Bloomingdales: Mission, Values, and History - Case Study Example

Running head: BLOOMINGDALE’S Bloomingdale’s The paper discusses the well-known line of Bloomingdale’s stores. The type of organization and its history are discussed. The paper provides an insight into the retail market in general, and the major Bloomingdale’s competitors, in particular. A brief overview of the company’s mission, values, and goals is provided. The paper reviews and evaluates the company’s marketing strategy, its distribution and promotion techniques. The paper aims to create a general picture of Bloomingdale’s through the prism of the basic marketing principles and mechanisms. Bloomingdale’s Shopping and retailing are the essential elements of the postmodern consumer culture. Consumers seek to purchase high quality products for reasonable prices. They search to realize their shopping dreams and want to meet their most sophisticated shopping needs. Bloomingdale’s is fairly regarded as an iconic line of department stores, a division of Macy’s, Inc., which provides customers with a variety of high-quality products and services and unique shopping experiences. Bloomingdale’s is well-known for its striving to offer a broad range of designer label fashions and involve customers in a variety of in-store events in ways, which turn shopping into the basic feature of any customer’s shopping lifestyle. Today, Bloomingdale’s exemplifies a unique combination of products, events, services, and impressions, which combine to shape a new atmosphere of brand exposure and attract loyal customers, which will move the company to become the nation’s top-one department store. Bloomingdale’s: Mission, Values, and History Bloomingdale’s is fairly regarded as the iconic line of department stores, a division of Macy’s Inc., and the company which offers a broad range of designer fashions and trendy products to its clients. According to Macy’s, Inc. (2009), “Bloomingdale’s is America’s only nationwide, full-line, upscale department store, which is recognized for its originality, innovation and fashion leadership.” In its mission, Bloomingdale’s tries to be “like no other store in the world” (Macy’s, Inc., 2009). To a large extent, Bloomingdale’s was able to fulfill its mission, and remains a unique example of marketing, promotional, and consumer success. As of today, Bloomingdale’s includes 40 different stores and is working to open one of its retail outlets in Dubai (Macy’s Inc., 2009). Diversity is one of the basic values ever promoted by Bloomingdale’s. It should be noted, that the company does not simply strive to ensure diversity in its workforce. Rather, diversity has become a distinctive feature of Bloomingdale’s marketing mentality and an important element of its sustained success in the retail market. Bloomingdale’s tries to “separate itself from the mainstream fashion market and positions itself as the authority for contemporary fashion” (Macy’s Inc., 2009). It attracts customers by a number of the hottest brands, including Armani, Chanel, Jimmy Choo and Louis Vuitton (Macy’s Inc., 2009). The extensive product line is further supported by a variety of additional and, most frequently, exceptional customer amenities like “personal shoppers, international visitors centers, and unique fitting rooms” (Macy’s Inc., 2009). All these elements turn Bloomingdale’s into the central component of the sophisticated shopping experiences for customers in the retail market. It should be noted, that the history of Bloomingdale’s dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when Joseph and Lyman Bloomingdale sold their first item – the hoop skirt – in their Ladies’ Notions Shop in New York (Bloomingdale’s, 2010). During the late 1800’s, many shoppers specialized in not more than one type of garment; Bloomingdale brothers decided that they had to offer their customers new, multi-brand shopping experience (Bloomingdale’s, 2010). In 1886, they opened a visionary 59th Street store, which expanded steadily during the 1920’s: by that time, Bloomingdale brothers had already converted an entire city block into a large shopping center (Bloomingdale’s, 2010). During the first decades of the 20th century, Lyman Bloomingdale invested heavily in broad advertising campaigns. The 1940s marked the new stage in the development of Bloomingdale’s popularity – print ads no longer served the promotional and competitive needs of the company and gala events together with fashion shows were used to turn the store into the source of the unique shopping experiences for consumers (Bloomingdale’s, 2010). In the 1960s, Bloomingdale’s was the first to come up with the idea of designer shopping bags, making customers remember about it even when they are at home (Bloomingdale’s, 2010). Today, Bloomingdale’s supports and reinforces its commitment to “exclusive merchandise, numerous customized services, and alternative shopping venues” (Bloomingdale’s, 2010). It continues to exemplify the difference in shopping experiences and emphasizes its uniqueness and fame. In 2008, the company’s revenue exceeded $685 million, and with more than 10,000 employees, Bloomingdale’s continues to lead the highly competitive American retail market. Bloomingdale’s operates in a highly competitive and mostly unexpected retail market. The market includes department stores, specialty stores and discount stores, and seasonal retailers (Samli, 1998). The past two decades were marked with the dramatic changes in the