Stanley Marcus: Taking Neiman Marcus to Its Zenith

"It was he who would soon enough transform [the Store] from a respectable if conservative ladies-ready-to-wear salon into an unparalleled jewel among all retail stores.” —Thomas E. Alexander

Overview

This is the second part of the story of Dallas specialty store Neiman Marcus. This article focuses on Harold Stanley Marcus, the son of co-founder Herbert Marcus, Sr., and how Stanley Marcus started working at a store that was already successful beyond expectations and took it to an even higher level of excellence and innovation, making the Texas store, and by extension the city it was founded in, Dallas, renowned worldwide.

As I mentioned in the first part, the research on Neiman Marcus was a riveting journey that surpassed my initial expectations. Stanley Marcus was a captivating figure in this narrative. (In fact, there are still many facets of him that I have intentionally saved to delve into later.)

“In many of these merchant families the men and women of the first generation were the most interesting, while those of the second and third generations became increasingly less so. But in a few cases—such as Stanley Marcus, Beatrice Auerbach, and Barry Goldwater—the greater figures were in the second or even the third generation.” (Merchant Princes, p. 90)

Stanley Marcus was a multifaceted, larger-than-life character who did not just inherit the family business to benefit from what his father, aunt, and uncle had built but brought complementary skills and ambition that enabled him to match and even exceed Herbert, Carrie, and Al’s achievement of founding the Store and making it immediately successful.

“He doesn't work at being a fabulous character. It just sort of happens. There is a new story about him almost every day. His personality pervades the store. And on a quick visit to the establishment, you get the impression that H. Stanley is a creature of almost incredible talents, industry, and interests.” (Neiman-Marcus, Texas, p. 18)

Stanley Marcus was born Harold Stanley Marcus (he would later use “H. Stanley Marcus” and then drop the “H” altogether) in Dallas on April 20, 1905, two years before Neiman Marcus opened its doors.

Before starting Neiman Marcus, the founding trio had gone to Georgia and started a sales promotion business, which was successful, but Carrie and Herbert Marcus were missing home and family in Dallas. So, the trio decided to sell to go back to Texas. Their business received two offers, one for the franchise for the relatively new drink Coca-Cola in one of two states. Years later, Stanley Marcus often joked that Neiman Marcus was founded on “bad business judgment”—taking $25,000 over the Coca-Cola franchise.

Think about it: So many things could have turned out differently over this decision. A great company—Neiman Marcus—may have never existed. In addition, the Store grew in symbiosis with Dallas and perhaps even considerably helped the city grow. Where would Dallas be today without Neiman Marcus?

Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband, Al Neiman, did not have children. Stanley was the first of four children of Herbert Marcus, Sr., and Minnie Lichtenstein Marcus and became de facto heir to the Neiman Marcus store—although all three of Stanley’s brothers would also work in the store. Nothing necessarily predestined him to that, though. While studying at Harvard, he found himself a passion for books. He even started a rare book mail-order club and seriously considered going into publishing. (According to Thomas Alexander [The Relentless Reign, p. 29], he later owned nearly 10,000 books.)

Still, in 1926, at age 21, he returned from Harvard and started working at Neiman Marcus. He later told the story that, when he was a toddler, his father couldn’t afford any form of child care, so he would take him to the store and leave him at the alterations department, where he would play on the floor. He joked that he literally made his way from the ground up to the top of the company (The Relentless Reign, p. 25).

After Al Neiman departed the partnership, Stanley Marcus became responsible for the “all important better merchandise part of the retail operation” and, according to Alexander, “it was in this first truly executive position … that he suddenly gained the business fundamentals that would quickly transform him from a zealous and aggressive upstart into a knowledgeable and progressive merchandising genius” (The Relentless Reign, p. 39)

In 1950, when his father died, he became president and CEO of Neiman Marcus at age 45.

