Macy’s pulls out all the stops

Macy’s is probably one of the nation’s largest retail advertiser.  During the year, it probably runs a few full page ads a week in all major newspapers. With Christmas, a make-or-break time, coming up, Macy’s seems to have pulled out all the marketing stops.  At least in the Washington Post, it has been running several junior or full page ads EVERY day. It has had a sale or coupons or both for practically every day of the week. And today, there is an ad that says that Macy’s stores will be open 24 hours a day from Saturday until Christmas Eve.

To me, this seems almost desperate.  What is the ROI on this media expenditure? Of course, media prices go down with frequency, and Macy’s must be on the highest frequency tier. I will be interested in seeing retail figures for December when they come out.