Have you seen the new commercials for Macy's? I just saw one featuring Usher, selling his perfume, and Martha Stewart. Martha is talking about how much time she spent in research and development. Usher says he worked on two products and asks her how many products she did. She answers 2000 or so. He shakes his head and says, when do you sleep girl? Cute, funny. Take on the whole Martha Stewart quest for perfection. My question is, does this make people go to Macy's? Is it image advertising? Am I supposed to think Macy's is perfect? Or is it that Macy's is funny? Or that Macy's attracts top names like Usher and Martha Stewart? Actually the tag line for the campaign is something like "where the stars are." Their logo is a star. I am starting to get it.

Macy's is one of the biggest newspaper and television advertisers. But how are their sales doing? Is their advertising working? Well according to a story in the Wall Street Journal, as of March 2008, Macy's will no longer release their monthly sales figures. Today, the Washington Post reports that discount retailers have seen sales go up while traditional stores have had sales go down, as a result of general belt-tightening in the U.S. economy.  Begs the question...