Macys sues Martha Stewart Living for deal with JC Penney

In a move that was highly anticipated (and actually took longer to happen than expected) Macy's is suing home living diva Martha Stewart's company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for making a deal with JC Penney to develop and produce exclusive products for the middle of the road retailer. Macy's has had a long standing exclusive product deal with MSLO and when the JC Penney deal was announced most marketing folks raised an eyebrow and assumed a lawsuit was to follow. Now it has.

Specifics of the suit have not been made public, but given how much support Macy's has put behind Martha Stewart especially when things went south with her becoming a felon, it was a bit suprising she made the deal with Penney's. One might speculate that the Macy's/Stewart relationship was probably not as profitable for MSLO as the years went on as they might have liked and thus they looked for another partner who would give them more money and more control.

I do not think Martha will get hurt by all of this. It is not like Martha is only up market these days and the JC Penney link could devalue her brand. Far from the case. Martha's products go from KMART up the ladder to very high end, more successfully than almost any other home brand, so that isn't an issue. JC  Penney can benefit greatly from the association with Stewart as that retail brand has been floundering for years with no identity.

More details to come.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli