Macy's Wants to Get Lourdes, Georgia May and Friends in the Door

There’s a huge difference between a 13-year-old and a 30-year-old, but there is one thing that brings them together: sharing the role of bookends to the demographic group known as the Millennials. 

Now two years into its run with Madonna's Material Girl collection, repped by her blogging daughter Lourdes and Mick Jagger's model daughter Georgia May, Macy’s knows that this big swath of humanity is where the money is, and it's working hard to get more of them in the store. That's why the retailer is launching 13 new brands and expanding 10 other existing labels that it believes will resonate with millennials, as AP reports.

Molly Langenstein, group merchandise manager for Millennials for Macy's, told WWD that "We're serious about this and we're aggressively going after this consumer. This is not a test."

This youthful focus has been going on since March when the retailer’s merchandise team was restructured to pay or more attention to that age group. Ch-ch-changes are expected to continue over the next three years that include integrating tablets and other user-friendly tech into the shopping experience as well putting different displays on the shopping floor more often.

There were about 79 million people who fit into the demographic last year, the AP reports, and they are expected to outnumber by 22 million the once dominant Baby Boomers, who have spent most of their lifetime being the most desirable demographic to marketers everywhere. 

Times have changed, Boomers. So Macy’s might not be your best place to shop unless you want apparel from an exclusive Marilyn Monroe fashion collection, studded spike-heel pumps made in collaboration with Madonna, or a little something from the Fatal Clothing collection of guys' t-shirts with tattoo-influenced designs.

Boston Consulting Group surveyed about 4,000 millennials recently and released a study of it earlier this year that showed that those in this demographic “trust their Facebook friends more than corporate ads or experts, and tend to favor spending at specialty stores, discount stores, online or outlet stores,” AP notes. “And they put a premium on speed and convenience.”

To go after these shoppers, Macy’s has broken the group in two, 13-to-22-year-olds and 19-to-30-year-olds. Each has a separate area, mstylelab and Impulse respectively, that is geared to them. It's also trying to speak their language — although whether Langenstein and her colleagues have mastered saying (in the t-shirt worthy words of Madonna's teenager) "ohmygoditsaflyingpigwithgreenfeetandnobutthole" remains to be seen.