Name Game

Federated Department Stores Inc. (Cincinnati) has announced that, effective March 6, 2005, all of its regional department stores now operating under the names of Bon-Macy’s, Burdines-Macy’s, Goldsmith’s-Macy’s, Lazarus-Macy’s and Rich’s-Macy’s will officially change to simply Macy’s.

Exterior signs on these stores will begin to change to Macy’s within the next several weeks. The department store retailer says it is a process that will take some time to implement fully, but by March 6 they anticipate that exterior signage on at least two-thirds of the stores will have been converted. The timing of these conversions is largely determined by the obtaining of local permits, agreements with mall developers and factors related to logistics and sign manufacturing.

A national marketing and advertising launch of the new national Macy’s nameplate is slated for March 6, involving full-page ads in major national and local newspapers, broadcast advertising on local stations in each market and direct mailings to Macy’s credit card customers nationally.

A new customer loyalty program is being launched at all Macy’s divisions. More than 14 million credit card customers will be receiving new Macy’s credit cards and “Star Rewards” loyalty program details in mailings that will be received between now and the second week of March. The company feels it constitutes one of the largest credit-mailing programs in American history.

Special events related to the name change will be held in mid-March. These will include in-store charity shopping days to benefit local non-profit organizations in most markets, fireworks shows and the staging of mini-Macy’s parade events in selected cities. The parades, complete with Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons and marching bands, will be held March 12-13 in Atlanta; Columbus, Ohio; Memphis, Seattle and Miami, and fireworks events will be held in Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Birmingham, Ala.

Though Federated’s Macy’s East (in New York) and Macy’s West (in San Francisco) divisions will be largely unaffected by the name changes, customers of these stores will also be receiving new Macy’s credit card and loyalty program materials.