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.