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Macy’s new brands aim at younger shoppers

The department store looks back — to icons including Marilyn Monroe and Madonna — to attract shoppers in their teens and 20's.

Macy’s isn’t content appealing to moms and grandmoms. It wants their kids and grandkids, too. The department store has unveiled plans to snag Millennial shoppers, the 13-to-30-year-olds of the world.

Some of the new brands it’s rolling out are built around the older generations’ icons, like Madonna and Marilyn Monroe. Macy’s spokesperson Holly Thomas says they have style that’s timeless, “You know immediately when you are thinking of Marilyn Monroe what kind of style you are talking about.”

The Marilyn Monroe collection is one of 13 new brands the department store is rolling out. Many of them have a backstory, something McMillan Doolittle analyst Anne Brouwer says is important to Millennial shoppers. “Having more to it than just saying here’s an item and this is the price, really creates a much more engaging experience to this shopper who’s really grown up digging below the surface,” she says.

Younger shoppers have been hit hard by the recession. Brouwer says any successful retail strategy is going to have to focus on value in addition to style.

Today’s material girl is an entirely new sort of young woman.

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