The folks in Chicago are still missing Marshall Field’s. We just encountered this BBC report on the issue, and are grateful that the FieldsFansChicago are still at it. There is a great discussion of the issue of international retail brands and retail.

The folks are calling it “corporate imperialism.”

Macy’s Florida President J. David Scheiner said to a meeting of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce that the company would consider the $20 million renovation if the city could prove that the the store can generate that much in additional sales.

”The only way we would do it is if we see the ability to pick up at least $15 million in sales,” Scheiner said, in a Miami Herald story reported by Elaine Walker. “That isn’t going to be done by people coming nine to five. It isn’t going to be done without a whole downtown revitalization.”

The city of Miami has been encouraging Macy’s to invest in the store; Macy’s officials meanwhile have criticized Miami for the ragged condition of Flagler Street, and have threatened to leave downtown. This comes at a time when thousands of new apartments and condos have opened up in downtown Miami.

Nationally, Macy’s is cutting back and recently announced a major reshuffling and the shuttering of its Miami office. In south Florida, Macy’s has won acclaim for its renovation of its South Beach store, and the recent opening of a Todd English restaurant, Figs, at a West Palm Beach store.

The Miami store is one of many downtown stores that are legacies from the many stores merged into Macy’s. Macy’s has renovated some of the stores, including the former Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia and the former Meier and Frank in Portland. Read more about it in our story on Surviving Downtown Department stores.

BrandlandUSA suggested that Macy’s revive the Burdines name as a private label. Perhaps the store could be revived in the manner of Portland, where the store building has been restored as Macy’s at Meier and Frank.

Noted New Urbanist planner Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture, encouraged both the city and the company to work together to save the store. “They can’t do it by themselves.”

A quote from the blog Unqualified Reservations. We thought this quote applied very well to the case of Macy’s and Marshall Field’s.

That being said, not all retailers will go the way of Circuit City and Linens-n-Things. So the question becomes what retailers can do to tread water through 2009? And when they do make it, what sorts of things are they doing in 2009 to create opportunity in 2010?

That’s the biggest question facing Macy’s (M), which has been in the mid-range of companies affected by the downturn. It has not had the double-digit drop in sales that was seen by the luxury department stores, but it also had a 1.4 percent decline in same store sales from 2006 to 2007. Press reports had the whole 2008 Christmas season (Nov/Dec) down 7.5 percent, but December down only 4 percent. That’s good news for a number of reasons. Mostly because big luxury retailers were off far more in the holiday season; Saks (SKS) was down 19.8 percent and Nordstrom down 10.8 percent.

Macy’s, which is really Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, is doing some forward-thinking things; after all they have survived two major downturns and any number of smaller recessions in their 150 years. They have a My Macy’s pilot project, where product assortments in select stores are more tailored to local habits. This should be retailing 101; I think even a Kroger manager can pick some of his own SKU assortments. Still, it indicates that Macy’s management is fighting for sales across the country, and not just in markets like New York where there are analysts watching.

In addition, Macy’s is investing in food start-ups, with concepts like chef Todd English’s Figs restaurant at The Gardens Mall in Palm Beach County, Florida. Department stores were traditionally home to great restaurant concepts; it helped keep customers in the stores for hours, not minutes (witness the success of the 40 Carrots restaurant brand at the 59th Street Bloomingdale’s). In addition, restaurants bring customers (including businessmen) into the store regularly, sometimes weekly. That Macy’s is bringing restaurants back in places like Palm Beach Gardens is smart, smart, smart. But it’s difficult and expensive to get this right; let’s hope they have the stamina to make these pilot programs work.

Macy’s still has a lingering problem they have not really addressed; they merged a number of great department store name brands into Macy’s, and alienated longtime cardholders from each store brand when they did it. The most prominent case has been Marshall Field’s. Folks who don’t live in Chicago don’t realize that their flagship store was the subject of boycotts and street protests just after the Marshall Field’s brand was retired in favor of Macy’s. The same sadness was felt by customers at Rich’s (Georgia), Abraham & Straus (Brooklyn), Burdines (Florida), Meier & Frank (Portland), Marshall Field’s (Chicago), John Wanamaker (Philadelphia) and Filene’s (Boston), among others, though only Chicago saw street action.

All of this, however, presents a New Coke/Old Coke opportunity. At the same time it ditched these store name brands, Macy’s has been pushing strange store product brands including Alfani, American Rag and Tasso Elba. These brands mean little to consumers. American Rag? Hello? Macy’s also licenses Donald Trump. Trump is really a head-scratcher; who would actually associate a comb-over guy with men’s fashion leadership?

