Macy's West kicks off Karan Home
By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 4/16/2001
SAN FRANCISCO — The launch this past weekend of the Donna Karan Home Collection provided Macy's West with a dramatic two-pronged promotional force.
Macy's West's launch of the high-profile bed and bath collection was the national debut at retail of the collection, and at the same time the store introduced its advertorial to customers in and out of the market here.
Donna Karan Home is not yet fully installed in the Macy's West stores that will be featuring both Collection and DKNY, due to construction delays for the shops as well as merchandise delays. But as Julian Tomchin, senior vp, remarked, "Customers have been finding the merchandise we have on the floors, and it's selling."
Macy's kicked off the launch with several ads highlighting the "new at Macy's" theme, one showcasing Collection with the theme "Let your sense delight in White" featuring Oasis, and a second highlighting DKNY Life, a bed and bath and bath accessory presentation.
At the same time, the store introduced its first advertorial keyed to the San Francisco metropolitan area market — a 10-page advertising and "editorial" presentation with the Donna Karan Collection the star, but also showcasing furniture and tabletop as the advertised products.
A key piece in the "editorial" was an interview with Donna Karan in a question/answer format with subjects ranging from her design inspirations to how she feels customers can create distinctive looks of their own.
The advertorial also highlighted a new service, one that will have a Macy's expert help redo a room without the need for an interior designer. "It all started with Macy's by Appointment, which gives customers a free shopping service for apparel," Tomchin explained, and was extended to the home for things like people wanting new towels and other things to pull a room together.
"It gets customers to the level before they get to the point where they want or need an interior designer," he said.
Other elements of the advertorial include a section on the store's bridal registry and 55th annual flower show.