Heirs to founder-achievers are not always motivated or talented for the same things as their parents and don’t always improve their parents’ business. In Stanley Marcus’ case, this is clearly the opposite and in an interesting way, one in which the achievement of Stanley Marcus is not overshadowed by the initial one of Herbert, Carrie, and Al—nor is it the other way around. Mr. Stanley, as the employees and customers would come to call him, had ideas to improve the Store, and he sure did so.

Stanley Marcus gave the Store and its customers the weekly fashion shows, the fashion awards, and the Fortnight events, and he greatly improved the Christmas catalog. All of this generated both enormous publicity and sales in times when they were generally low (part of the goal) and made Neiman Marcus and Dallas famous beyond Texas and national borders.

Stanley Marcus was generally described as anything but modest, someone difficult to work with (because of his exigence for excellence), very demanding, and working all the time. Reading his own books tends to point to his confidence (more than any arrogance) in his tone and how he relates the stories he tells. Yet, one can find a lot of humility coupled with Stanley Marcus’ confidence. There is no reaching excellence without constantly learning, which implies that you don’t think you know and have the answers to everything. Stanley Marcus regularly highlighted the opportunities he had to learn from the people around him.

“What you have inherited from your fathers you must earn in order to possess.”
—Goethe

(quote that Stanley Marcus kept on his desk; see A Life With Books, p. 77)

Another characteristic of the person he was lies in his integrity—both in his work and regarding his opinions. This can be best seen in his Viewpoints, the reprinting of opinion pieces he regularly wrote for the Dallas Morning News. Those touched on a variety of subjects, including customer sovereignty, which he said was a fact in a free market economy; the decrease in quality, excellence, and good salesmanship, for which he blamed management’s failure to educate their staff; but also political opinions, which he admitted sometimes made some customers angry because they disagreed with him.

Far from talking in the name of Neiman Marcus—the company—Stanley Marcus recognized that his personal political positions could affect the store that bore his name. But he strongly believed in freedom of speech; he didn’t want to be right, he wanted to start a conversation, to encourage people to think and disagree.

Both the documentary “The Store” and Thomas Alexander’s The Relentless Reign of a Merchant Prince relate how Stanley Marcus sang a version of My Way he rewrote, not without confidence but also with much humor, at an event for the 75th anniversary of Neiman Marcus. (I unfortunately couldn’t find the footage online. See The Relentless Reign, pp. 232-233, for lyrics.)

Stanley Marcus appears to have been a man with strong convictions, a strong work ethic, and a true concern for attention to detail and excellent customer service. Between the time he started working for his father, aunt, and uncle and when he actually took over, there seems to have been continuity in the clearly stated (in the first ad for the store’s opening) mission, vision, and values of the Store. But in continuing his father and aunt’s achievement and taking it to the next level, he created his own achievement and did it his way.

Values: Excellence/Perfection, Customer Satisfaction, Making the Sale, Integrity, Ambition, Innovation.

Virtues: Customer Service, Attention to Detail, Quality Control/Uncompromising, Hard Work, High Expectations, Self-Confidence, Growth Mindset.

Vision & Mission: Excellence, Customer Satisfaction, Making the Good Sale—the Quest for the Best

“His goal was excellence in all things, and his pursuit of it gave new meaning to the word ‘relentless.’” (The Relentless Reign, p. 55)

Extraordinary Mentors: Learning From the Best

The three Neiman Marcus founding partners were on a quest for excellence and customer satisfaction. Stanley Marcus benefited from extraordinarily talented mentors who enabled him to continue the store's vision and mission. Not only did he see them work as a child, but he also learned from directly working with them when he started at the Store.

Stanley Marcus credits mostly three persons (I will leave aside the part related to Al Neiman and their disagreements): his father and his aunt (the most) and Moira Cullen (Neiman Marcus’ first buyer besides Carrie). He showers his father and his aunt with compliments and tells many stories about how he learned the importance of attending to customers and dropping everything else, if necessary; of making sure any piece of garment had zero defect; or what a good sale was (not necessarily the biggest one).

