“We hope that offering a vendor’s products isn’t misunderstood as us taking a political position; we’re not,” Nordstrom said on Twitter at the time. “Our customers can make choices about what they purchase based on personal views and we’ll continue to give them options.”
Even as it phased out the Ivanka Trump fashion line, it did so silently. The brand’s page on its website disappeared and products vanished as they were cleared out. No announcement, no press release. Only once its decision not to buy Trump’s shoes went public did the store confirm her status, saying Nordstrom makes decisions “based on performance” and cuts about 10 percent of its brands each season.
Over the past few days, Nordstrom has continued to distance itself from the Trump kerfuffle. On its Facebook page, representatives have repeatedly stated (though they have answered queries from shoppers and the press) that Nordstrom hasn’t made a “formal announcement” about Trump’s line.
“Sales of the brand have steadily declined to the point where it didn’t make good business sense for us to continue with the line for now,” a spokesperson for Nordstrom said in a statement. “We’ve had open conversations with them over the past year to share what we’ve seen and Ivanka was personally informed of our decision in early January.”According to Trump’s label, the brand’s annual revenue jumped 21 percent last year. Rosemary Young, senior director of marketing for the label, said “the strength of a brand is measured not only by the profits it generates.”
As Nordstrom has discovered the hard way, politics is unavoidable for brands in this unprecedented consumer environment, said Dorothy Crenshaw, founder of public relations firm Crenshaw Communications. Companies are scrambling to figure out how to deal with this new reality.
“What do we stand for? What lines should we draw? How far will we go on hot-button issues? And what do we do when the president tweets about us?" said Crenshaw of the choices retail executives face. “Everybody is asking about what to do. Our clients are asking about it.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.