Do you have an Innie or an Outie?

After years of watching black and white movies depicting corporate moguls banging on their desks demanding that their employees “tow the line”, I have a preconceived notion of the corporate message. As I walk the streets of Manhattan, I often look up and imagine a secret group of spin masters hiding in a corprorate bunker on the top floor conspiring how to integrate their message across the internal sound systems embedded in the showrooms below - sell, sell, sell…

At this point it is rather clear that Nordstrom is obsessed with customer service but the question is how Nordstrom’s translates this corporate agenda to its employees without demeaning their role in the cause. In reading Chapter five in our textbook, Digital Strategies for Powerful Corporate Communications by Paul Argenti, today’s corporations must open the lines of communication between one’s employees and employers – the top-down approach is a dinosaur of the past, no longer in black and white.

According to Matt Gonring, a consultant with Gagen MacDonald, “corporate communications is a dynamic two-way process that is recognized by senior management.” Nordstrom ran into snag in 1990 when it was discovered that employees were not treated at the same level as their precious customers and were often underpaid and overworked – quickly the new generation of Nordstrom management rewrote the culture to a more two-way personal line of communication and a power-sharing agreement was established. Management handed out their email addresses and cell numbers hoping to incubate the one-company philosophy – all for one and one for all.

Nordstrom’s has two official blogs, http://blogs.nordstrom.com/ titled The Thread and NYFW. Both are written to the customer for the customer. In fact, I was side tracked in getting on task with my homework by today’s blog – “Gifts for him under $100 dollars”. Forty five minutes later, back on track, after finding the perfect gift for my nephew I found www.glassdoor.com, a free career website which allows employees to anonymously write about their employers. Nordstrom features 695 postings and an overall rating of “satisfactory.” Unlike the “7 Tips for Employee bloggers” listed in our textbook, these posting seem to be a free for all and really anyone can say they are an employee. These websites stage a platform for a small a flock of Macy mice, Sak’s snakes and Neiman Marcus gnats all chirping against my beloved Nordies, appalling!!!

Blogs written by actual Nordstrom employees for their customers would be fun to read. Maybe saying why they enjoy providing such high-end customer service. Maybe some fun stories about their different customers and their craziest requests. Nordstrom’s spotlights its employees on their corporate web site pages but 99% of what corporate is putting out there regarding its employees is related to community service, environmental citizenship and human rights. An internal blog, which may exist on an intranet, spotlighting employee’s customer service challenges and achievements would be inspiring. According to Mike Wing, vice president of worldwide intranet strategy and programs for IBM “corporate interaction is neither top-down, nor bottom-up; it’s horizontal”. The blog should be written by all levels of the corporation from their perspectives – the trick is to make sure that it doesn’t become a complaint box.

Nordstrom does not have one stand out spokesperson. The Nordstrom men, those Nordic hunks, seem to be the face of the company although they live in the background as any good parent would.  As descendants of the founder, they still emulate the American dream, Swedish immigrants coming over to find gold and ultimately discovering it – in shoes, gold Louboutin shoes.

So corporate communications are no longer innies or outies, they are inbetweenie.

Tradition

In the immortal voice of Zero Mostel,” Tradition! Tradition!

Newspapers, Radio, TV are all vehicles of traditional media relations strategies. I used to watch my mother on Sunday’s peruse through the New York Times reading upcoming designers being promoted the following week at Saks 5th Avenue, Bonwit Teller and Bergdorf Goodman.  Post war radio ads featured girls singing about nylon stockings and TV has been an institution for traditional media since its inception.

Nordstrom has utilized traditional media since the get go. According to the Seattle Post, Nordstrom started advertising shoes to miners in Seattle in 1901 at $3 a pair. Today full page ads are still favored in the Sunday New York Times. The Nordstrom catalog, something I covet the minute it arrives at the door, is a jewel of a Tradition! and the pillar piece of high end retail media relations.

Nordstrom use of new media is embracing of its customers and their feedback. Argenti refers to traditional media as the mouth piece of the corporation – a means for the company to say what it wants to say without recourse but we all know with new media such as twitter, Facebook, Blogger the voice of the people can make or break you in one signal push of a button.

Nordstrom loves its customers. Maybe that is why new media has been such a great marriage for the company. It is cult-like. Nordstorm’s brand is customer service. There isn’t a blogger out there who can deny that fact. Nordstrom blogs are all about value, tips and paints the Nordstrom experience seamless with a tea party at the Palm Court. There are e-mail updates like a secret whispered in one’s ear – shop today’s one day sale only. Before I know it I am in the car half way to White Plains. Ok, the hook has been set, I just found their exclusive application for my Ipad. Log in my Apple Id and password and bam! So am I the Cardio Queen? The Social Butterfly? The Downtown Girl? The Modern sensualist? (Really what is that?) or the Timeless Eclectic? I will take the later. Hm….Cole Haan, Burberry…..Louboutins, Louboutins, louboutins. Now on my Ipad and Iphone – when on my feet.   http://blogs.nordstrom.com/index.php

A Snap of a Finger

Instant pudding, instant oatmeal, instant messaging – everything is at one’s fingertips any given split second. The days are long gone of waiting for one’s news via a sheet of rolled thin grey newspaper dropped at one’s door. Corporations can no longer put their beautiful “tied up in a red bow” marketing messages out there with limited no push back. Imagine it is 1955, and between the baking, watching Guy Lombardo in black and white and ordering the milk from the milk man, one would have the inkling, let alone nerve, to question the business plans of the great Jack Welsh? But today with social media anyone, at any time, saying anything is able to do just that and they do, frequently. My mother was a social activist – she was actually on Nixon’s famed “most hated list”. She trained our Mexican parrot, Harry, to say F-you so when the Governor, corporate leaders and other dignitaries came for dinner he could say what she was feeling and he often did from his perch in his gilded cage in the corner. Just think what she would have done with twitter.