“Under [Aunt Carrie and Moira Cullen] I received a post-graduate course in specialty store buying, for they were buyers with courage, taste, fashion awareness, and a noncompromising understanding of quality. Miss Cullen had, in addition, the ability to know not only what was wrong with a garment, but why it was wrong.” (Minding the Store, p. 61)

In his first Viewpoints, Stanley Marcus describes his father as having “no tolerance for mediocrity. He expected the best; he got the best” (in “My Father’s Standards,” p. 156). He would be described in similar terms himself. In his Minding the Store, he explained that his parents “regarded idleness as one of the cardinal sins,” so he started working at the Store when he was not in school, “first as a messenger boy carrying packages from the selling floors to the basement, then as a cashier, and finally as a junior floor worker” (p. 29).

Alexander reports that Stanley Marcus also learned the “art of aggressively pursuing a potential sale until it became a reality” from his aunt Carrie (p. 17).

The Pursuit of Excellence: Hard Work, Attention to Detail, and Quality Control

Neiman Marcus instituted an inspection department to check that every piece of garment was the best it could be and free of defects. Stanley Marcus himself would check such details regularly. There was no “more or less” good for Stanley Marcus—he always aimed for the best.

In his Neiman Marcus, Texas, Tolbert told the story of how a merchandising executive recommended advertising an Orlon coat by stating that you could wash it if it got stained. When asked by the advertising director whether it could be washed, she angrily responded in the affirmative, to which Stanley Marcus asked whether she had tried. She had not. Stanley Marcus and the advertising director proceeded to stain a coat and try washing it with water (pp. 7-8).

Throughout the literature on Neiman Marcus, and Stanley Marcus in particular, his strong work ethic is obvious, from working weekends—and sometimes expecting his staff to do so as well—to establishing an incredibly busy schedule so that he could write his book Minding the Store while still running the Store:

“I made the decision that the only way I could write a book and also meet my responsibilities as CEO of Neiman Marcus was to establish a rigid writing schedule to which I could adhere. So I dedicated the hours of 8:00 P.M. to midnight on weekdays and 8:00 A.M. until 10:00 P.M. on Saturdays and Sundays.” (Minding the Store, “Foreword”)

His obsession (in a good way) for quality transpires in his Viewpoints articles and his books. In Quest for the Best, in the chapter on the death of elegance, for example, he pointed out that quality was a value to be chosen and pursued—and he made it a mission that no one at Neiman Marcus would forget either.

Customer Satisfaction & Making the Sale: They Had to Go Together

Stanley Marcus, like his father and aunt, was laser-focused on satisfying his customers, which meant three things:

1. He would make recommendations to his customers for cheaper products than the ones they were looking at if he thought that was a better buy for them.

2. He would drop everything and go the extra mile to satisfy a customer.

3. He would not fight or try to be right with a customer who was wrong or who appeared dishonest (see “If Customer Isn’t Right, Pretend,” Stanley Marcus from A-Z: Viewpoints, Volume II, pp. 152-153).

Stanley Marcus didn’t hesitate to kill big sales when they weren’t likely to be good buys for the customers. For example, he once recommended the father of a 16-year-old girl against buying her a several thousand dollars mink coat she planned to wear in high school—and instead recommended a $295 muskrat or beaver coat: “I could foresee social ostracism for her when her new associates saw her in a mink coat” (Neiman Marcus, Texas, p. 90).

Stanley’s dedication to service to his customers is undeniable. Numerous stories attest to his daily attention to satisfying his customers—which is never too far from making a sale. He understood that profits were a result of, not a means to, customer satisfaction (“Why Service Is Often so Bad,” The Viewpoints of Stanley Marcus : A Ten-Year Perspective).

