of the Product Assistants of Macy's was fired for being unproductive on the job just a week before my start. Now I am technically the temp Product Assistant for Tasso Elba. It has been such an amazing experience so far with Macy's Merchandising Group. I have been helping to create summer strategy boards in preparation for the buy meetings, reading weekly selling reports, creating competitor selling reports, checking in new styles and pushing them down the apparel pipeline, and recently working on the spring 2014 line list in the Macy's order management system. With what I have learned so far, by far the Order Management System has been the most nerve racking. Technically, interns are not allowed to be in this system, but I had to help due to lack of a Product Assistant. Here I work with creating Master Contracts (Contracts that lead to the purchase of thousands of dollars of orders). While working on one of these contracts I accidentally deleted the customer channels causing issues with in the system. I attempted to fix the issue myself, but after an our it was apparent that I needed help. I went to the head PA, explaining my predicament and owning my mistake. Afterwards he told me that for my first time in OMS I was bound to make a mistake. The head Product Assistant then helped me fix the issue and told me to keep up the good work. Though I was scared to death to admit my mistakes and receive help, it really paid off in the end.
This week I also learned a helpful hint from my boss. With so much going on at one time and so many tasks to finish with in the day, my boss gave me a recommendation to keep me organized. She said to always put notes up in the front of a notebook and to start a to do list in the back ranked on importance. This simple but helpful advice, has definitely kept me more organized and on top of my game.

And a really funny event occurred in my office that most people won't believe. On thursday morning I watched a fellow Product Assistant come in late. He seemed like he had been drinking the night before, exhausted. I dismissed the incident to only find out later that during his last night escapades he attempted to stop his drunken friend from hooking up with a transvestite. Only after his attempts to stop his friend did the transvestite turn on him and start beating the Product Assistant up. I wish that I was able to provide a picture, but the guy had bruises all over him including stiletto mark bruises all over his shoulder and chest.

For this week I am excited about further learning on product costing and aiding in ad sample charts. I also can't wait to see another funny event in my office since mischief and fun is always a foot in the Macy's Merchandising Group.