Is the Luxury Retailer Flirting with a Bud Light Moment?
10/29/24 – – While no formal announcement was made by the company, it didn’t take long for Neiman Marcus employees, customers and the news media to notice a change on the cover of the luxury retailer’s 2024 holiday gift catalog released last week. Gone after 98 years is the word “Christmas.”
A Neiman Marcus spokesperson explained to the Dallas Morning News that the decision to rebrand from “Christmas Book” to “A Neiman’s Fantasy” was made “in the spirit of inclusivity as it welcomes customers of all backgrounds, religions and traditions to celebrate the season.”
Public as well as internal reaction to the change and the explanation has been overwhelmingly negative. Social media comments are trending in this direction:
Many other places to shop.
I hope they go bankrupt from the backlash.
Unfortunately for them they will feel the backlash. Guarantee it’s back next year. They never learn.
A New York Post headline proclaimed, “Neiman Marcus quietly bans ‘Christmas’ from iconic 98-year-old gift catalog — and workers are livid.” And The Mirror US reported, “Neiman Marcus sparks outrage by removing ‘Christmas’ from iconic 98-year-old holiday catalog amid layoffs.”
One employee told the Post, “We found out via the Dallas Morning News article. The book didn’t need a name change. Personal opinions about inclusion —- from Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck and his leadership team — changed this.” Another added, “If Geoffroy and his team put as much time into running the business as they did on expressing viewpoints about DEI, we would be buying Saks or launching an IPO. Instead, my job is at risk because of our business failure.”
As I discussed in an earlier blog post, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), owners of Saks Fifth Avenue, announced in July an agreement to acquire Neiman Marcus along with its Bergdorf Goodman stores for $2.65 billion. The deal, which received Federal Trade Commission approval in August, is expected to close early next year.
What’s So Bad About Wanting to Be More Inclusive?
As Bud Light learned the hard way last year, well-intentioned attempts by marketers to include more customers by excluding the ones they already have rarely succeed.
One often-cited example is Oldsmobile’s “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile” ad campaign in the late 1980s. In an effort to attract younger buyers to their new models, the now-defunct GM division insulted the brand’s base customers (fathers had been the only Olds buyers for decades) and failed to interest the next generation of drivers.
Just like Bud Light drinkers resented being lectured to by Anheuser-Busch about being “fratty” and out of touch, I’m sure many Neiman Marcus customers and employees don’t appreciate the implication that they’ve not been welcoming of “customers of all backgrounds, religions and traditions to celebrate the season.”
Even when change is justified, scrubbing tradition without due respect for the past can lead to crisis.
Ignoring a Distinguished History of Inclusion
Neiman Marcus was founded in 1907 by two Jewish families. The company’s dramatic growth from a single flagship store in downtown Dallas to a highly respected global brand was orchestrated by Stanley Marcus, son of founder Herbert Marcus and his wife Minnie Lichtenstein Marcus.
Stanley, after graduating from Harvard (he transferred from Amherst where there were no Jewish fraternities) came back to Texas to work for his father in 1926 and played a role in starting the Christmas catalog tradition.
Stanley championed inclusivity until his death in 2002. Under his leadership, Neiman Marcus became the first retailer in the Southwest to allow Black customers to try on clothing in the store prior to purchase. He challenged the closed, conservative culture in Dallas, working to improve the city’s image in the wake of the JFK assassination.
Media reports suggest there are more than a few Neiman’s old-timers thinking that Stanley, who masterfully separated customers from their dollars regardless of religious affiliation, is rolling over in his grave.
People in Diamond-Studded Boots Shouldn’t Throw Stones
What makes this self-inflicted reputational crisis especially rich is the intentional “exclusivity” of the catalog. The aspirational gifts featured each year make news because they are out of reach for just about everybody.
In the rebranded 2024 book are a $20,000 Judith Leiber couture crystal mahjong set, a pair of $28,000 Miron Crosby diamond-studded western boots, and a $1.9 million 18th century royal caleche (carriage) once owned by King Charles III of Spain.
If you’re embarrassed by your purchase of a used caleche, not to worry. The company will make a $100,000 donation to its own The Heart of Neiman Marcus Foundation in your name.
While Neiman’s has not said much about the name change, there is evidence that the retailer has gotten the message. Over the weekend, this was the featured post on the company’s Facebook page:
Kicking off our ‘Friends of Neiman’s’ gift curation featuring the man himself Kris Kringle, Mr. Claus, Father Christmas—you know the guy. He stopped by our Fantasy Gift launch in LA to spread some cheer on his way to the North Pole.
It’s unlikely Neiman Marcus customers will mount a boycott like the one that crippled Bud Light. There are far fewer customers and far less public interest in this kerfuffle. And there’s a lot more beer sold than mahjong sets, even during Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa.
But the lesson for marketers should not be overlooked: Implementing change, no matter how well intentioned, must start with respect for and understanding of the past.
That’s a time-tested crisis-prevention precept for all seasons.
Crisis Quotient Blog 