Neiman Marcus 2007 Annual Report Download - page 8

Table of Contents
some instances, vendor-owned proprietary boutiques. Retailers that compete with us for the distribution of luxury fashion brands
include Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Barney's New York and other national, regional and local retailers.
We believe that the following factors benefit well-positioned luxury retailers:
• attractive demographic trends, including increasing wealth concentration and an aging baby boomer population;
• growing consumer demand for prestige brands and exclusive products;
• retail consumption patterns of affluent consumers that are generally less influenced by economic cycles than middle or
lower income consumers;
• higher price points and limited distribution of luxury merchandise, which have generally protected high-end specialty
retailing from the growth of discounters and mass merchandisers;
• aggressive marketing by luxury brands; and
• consumer trends towards aspirational lifestyles.
Customer Service and Marketing
We are committed to providing our customers with a premier shopping experience through our relationship-based customer
service model, with superior merchandise selection and elegant store settings of our stores. Critical elements to our customer service
approach are:
• knowledgeable, professional and well-trained sales associates;
• marketing programs designed to promote customer awareness of our offerings of the latest fashion trends;
• loyalty programs designed to cultivate long-term relationships with our customers; and
• facilitating the extension of credit to our customers through our proprietary credit card program.
We believe we offer our customers fair and liberal return policies consistent with the practices of other luxury and specialty
retailers. We believe these policies help to cultivate long-term relationships with our customers.
Sales Associates. We seek to maintain a sales force of knowledgeable, professional and well-trained sales associates to
deliver personal attention and service to our customers through our relationship-based customer service model. We compensate our
sales associates primarily on a commission basis and provide them with training in the areas of customer service, selling skills and
product knowledge. Our sales associates participate in active clienteling programs designed to maintain contact with our customers
between store visits and to ensure that our customers are aware of the latest merchandise offerings and fashion trends that we present
in our stores. We empower our sales associates to act as personal shoppers and in many cases, as the personal style advisor to our
customers.
Marketing Programs. We conduct a wide variety of marketing programs to support our sales associates in the
communication of fashion trends to our customers in order to create fashion excitement and enhance our customer relationships. The
programs include both in-store events and targeted, brand-consistent print media communications.
We maintain an active calendar of in-store events to promote our sales efforts. The activities include in-store visits and trunk
shows by leading designers featuring the newest fashions from the designer, in-store promotions of the merchandise of selected
designers or merchandise categories, often through events conducted in connection with our loyalty programs, and participation in
charitable functions in each of our markets. Past trunk shows and in-store promotions at our Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman
stores have featured vendors such as Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Oscar de la Renta and Manolo Blahnik.
Through our print media programs, we mail various publications to our customers communicating upcoming in-store events,
new merchandise offerings and fashion trends. In connection with these programs, Neiman Marcus produces The Book®
approximately eight to nine times each year. The Book is a high-quality publication featuring the latest fashion trends that is mailed on
a targeted basis to our customers and has a yearly printing in excess of 4.3 million. Our other print publications include The Book for
Men, the Bergdorf Goodman Magazine and specific designer mailers.
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