Macy’s needs to reassert its former store names as in house product brands, and use that equity. Before the changeover, Marshall Field’s, for instance, was not only a store brand, but the Marshall Field name appeared on a number of goods, including towels. Because Macy’s was so keen to brand the store, it over-reacted and obliterated most mentions of the prior Field’s name, including those that made sense. Reviving these names won’t confuse consumers; Target Stores (TGT)  still sells towels under the Fieldcrest brand, a legacy from the time when Marshall Field’s and Target were sister companies.

Chains routinely use store brands as product brands. For instance, Delhaize Group’s (DEG) Sweetbay, a Florida grocer, sells Hannaford brand products, which are actually the name of their sister Northeast grocery stores. Montvale, N.J.-based Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (GAP) sells its A&P branded food in Germany at its sister supermarket, Tengelmann. And Target sells Boots-branded cosmetics exported from that U.K. drugstore chain.

These former department store brands have national profiles and centuries of brand equity. Some brands like Burdines, associated with Florida, would work well on resort wear across much of the U.S. Marshall Field’s could be used for store-branded housewares, linens and the like. Rich’s, with its Gone With the Wind Atlanta mystique, might be used for wedding wear. And even the more forgotten store names that have been shelved for more than five years could be utilized on simple promotional goods.

At minimum, Macy’s should immediately order a really short run of T-shirts, with different versions of each of the store logos. The shirts could be sold in former stores associated with the brand, and even given to employees who worked for the store under its past name. Macy’s former John Wanamaker flagship store ought to sell John Wanamaker merchandise to Philly tourists. These sort of cheap store-based programs could make the financial risk low, but create internal and external goodwill. Macy’s has the added overhead of its remaining downtown stores; promotional items can help promote these monsters to consumers.

There is no prescription for a single right way to monetize this goodwill, which has certainly already been written off. But Macy’s has an opportunity to utilize this intellectual property, not only to develop sales for the future, but to protect these great names from use by others, which can happen if they are not used.

DOWNTOWN, USA – It’s the Christmas shopping season. Not less than a decade ago, most parents had a nearby downtown department store. The visit would usually entail seeing Santa, buying some presents, and in general, picking up some civic spirit and sense of community.

That is all gone. Almost. Thankfully, and by some sort of accident, a few downtown stores have survived, including the Neiman Marcus store in Dallas. It is such a wonderful display it would be worth a visit to Dallas just to see it. Above, a great video we found of the lighting in downtown Dallas this year made by blogger RandomShawn.com. Makes us weepy.

We asked members of the Congress of the New Urbanism’s list serv to help us compile a list of department stores that have survived across the U.S. We were surprised that there were as many as there were still around.

While Macy’s could do much more to unlock the value of the brand names that it has shut down (Burdine’s, A&S, Rich’s, Marshall Field’s), Macy’s (NYSE: M) has at least kept open some of the stores open that it owns. Macy’s is in for a tough time this season, and while we think the re-branding of Marshall Field’s was a disaster, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t praise Macy’s for keeping these stores open.

Thanks to CNU list serv members Brandon C. Mason, Benjamin Weaver, Michael Eversmeyer, Lisa Selin Davis and Charlie Schmehl for helping us out with the list. We would love to add to it as I am sure there are some smaller department stores open in mid sized towns.

East Coast

• Boston: Filene’s became Macy’s, a great history is at www.dshistory.com. The building survived and is apparently under renovation as Filene’s Basement at 497 Boylston St. Boston, MA, 617-424-5520. If you visit the Downtown Crossing Macy’s, you are actually visiting the original flagship store of Jordan Marsh.
• New York: Of course, there is Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s. Lord & Taylor is at 424 Fifth Avenue.
• Brooklyn: The former Abraham & Straus in downtown Brooklyn now operates as a Macy’s.
• Scranton and Wilkes-Barre: There is still an old department store, Boscov’s, in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, according to new urbanist Charlie Schmehl. But the future of that store could be in doubt. There are two department stores in the Mall at Steamtown built in the 1990s in downtown Scranton. They are a Bon-Ton and a Boscov’s. The original owner of Boscov’s was instrumental in that project. Two other old department stores across the street were converted into offices.
• Philadelphia: In August of 2006, Macy’s re-opened in Center City Philadelphia in the former Wanamaker’s building. The building is recognized as one of the most architecturally significant retail spaces in the U.S. and is a National Historical Landmark. “There were originally two modern mid-priced dept. stores (including a Penney’s) in the Gallery indoor shopping mall in Philadelphia (which is proposed to have a slots casino built over it). Now they are a K-Mart and a Burlington Coat Factory. The old Lit Brothers and Strawbridge dept. stores next door were converted into offices. The Lit Brothers building is magnificient,” according to Charlie Schmehl; it was days away from being demolished in the 1980s.
• Norfolk. While Smith & Welton has closed (it is now a branch of the Tidewater Community College), the MacArthur Center Mall in downtown Norfolk has a Dillard’s and a Nordstrom. While they are new, they are truly downtown stores.
• Miami: The old Burdine’s in downtown Miami is now a Macy’s. There is a second urban Macy’s in Miami Beach, which has recently been renovated.

