NEW YORK — Macy’s has named Anne MacDonald as chief marketing officer, tapping an executive from outside retailing but with significant brand-building experience to help cast Macy’s as “America’s department store.”
MacDonald in late March will succeed Peter Sachse, a Federated Department Stores veteran who was shifted to a new role of chairman and chief executive officer of macys.com, a relatively small piece of the $27 billion Federated business, but one seen growing significantly.
MacDonald and Sachse will be based here and report directly to Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and ceo of Federated, which operates Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and May Department Stores, which was acquired in 2005 and is being integrated into Federated this year.
“Anne MacDonald’s mission will be to lead us outside of the traditional realm of retail store marketing and to establish Macy’s as a leading American consumer brand,” Lundgren said in a statement. “Her track record with iconic brands will help take Macy’s to the next level of strategic marketing insight and innovation at this historic point in the company’s history.”
MacDonald, 50, joins Federated from Citibank, where she served as chief marketing officer for Citi’s Global Consumer Group and earlier served as managing director for global branding and communications. Previously, she was vice president for brand management at Pizza Hut Inc., a division of PepsiCo, and earlier worked at N.W. Ayer Inc. and Grey Advertising, where her accounts included Procter & Gamble, AT&T and Citicorp.
In light of its acquisition of May, Federated sees enormous marketing opportunities, particularly this fall when 400 former May units will be converted to Macy’s, catapulting the brand into true national status with more than 800 department stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. Aside from billing itself as America’s department store, it is believed Macy’s will project more of an image of providing affordable luxury, exclusive merchandise and private labels while continuing to strive to be less promotional. This month, the creative assignment of Macy’s national brand launch in the fall was awarded to JWT Store, a unit of J. Walter Thompson.
Sachse launched Macy’s Corporate Marketing division three years ago to bring a coordinated approach to advertising and sales promotion across the company. However, Sachse is considered more of a stores executive and a merchant, having previously run the The Bon Marche division based in Seattle, now called Macy’s Northwest, and earlier serving as vice chairman and director of stores for Macy’s East. He was also a general merchandise manager.
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The company does not break out the volume for macys.com or any of its other direct-to-consumer businesses, which include bloomingdales.com, macysweddingchannel.com, bloomingdalesweddingchannel.com and Bloomingdale’s By Mail catalogue. However, Federated previously reported total direct-to-consumer sales of $450 million in 2005 and projects the business should exceed $750 million in sales by 2008.
During the next two years, $130 million will be spent on infrastructure improvements and service enhancements to support the growth.
Sachse will have responsibility for Macy’s online and reinforce the integration of Macy’s stores and online site. Kent Anderson, president of macys.com, will report to Sachse. Oversight of macys.com was previously handled by Michael J. Osborn, who became president and chief operating officer of the Macy’s Home Store.
“Macys.com is a business that really just skyrocketed,” Lundgren said. “We’re going to take advantage of what we know to be the opportunity of the Macy’s brand. Peter used to run a division and corporate marketing. Now he’ll help us think through how we use the Internet to advertise and market to the customer, and how macys.com can interact more closely with the customer and the macy’s store. We’re building on the strength of the Macy’s brand. It’s an opportunity for us over the next couple of years.”