Stanley Marcus recognized that customers have the power in a free market, which he generally praised. If they are not satisfied, they can and will go elsewhere. At the same time, the Marcus family was committed to excellence and sought it as a matter of principle—they always refused to compromise on quality; instead, they always tried to find the best products at different prices. Neiman Marcus wanted not only to offer the best but also to offer what’s best for the customers. The relationship was a transactional or win-win one.

The Quest for the Best: Perfectionism, Hard Work, and High Expectations

Herbert Marcus, Sr., was radical about excellence, and Stanley Marcus was a perfectionist in general. Both chose the best over the “good enough”—always. Some of Stanley Marcus' employees described him as “difficult to work with,” notably because he always had suggestions to improve everything the Store was doing.

“The great craftsmen and merchants of the Renaissance were challenged by the same requirements as their counterparts are today. They had to possess a discerning eye for the best, an ability to detect the slightest flaw, and a consuming desire for perfection.” (Quest for the Best, “The Death of Elegance,” p. 5)

In his Relentless Reign, Alexander describes how Stanley would visit the entire store just an hour before the start of a Fortnight event and point out every little detail that could be improved in the store's decoration, sometimes but more rarely pointing out positive things, too.

He also worked relentlessly to make the store successful. He spent his days at the Store, dropped everything for customers, and traveled the world to benefit the Dallas store.

In return, he had high expectations of the people he worked with—manufacturers and employees. He was also there to support his employees, providing training himself, hence doing what his father and aunt had done for him. He did not hesitate to let go of an employee who wasn’t performing satisfactorily either.

Integrity: Work/Life Balance Symbiosis

When I strike through “balance” and replace it with “symbiosis,” this is not a criticism or sarcasm. Work/Life balance generally implies a separation of both environments. In some cases, it is hard to fully separate both, and the “balance” becomes more of a symbiosis—both areas of your life coexist simultaneously (this is often what happens when you are passionate about your work—ask me how I know 😉).

In that specific case, I am not referring to hard work and rest but to Stanley Marcus demonstrating integrity in his life and work.

“Some principles in business and daily life I hold to be true, such as integrity, the privileges guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, the Golden Rule, generosity of spirit, courtesy, fair play, intellectual honesty, the preciousness of time. There are others that I also practice, but with less intensity and conviction.” (The Viewpoints of Stanley Marcus, “Experience Is Not Wisdom,” p. 231)

In his work, his commitment to excellence meant focusing, or even obsessing, on the smallest details, while his commitment to service meant that he made himself available to clients and that Neiman Marcus existed to make sales that benefited both parties, but that the customer’s satisfaction was a sine qua non.

“The independent entrepreneur, whether an artisan or manufacturer, with an idea for a superior product or service, devotes his entire energy to making it the finest available. He has pride in his business and the satisfaction of his clientele.” (Quest for the Best, “The Death of Elegance,” p. 13)

His commitment to excellence also meant that he had the humility to know that the learning process was continuing and essential. He regularly stated how much he learned from his customers, explaining that listening and learning how to satisfy the most difficult customers would surely help satisfy the less difficult ones (Neiman-Marcus, Texas, p. 90).

His character clearly reverberates in his work. But he also refused to censor himself for the sake of his work. Stanley Marcus had very strong political opinions which he never refrained from sharing. He was a strong believer in freedom of speech; in that vein, he refused to self-censor. In fact, when he first agreed to join the family business, it was on the condition that he would not have to silence his opinions.

His analyses also seemed to aim for balance when sharing a perspective that might differ from the mainstream perspective of the time. He was happy to hear when people would disagree with him, as he appreciated giving people the opportunity to think. When he tried to analyze the economic, political, and/or cultural factors that brought change to society, he generally weighed the pros and cons. His article on “The Death of Excellence,” for example, points out that society has seen a decrease in quality and excellence since machines have taken over certain hand work—but at the same time, he pointed out, we should not lament that change in cases where hand labor came at a terrible human price.

My cat, Whiskey, deep in thought over the achievement that is Neiman Marcus.

Ambition: Seeking the Best and Giving Himself the Means to Reach It

Stanley Marcus’ ambition manifested itself in three ways: high expectations, self-confidence, and a growth mindset, all of which are linked and dependent on one another.

High Expectations

We’ve already mentioned high expectations regarding work and quality of service, which he had for himself and those he worked with.

Stanley Marcus also had very high expectations regarding the impact he expected from the innovations he brought to the Store: publicity and promotion. It is interesting to look at his goals for each promotional and event strategy.

First, he aimed to compete with the greatest, most well-known American department stores in cities like New York or Chicago at a time when Dallas was still considered a countryside city (advertising in national fashion publications). To do so, he secured exclusivity with certain brands and refused to carry certain brands that were available elsewhere (exclusivity). Finally, he managed to have Neiman Marcus recognized as one of the best international fashion stores (fashion awards and Fortnight events). Again, we are talking of a time when Dallas was still growing, and New York City was the city for fashion.

Self-Confidence

His ambition also manifested itself in his self-confidence (1) to run the store very early and (2) as viewed by those around him.

Stanley Marcus said he was eager to make his mark in the store:

“I yearned for any type of responsibility, however insignificant, in the performance of which I could be judged. I was eager to apply some of my new knowledge of statistics and advertising to Neiman-Marcus, but at that moment they weren't ready for my college expertise.” (Minding the Store, p. 47)

His only regret, he said, was that his father did not make him CEO for this 40th birthday.

He was, by his own admission “too aggressive and often brash in his overheated desire to bring an unheard new dimension to this father’s store” (The Relentless Reign, pp. 36-37) and “promoted long before his experience warranted it” (p. 38).

At least two people who knew Stanley Marcus reported him lacking humility or modesty, which is quite different from being self-confident. However, self-confidence is sometimes perceived as arrogance. Reading Minding the Store gave me the impression that Stanley Marcus was self-assured but not arrogant.

In fact, despite his self-assurance, Stanley Marcus was also quick to point out his flaws or areas he didn’t excel in. He didn’t hide stories that weren’t very flattering, and most importantly, he highlighted how he learned the ropes of his trade.

Growth Mindset

In Tolbert’s Neiman Marcus, Texas, Stanley Marcus is quoted related to spending 3 hours with a client resulting in a $50 sale: “I was learning from her what she expected in color, fabric, and silhouette. Her money was limited. Her taste was superb. She would make no compromise between what she wanted and what she could afford to pay. If I hadn't found her a dress she liked, I would have ordered one to satisfy her exacting taste” (p. 14). Tolbert also quoted him explaining why he spent time with women who were buying fur coats every year to try and predict what would be wanted in the next season (p. 89).

He learned both from his family who founded Neiman Marcus and from his customers. In addition, he always was looking for ways to improve himself and the Store.

“He was never fully satisfied with the end results of any of his endeavors and innovations. No matter how successful something seemed to others, and particularly to his competitors, he relentlessly pursued ways to make improvement. Each day brought endless opportunities to try something new and to vigorously challenge something longer established.” (The Relentless Reign, p. 221)

Innovation: Taking Neiman Marcus to the Next Level

Stanley Marcus’ competitive advantage, as presented by Alexander, was that he was a showman: “To forever affirm and cast in stone the sheer storekeeping sense of Herbert and to amplify if not glorify the innate but brilliant fashion acuity of Carrie Gary, Stanley introduced the dazzling concept of the store as theater” (The Relentless Reign, p. 42).

Publicity: Events and Coverage

One of the first ideas Stanley Marcus had for the Store was to introduce weekly fashion shows—the first time an American department store had such shows.

In 1938, Stanley Marcus created the annual Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion, which recognized important designers or celebrities who had influenced fashion (among those recognized were Elizabeth Arden, Hattie Carnegie, