Corporate Brand and PR

Macy's is known to the general public as one of the top retailers in the country. With that said, the company wants their brand too show they are not just that, but that they are also a company that gives back to the community in many ways. Macy's wants their customers to feel good about shopping with them, which is why they offer so many ways for their customers to help them give back along with them.

Macy's brand is known for caring about the community in which they are apart of. In honor of the 40th celebration of Earth Day Macy's has launched its Great Give Back campaign which runs from April 5 to April 20. From April 17 to April 25 Macy's is the official partner of the National Park Foundation's, National Park Week.

Macy's does a great job of creating campaigns and teaming up with their marketing and advertising teams to create a campaign on a much bigger scale. One Public Relations campaign that was very successful during the holiday season is the Magic of Macy's at Christmas campaign. The company created a Believe part of their website. The website provided holiday spirit and interactive activities for people to enjoy. One of the activities allowed you to upload a picture of someone and transform them into a Santa Claus. Another asked children, with parents help, to write letters to Santa and bring them into the store. For every letter received the company donated money to the Make A Wish Foundation.

Macy's has a strong reputation within the community, because it is a company that isn't only concerned with making a profit off of its customers. Macy's cares about people. This is shown in the many different charities and events within the many Macy's communities that the company participates in, such as the Believe campaign with the Make a Wish Foundation or National Park Week with the National Park Foundation.

It is also shown in the ways that the company tries to help the environment. Macy's knows that they are a leading retailer in this country and if they can make a difference in helping the environment. The company is committed to making a difference internally and with the help of employees, by being less wasteful and choosing environmentally friendly options whenever possible. But Macy's is also demanding action within their stores, by participating in fluorescent bulb recycling, offering eco friendly merchandise and recyclable shopping bags to name a few. The company has also been praised by the EPA for having the most green electricity on site.


Macy's is trying to make a difference, with their employees, and within their stores, and because Macy's takes pride in helping the communities they are in customers feel good when they shop Macy's. Shareholders also feel good about investing in the company, because they give back in so many different ways. So when people hear Macy's, they don't just think retail store, they think about all the good the company does for the community.

Corporate Crisis

In August of 2008 and March of 2009, Macy's had a nationwide recall on 33,000 children's sweatshirts and sweaters. The recall was for a drawstring the sweatshirt had that has been prohibited since 1996 on children's clothing because of a choking hazard. The strings are nonfunctional ties on the garment, but still are not allowed under the Consumer Product Safety Commission rules and regulations. The recalled products were sold in Macy's stores.

Macy's posted the recall on their website, where it also gave information as to why the product was being recalled and what customers who had the defective product should do, either return the product for a full refund or cut the ties off the product. The crisis was handled by trying to inform customers who bought the product about the recall.

As far as I can tell nothing was done to notify shareholders about the recall, other than the recall posting on the company's website. Despite that, I think Macy's did a good job handling this crisis. Macy's needed to make sure that the customers who bought this product knew about the recall, to avoid this crisis from escalating and someone being hurt from the product. No deaths were reported from using this product, so the company did a good job of making people aware of the harm that could come from the product. I would have made sure that this was one of the first things that customers could find on the website at the time of the initial recall. Right now the recall information is somewhat hidden in the customer service portion of the website. So that customers have to know where to look to find the recall information.