Barneys at Saks Seen as a Branding Exercise

What’s Saks Fifth Avenue cooking up for Barneys New York? Most likely, a plan to re-brand its contemporary business, currently called The Collective, to Barneys. It would be a low-cost maneuver to cast a brighter light on contemporary fashion at Saks, potentially lifting the business. A Barneys identity could resonate more with customers than The Collective has done. Last month, Authentic Brands Group finalized its $271 million deal to buy Barneys New York out of bankruptcy and raised eyebrows by saying it would open 40 Barneys shops at Saks Fifth Avenue locations. These would include a 50,000-square-foot Barneys inside the Saks flagship in Manhattan, all through an agreement with Hudson’s Bay Co., the parent company of Saks. Saks operating the Barneys web site is another possibility. In luxury retailing, it’s customary to brand the contemporary department. Bergdorf Goodman has “5F.” Neiman Marcus previously labeled  contemporary as “Cusp,” and at Barneys, contemporary was identified as Co-op. Saks’ contemporary floor could be called Barneys or “Barneys Co-op at Saks Fifth Avenue.” To pull off the re-branding, heavy lifting isn’t required. Saks could create a new logo, new shopping bags, add social media and maybe even uniforms for sales associates, to cast a Barneys’ identity within the walls of

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