September 2007 Archive
It’s hard to miss Macy’s new $100 million fall ad campaign, called “The Magic of Macy’s,” all over TV and newspapers. But ”The Magic of Martha” may be more like it, as the 66-year-old blonde tastemaker is featured in all three of its TV ads currently running non-stop.
Macy’s has pinned its hopes to Stewart’s apron strings as they push her 2,000-product exclusive-to-Macy’s Martha Stewart Collection, the largest private label product launch in the department store’s history. The products range from kitchen and bath items to bedding and specialty holiday collectibles. Many of the products are created to look like items found in Stewart’s several posh homes.
If you’re not a TV watcher, maybe you’ve missed the ads. There’s Stewart chatting up R&B star Usher (pushing his new fragrance) at Macy’s. Another features Stewart’s daughter, Alexis, trying to wear her mother’s new bed linens as a dress while being encouraged by fashion guru Tim Gunn (of Bravo’s Project Runway fame) before Stewart comes in and breaks up the party.
The piece de resistance, however, was a 90-second star-studded extravaganza that ran during the Emmy’s featuring Stewart, pop star Jessica Simpson, real estate mogul Donald Trump, rapper and designer Sean “Puffy” Combs, among others. (Interestingly, rival JC Penney chose to debut its ”Every Day Matters” campaign during the Academy Awards show in February. Coming up next for Penney’s: an exclusive home and clothing brand with Ralph Lauren that it plans to debut next year — during the Academy Awards. )
Macy’s, the nation’s top department store chain, has been struggling as it absorbed its 2005 acquisition of May Department Stores and changed its brands to the Macy’s name. (My colleague Alex Biesada discussed the changing department store landscape in an earlier post.) Macy’s has a lot riding on its latest campaign promoting Stewart’s line and the united Macy’s brand. There’s a question, though, about whether Stewart’s separate product line still sold at Kmart may hurt the high quality image of the Macy’s line. This Midwestern shopper was unimpressed by the new Macy’s line, though another found the towels “sumptuous” and everything beautifully displayed.
Is it wise for the storied retailer to count on Stewart, the comeback queen? I wouldn’t necessarily bet against her. She has been on a roll since her five-month stint in prison. She went back to work at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, where she juggles her Martha TV show, new home designs with KB Home, and a slew of other licensing deals. Busy, just like she likes it. Macy’s hopes she can inspire customers to get busy shopping — and fast.
The feds are after the chips, again. This time, they’re looking at pricing practices in the NAND flash memory market. Subpoenas went to Samsung Electronics, SanDisk, and Toshiba, and more party invitations are probably in the mail.
NAND flash memory is used in digital still cameras, MP3 music players, notebook computers, and USB drives, among other products. In the not-too-distant future, your new computer won’t have a hard disk drive for the data you want to store on it; it will use a solid-state drive made with NAND flash memory.
For years, the NAND flash market has followed the classic trends in the semiconductor industry: The parts get denser, the prices drop constantly, and vendors make back their R&D investment with increased unit volume.
After NAND flash spot prices fell 50% last winter in a matter of weeks, the market saw an uptick in pricing during the following months, as supply and demand came into balance. Cut to the Antitrust Division at the US Department of Justice, where two young trustbusters are having their morning coffee and looking over the day’s headlines:
Eager-Beaver Prosecutor #1: Hey, look, prices are going up for NAND flash memory — you know, those chips that go in the iPod nano.
Eager-Beaver Prosecutor #2: Chip prices going up?! Get a grand jury going, pronto!
Not only is the DOJ taking an interest in NAND flash — Canada’s Competition Bureau is on the case, as well. You know it’s just a matter of time before the European Commission piles on.
The DOJ has been investigating the DRAM market for years, collecting legal settlements from five big vendors for fixing prices and getting guilty pleas from industry executives. That pricing collusion drove up the prices that consumers paid for PCs and other electronics. Emboldened by their success in the DRAM probe, federal prosecutors are now going after markets for SRAMs and for graphics processors and cards, expecting to find price collusion there, as well.
Last weekend I spent 4 hours sitting in a car stereo installation place (that for legal reasons shall go unnamed) listening to the most repetitive, annoying, almost seizure-inducing techno music man has ever devised while waiting to have my truck made iPod compatible. That experience was like catching a 5-pound bass while winning the lottery compared to the thought of blogging about the UAW strike on GM. But you buy the ticket, take the ride — as the Good Doctor used to say.
The nail-biter went on for a full two days before a deal was reached, ending the first UAW strike against GM in 37 years. Hoover’s Tim Walker very ably covered the nuts and bolts of the deal, and his analysis is spot-on. But I could not agree less with Tim about wanting to see a longer strike. What’s the matter, Tim? Don’t you have enough to do over there?
The journalistic side of me would have liked the dispute to be settled in about five minutes with GM CEO Rick Wagoner challenging UAW president Ron Gettelfinger to a bout of Rock’em Sock’em Robots — winner take all (with the theme music from Over the Top playing in the background, of course).
Most Americans view the Middle East as a region covered in sand, camels, and oil wells — and dominated by Saudi Arabia. But a couple of intriguing stories lately dispute the common stereotypes.
First, United Arab Emirates government-owned investment firm Mubadala Development Company is buying a 7.5% stake in The Carlyle Group, a US investment firm that owns stakes in Freescale, Dunkin’ Donuts, Water Pik, and about 200 other companies.
Second, the Qatar Investment Authority, a Qatari government-owned investment group, has acquired a 20% stake in the London Stock Exchange. Not to be outdone, the Borse Dubai has acquired Nasdaq’s 28% stake in the LSE and took a nearly 20% stake in Nasdaq itself.
If you are like me, your first response is something that’s been described as “economic patriotism.” How dare “they” buy one of “our” financial institutions. What are their ulterior motives? What do they mean by this?!
Well, I think we can safely say that “they” are hoping to make a boatload of money off these deals. That’s pretty much why any investment firm is in business. But in the case of the stock exchange deal, the question is, will a foreign government end up with undue influence over world markets? Qatar apparently hopes to swipe Dubai’s mantle as the financial capital of the region, so yes, clearly the move is less about money than it is about influence.
Which means that economic patriotism is not so unjustified a reaction after all — that is, if any Middle Eastern government is the automatic “other” whose interests automatically run counter to our own. Remember the outrage over the Dubai ports deal? So far there hasn’t been the same outcry by politicians and media. But the underlying unease — economic patriotism — will likely linger. I’ve gone back and forth in my own opinions regarding these two stories even while writing this post.
I’d like to say that a deal is a deal and it’s not political, it’s just business. And yet … I’d love to hear your reactions.
More than 50 foreign companies, including British Airways, BASF, Ducati, ICI, Fiat, and Royal Ahold, have packed up their tickers and made their grand exits from the New York and Nasdaq stock exchanges this year. Bayer is among about 30 others that plan to leave. According to an article in USA TODAY, issues that are driving the trend include financial pressures created by Sarbanes-Oxley, relaxed delisting procedures, and the increased ability for US traders to purchase stock from foreign exchanges.