Term
KEL145
ROBERT D. DEWAR
Customer Focus at Neiman Marcus:
“We Report to the Client”
There is never a good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it is a good buy for the customer.
—Herbert Marcus
This simple philosophy expressed by Neiman Marcus co-founder Herbert Marcus became the foundation of a highly successful customer-focused strategy with which Neiman Marcus became the second largest and the most profitable specialty retail chain in the country.
The “Client” in 2006
She’s rich—the minimum income of the target customer household is $200,000; she’s fashionable—she knows fashion, lives fashion, and watches it wherever it appears; she cruises the
Internet (e.g., Style.com) and reads the “right” publications; she demands quality—she wants fashion well made and she wants the real thing, no imitations; she wants the unique—no copies, no mass production; she’s as current as tomorrow—she’s after the latest and will take a risk to beat her peers to tomorrow’s best; she gives and appreciates fashion advice. She demands personal professional service and attention. And she is willing to pay. She’s been the Neiman
Marcus customer1 for ninety-nine years.
History
Opened in Dallas in 1907 by Herbert Marcus, his younger sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Al Neiman, Neiman Marcus was created as “a store of quality, a specialty store—the only store in the city whose stocks were strictly confined to ladies’ outergarments and millinery and which presented wider varieties and more exclusive lines than any other store in the South.”2
The ambitious founders decided to not compete directly with other sellers of women’s clothing, but to create a new retail option for women in the South. They perceived a gap in the
1
The terms “customer” and “client” are used interchangeably at Neiman Marcus. Since the Neiman Marcus brand signifies professional selling, “client” is used more frequently for the best, i.e., highest-spending, customers.
2
ROBERT D. DEWAR
Customer Focus at Neiman Marcus:
“We Report to the Client”
There is never a good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it is a good buy for the customer.
—Herbert Marcus
This simple philosophy expressed by Neiman Marcus co-founder Herbert Marcus became the foundation of a highly successful customer-focused strategy with which Neiman Marcus became the second largest and the most profitable specialty retail chain in the country.
The “Client” in 2006
She’s rich—the minimum income of the target customer household is $200,000; she’s fashionable—she knows fashion, lives fashion, and watches it wherever it appears; she cruises the
Internet (e.g., Style.com) and reads the “right” publications; she demands quality—she wants fashion well made and she wants the real thing, no imitations; she wants the unique—no copies, no mass production; she’s as current as tomorrow—she’s after the latest and will take a risk to beat her peers to tomorrow’s best; she gives and appreciates fashion advice. She demands personal professional service and attention. And she is willing to pay. She’s been the Neiman
Marcus customer1 for ninety-nine years.
History
Opened in Dallas in 1907 by Herbert Marcus, his younger sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Al Neiman, Neiman Marcus was created as “a store of quality, a specialty store—the only store in the city whose stocks were strictly confined to ladies’ outergarments and millinery and which presented wider varieties and more exclusive lines than any other store in the South.”2
The ambitious founders decided to not compete directly with other sellers of women’s clothing, but to create a new retail option for women in the South. They perceived a gap in the
1
The terms “customer” and “client” are used interchangeably at Neiman Marcus. Since the Neiman Marcus brand signifies professional selling, “client” is used more frequently for the best, i.e., highest-spending, customers.
2