Central

• Pittsburgh. Steel City used to have Kaufmanns, Hornes, Gimbles, Frank & Cedar, Rosenbaums. Today only Kaufmanns survives (barely), but of course it’s a Macy’s. Architect Michael Eversmeyer reminds that it was Edgar Kaufmann who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design Fallingwater for him.
• Cincinnati: The former Lazarus store at Fountain Square is now a Macy’s.
• Chicago: You can still go to Chicago’s Marshall Field, but it is now a Macy’s. Sadly, the Carson Pirie Scott building is no longer Carson Pirie Scott, though the chain survives in other locations. Sears, God bless ‘em, operate TWO stores that have been in business since November 2, 1925, one on Lawrence Avenue, and the other on 79^th Street. These are the oldest continuously operated stores in the Sears system.
• Kansas City: Hall’s, a spinoff of Hallmark, is in downtown at Crown Center and in Country Club Plaza.
• St. Louis: The old Famous Barr store now operates as a Macy’s.
• Minneapolis: Dayton’s on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis is now a Macy’s. It’s where Mary Richards threw the hat at the beginning of the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
• Dallas: Neiman Marcus still operates its flagship store at Main and Ervay.

West Coast

• Portland: The old Meier & Frank in downtown Portland is now a Macy’s.
• Seattle: Nordstrom is, of course, in downtown Seattle.
• Los Angeles: Macy’s operates a store at 750 W. Seventh Street, Los Angeles.

We would love it if others could add some additional downtown stores that still remain in our comments section after the article. And there are even more in Canada.

Because the success of the Boots products in the U.S. is proof that retailing brands can be easily converted into product brands. Boots becomes stronger because its store brand is now seen as a retailing brand and a beauty brand. (Oh, and how do we know these products are good? The trend watching website Budget Fashionista likes them.)

For instance, this would mean that Macy’s, when it purchased regional department stores like Burdine’s, Rich’s and Marshall Field’s, should think of these names not only as retailing brands, but as store brands that might have value if they are licensed or exported. Macy’s should also consider the value these names might have across the world as fashion brands. In Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Saks is loved.

And in the U.S., when CVS was launched, it killed off the venerable brand People’s Drug. People’s was known and loved in the mid-Atlantic, and was probably closer to Boots in size and market leadership. What if CVS had used People’s as a store brand, instead of discarding it?

Brands like Burdine’s and Marshall Field are known too, as generations of foreigners have traveled and visited these stores. They could easily be licensed to foreign companies as store brands, or as independent fashion lines. Brand extensions can not only help your brand, they can save it if times change.

Another example. Stouffer’s started as a dairy stand, then restaurant. It expanded into frozen foods. It then expanded into hotels. While the restaurant and the hotels have closed, the frozen foods brand of Stouffer’s is a persistent moneymaker.

Both Dillard’s and Target have gained strength with their private labels. Any company with retail “name” assets would do well to look at them and capitalize on them, and not throw these brands away.

BrandlandUSA Rules:

Retailing brands can become store brands. If you have a popular retail name, put it on some of your products.

Look to overseas markets for licensing opportunities. Buick came very close to dying in the U.S. market, but has thrived in China, because of pre-World War II nostalgia. Your brand also might be loved in a foreign land. If your home market is having a hard time sustaining your brand, look abroad for export or licensing possibilities.

It’s a long story on how it returned, reported by the New York Times on August 27, 2007. But the most interesting point is how it revealed the self-righteous and all knowing tone used by brand killers everywhere. Said Karl Heiselman of the firm Wolff Olins, “we have to be careful about relying on them to do our jobs.” Thankfully, Heiselman redeemed himself by the end of the article, telling reporter Eric Pfanner that it was a good example of “consumers’ owning the brand” vs. the corporation.

The reality is that someone did not do their job well at Cadbury. This is a similar situation with old Coke and Nabisco’s killing off Crown Pilot chowder crackers. The good news? Both of these products returned with a flurry of goodwill for the “offending” company. Consumers LOVE a company that admits a mea culpa, and brings a venerable old brand back. It makes a company look human. Even better, consumers understand the pressures that modern staffers at companies are under, and completely sympathize with workers who make mistakes because they also work at big companies. Good companies all make mistakes. It’s how you deal with those mistakes that makes a good company great.

BrandlandUSA Rules:

Customers own good brands. Companies don’t. They are merely custodians for this generation, who owe it to consumers to keep a good product in business.

Companies won’t get into trouble. Companies shouldn’t get embarrassed by bringing an old brand back. In case after case, companies that bring back old brands are showered with goodwill for reversing their positions. People love big bullies who are humbled a bit.