So how does a corporation protect their messages, embrace the new media and move forward. Clearly social media can have it benefits. If the customer/stakeholder is the source of profit embracing them would be a good strategy for any company. Empowering one to say what they think they need to say, even if it is not valuable or true in the Boardroom, has its rewards. There are dollars in allowing one to feel appreciated by the company – having a voice – something every ego wants. We learned on the playgrounds’ of life that “sticks and stones may break one’s bones but words will never hurt me”, so let your customer rip because ignoring them can be catastrophic. In a nutshell, I can sit around all day and attack via social media; it no longer matters if I have expertise. Heck I don’t even have to know how to spell.

Nordstrom’s has embraced social media. They utilize twitter, Facebook and manage multiple blogs. I just read that Nicole Ricci was at Nordstrom at the Grove (click on the hyperlink and the directions and a map is right there) promoting her clothing line. Dang I missed it. Next time I am planning a trip to LA instead of Trip Advisor to locate museums, restaurant, events, etc., I can go to Nordstrom’s blog for their stores and see what’s doing in the LA fashion world – where in the world is Rachael Zoe today? Social media has brought other interests, which generate profit, outside the standard loop of sightseeing into the fray. Nordstrom blogs about Nordstrom, about fashion trends and has a blog strictly devoted to fashion week. Sitting at my desk in suburbia, with a push of a button I can be transformed to every moment of the famed week. Who is wearing what and what has already been determined as “in” and an upcoming trend is all there with video. And yes, this all transcends into “I need it”.

According to out textbook, where social media gets sticky for a corporation, is the fact content is for batum– once it is our there, it is out there forever. They say only a cockroach will survive nuclear blast, I think we can add the internet to that list. Therefore web and one’ social media must be continually revised, reviewed, and updated to reflect the message that the higher ups want to maintain – and it better be squeaky clean from any recourse.

Nordstrom’s content is short and sweet. Back in the day we referred it to the “KISS” method of communication – Keep It Simple and Stupid. Lawyers love this – less exposure. Nordstrom tends to take the same lead. The content is informative, on the mark with little to no frill – simple, direct and useful. Nordstrom’s use of twitter runs the gambit – how to find a job, an issue with an order, directions, upcoming sales and promotions, etc. It a two way quick instant means to get one’s questions answered or point across. There is no waiting for the next available operator; this is “Peggy”, how may I help you?

Fascinating who Nordstrom’s follows on twitter: individuals like Monica Wright who just lost a friend – Nordstrom sends their condolences Monica if you missed it; BBC World News – nice to know Nordstrom’s is socially conscience; The University of Maine Ice Hockey Team???– Someone is using work time for personal pleasure.

Nordstrom seems to embrace it all – its user friendly, professional and chalk full of more info than I could read in a life time. I like the photos – they are so inviting. I keep a picture of the newest Louboutin pumps in a silver frame next to me bed in hopes that someday they will pop out into my closet – the technology of the future – sending actual atoms across the internet that reconstitute themselves into the matter you are coveting. Got to love it.

PS Nordstrom is having a huge sale.

 http://la.popsugar.com/Nicole-Richie-Nordstrom-Grove-Pictures-20375970

Its all in a Name

When I think of “branding”, I conjure up a group of cowboys sitting around a camp fire heating up their unique branding irons to inflict pain on the rumps of their cattle. These brands, marks if you will, were created to establish a means to recognize ownership of livestock when the farm hands rode out for roundup on the vast plains.


Think of the big bad world of sales – it is an endless plain of consumers. The mark, brand if you will, of a company is imperative to identify, set the hook and reel in one’s piece of the pie. Brands are used to create instant recognition of a company and its products. Corporate spin artists look to create brands that will produce an immediate image, feeling, and identity - something distinctive.

Nordstrom is the fashion house of the images of others; it offers Gucci, Fundi, Chanel, et al. The brand identity is in its founder’s name and that first shoe shop where the birth of designer value, and quality was born. Johnson and Johnson is a great example of a “name” brand – instantly Band-Aids come to mind. When I see the Nordstrom name, its mark, I think Tory Burch, Kate Spade, Marc Jacobs, value, exotic smells, glass, spacious changing rooms, chrome escalators, Laboutins…...not the personality of a Hollywood starlet but one of an upper Eastsider.


Nordstrom’s brand may not be unique, there is no gimmick, no mark like my favorite double GG’s but it is recognizable. The font and the corporate specific grey/purple bag are as familiar to me as the Nike swish. The core message is luxury, quality and value, the same core message established at the foundation of the corporation, those many years ago. It’s all wrapped up in white tissue, with a silver Nordstrom label.


For this shopper, the brand identity of large high end shopping franchises are so different one from the next. Bloomingdale’s, for instance, is the birth of the likes of Betsey Johnson and wild eclectic designers. According to their website, they tag themselves as “not a store but a destination”. It sure is, just walking in the store is chaos. There are so many people, and the isles are so narrow, one gets the feeling of being back stage at a fashion show. Saks 5^th Avenue is top-top end designers; value does not enter the equation. Its corporate brand was founded on fashionable gracious living. Macy’s, once known for its market place experience has sadly fallen to the top of the JC Penney chain. Harrods, on the other hand, its brand is so over the top – it’s aligned with yachts, Rolls Royce and Private Lear jets. – an international Dubai experience in one city block of London. They have a caviar bar., Num.

Nordstrom, it a name, it brings to mind instantly - luxury, value and quality. It’s all in the name.