"Desperate times call for desperate measures." And then what?
There are a number of marketers who, because of the pressures of a down economy and the need to survive, will face even more challenging times when the recession recedes.
For many months, Macy's has presented one sale after another. Deep discounting has retrained consumer brains to expect more. And to accept nothing less. What will the nation's number one department store chain do when they want to improve margins? Seems to me that they will face conversion of their concept to a permanent, everyday sale positioning. Macy's will become Target without the shampoo and toothpaste.
I've written before about how the Great Depression brought about change in business and branding. Soon we will see changes emerge from this downturn. Some will be for the good. New concepts in a new normal.
But for brands such as Macy's, the future may be not-so-smooth sailing. After all, Kris Kringle doesn't exist. Neither does Gimbel's anymore.