American retail business. Today, retailers in America live and compete within the complex ready-to-wear business atmosphere: customers want to choose the best item for a reasonable price without waiting for it to be sewn (Samli, 1998). Businesses that work in the retail market develop sophisticated advertising campaigns and grow to form a series of distribution channels/ lines/ systems, to satisfy even the most sophisticated customer needs. Each retailer strives to differentiate itself from the competitors, and department stores often serve the fundamental element of the strategy each company uses to sell its products to customers. Department stores similar to Bloomingdale’s are beneficial in the sense that they offer a huge assortment at once place. Bloomingdale’s extends the traditional view of department stores and turns the process of searching for the needed item into unique shopping experience. The most serious Bloomingdale’s competitors include Nordstom and Saks (Ritter, 2010). Bloomingdale’s: Marketing Strategy That Bloomingdale’s always sought to be unique and exemplified the utmost inventiveness and creativity of the marketing mind is difficult to deny. The company applies to a whole set of mechanisms and solutions, to stay ahead of the retail market competition. Bringing numerous brands into one store is just one of the basic marketing steps Bloomingdale’s uses to attract and retain customers. Cross marketing communications, unique brand exposure, and in-store events lay the foundation for the development of the new form of customer loyalty at Bloomingdale’s. In terms of quality, Bloomingdale’s emphasizes its commitment to designer fashion brands and items. Bloomingdale’s strives to differentiate itself from its competitors, by offering a broad range of products in different price ranges, from low, through moderate, to the highest price segments. Bloomingdale’s targets consumers, who have taste and know the price to quality fashionable products; the company also gives new customers a chance to change their shopping preferences without changing their shopping habits and the amount of money they spend in stores. Generally, Bloomingdale’s strives to create department stores and floors that represent the most dynamic beauty world a customer could ever imagine. It develops and maintains customer loyalty through unique and extremely professional customer service and a variety of customer loyalty options, including coupons and discounts (Bloomingdale’s, 2010). Flexibility is the definitive feature of Bloomingdale’s market success: the company always strives to adjust its goals and perspectives to the market and business realities. For example, Bloomingdale is currently searching for an opportunity to engage into the outlet-store business (Ritter, 2010). The latter could readily fill the currently available vacant spaces in Bloomingdale’s department stores and attract customers from a variety of market segments (Ritter, 2010). Bloomingdale’s is confident that in tough times, consumers who choose to shop in full-price locations would do so to make a deal with the seller (Ritter, 2010). Outlet-stores are a new form of distributing Bloomingdale’s products, which does not hinder its mission, values, or strategy but offers a unique form of cooperating with consumers on equal terms. The marketing success of Bloomingdale’s is in that the company always searches for an opportunity to align its products with the unique shopping and non-shopping customer experiences: for example, the advertising campaign launched in 2009 was a form of harkening back to the golden age of Hollywood – something, customers know and feel to be an essential element of their daily lives (Movie Marketing Madness, 2009). What Bloomingdale’s needs is to stay abreast of the most relevant market changes, to be able to align its strategic goals with those of its customers. Conclusion Bloomingdale’s is fairly regarded as one of the iconic department store lines in America. Since the middle of the 19th century, Bloomingdale’s had always exemplified a unique combination of high quality designer fashion products and unique in-store customer experiences. The company differentiates itself from its competitors, by offering a variety of products, services, discount options, and trying to involve customers in a broad range of fashion shows and events. Bloomingdale’s outperform its competitors, by representing the most dynamic world of beauty. Today, the success of the marketing strategies at Bloomingdale’s will depend on whether the company can stay abreast of the most relevant changes, to be able to align its strategic goals with those of its customers. References Bloomingdale’s. (2010). Customer service: Our history. Retrieved from http://www1.bloomingdales.com/media/about/history.jsp Macy’s, Inc. (2009). Bloomingdale’s. Macy’s, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.macysinc.com/bloomingdales/ Movie Marketing Madness. (2009). Bloomingdale’s mounts major movie-themed campaign. Movie Marketing Madness. Retrieved from http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/2009/08/17/bloomingdales-mounts-major-movie-themed-campaign/ Ritter, I. (2010). Bloomingdale’s outlet-store openings a late, but good idea. BNet. Retrieved from http://www.bnet.com/blog/retail/bloomingdales-outlet-store-openings-a-late-but-good-idea/6451 Samli, A.C. (1998). Strategic marketing for success in retailing. Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More