How much would I have to spend at Macy’s in order to get a bag as nice as I just got to carry two $8 burritos home from Chipotle?
My husband asked last night (over the aforementioned takeout dinner.)
“$400? $500? I’m serious. I don’t think they even have an option anymore other than those cheap plastic bags whose handles rip before you get to the car.”
A whole brand experience, summarized in our snarky comments about a flimsy (and it IS flimsy) printed piece of plastic.
Not entirely fair, no. But accurate. And consumer perception is reality.
Macy’s has (apparently) invested an incredible amount of corporate resource to curate their “fashion brands” … (Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Martha Stewart, Trump, etc.) and yet every customer who walks out of the store with these “investment pieces” carries them in something (far) less durable than a kitchen trash bag? (A bag which is likely bundled up and carried through the last 1/4 mile of parking lot in a clenched fist like a cheap version of Santa’s sack when the handles pull through?) We’re not talking about the new brands they launched this season over dinner, we’re discussing the memorably-shoddy quality of the container used to carry out the merchandise. (We’re dorks who spend a fair amount of time laughing over their painfully long 6-point-font sale exclusions policy language as well, but I digress.)
EVERYTHING about your brand sends a message to the customer.
(I offer for contrast the reuseable fabric bags I just lovingly folded up and carried home in my suitcase from Lululemon and Hot Mama, both laden with inspirational messaging designed to resonate with their largely-female consumers, a consumer I presume they share with Macy’s.)
You know, it wasn’t always this way. I remember handled paper Macy’s bags from Christmases past, perhaps even with some sort of holiday messaging or – gasp – grommets and rope handles? (It’s just dawning on me that I might have a bag fetish.) I must presume that somewhere along the line a cost-cutting decision was made at Macy’s. Has anyone looked at that decision recently with fresh eyes, asking “what does this say about us?” and “is this consistent with the brand experience our customers expect?”
Brands are living organisms that exist in a complex and constantly changing ecosystem. I bet no one sitting in a ‘brand identity’ meeting at Macy’s today has any idea they are being compared with Chipotle, and yet they are. No brand experience lives in a vacuum. Your consumers compare the experience at your store (the products, the sullen cashier, the restrooms, the lighting, the music, and yes – THE BAGS) to every other restaurant, hotel, store, that we’ve been in recently: whether you see them as “your competition” or not.
When your fancy department store offers a less inspiring ending experience than a fast food transaction,
When your independent retail staff cultivates less project assistance or visual inspiration than a “big box” store,
When it is (far) less frustrating for a customer to order something online from you than to muddle her way through your in-store experience,
(And, lest you think I’ve forgotten the nonprofit organizations,) When your pricey annual association membership offers a less educational interaction or a less connected network than participating in a virtual group through Facebook, Linked In, or a magazine,
… you’ve got some soul searching to do.
Everything speaks. Are you listening?
photo credit: my bags, taken with my Android. Apologies to Macy’s that their bag isn’t shown – it wasn’t worth keeping after the last trip.
