Editors’ Note

Bernice Clark has held her current position since April 2009. Prior to this, she was Senior Vice President-Marketing for Macy’s Corporate Marketing; Vice President-Marketing for Macy’s North and Marshall Field’s; Senior Vice President-Group Account Director for Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising; Senior Vice President-Account Director for Young & Rubicam Advertising; and Account Supervisor for Leo Burnett Advertising. She received her M.B.A. from New York University and her B.A. in Sociology/Piano Performance from Barnard College.

Company Brief

Headquartered in New York and Cincinnati, Macy’s, Inc. (macysinc.com) is one of America’s premier omni-channel retailers, operating about 880 stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico under the names of Macy’s, Macy’s Backstage, Bloomingdale’s, Bloomingdale’s Outlet, and Bluemercury, as well as the macys.com, bloomingdales.com, and bluemercury.com websites.

How do you define your role at Macy’s?

I’m in charge of media strategy and planning, which involves developing and planning all of our media strategies across all of our channels – whether broadcast, digital, social, print, outdoor, search, affiliate – across our promotional efforts, our brand campaigns, and our merchandise initiatives in partnership with our vendors.

We have a number of internal teams that manage and lead strategy around those so we collaborate and partner with them, and we also work with our agency teams.

It’s really exciting because, outside of what we’re trying to deliver in terms of weight and reach, we’re also trying to think through where we can have partnerships with publishers or other brands so we can deliver engaging and innovative media ideas to help stay at the forefront of today’s dynamic media landscape.

Is traditional media still relevant today?

Given the breadth of Macy’s, we are inclusive of a wide range of targets. We still have a very strong core target base who still engages in a number of traditional media vehicles.

Clearly, though, it has been important, as it has for every brand, to be cognizant of how we foray into the other digital channels, because it’s not solely a millennial play – it impacts all our core targets. We all have these same behaviors.

What is really exciting for us as a business is the interplay of this media, and being aware of the customer’s journey throughout a day and all of the media that hits her. It’s also trying to think through time of day, where we can reach them, being aware of what our calendar and messages are, and trying to think very strategically about how best to reach our customer.

How do you remain nimble on the inside when you’re such a large company?

We know that our omni-channel shopper is our most valuable shopper, so as much as she likes engaging with us online, she also loves coming to the store, so we always have to think about how we are driving her activity and continuing to excite her.•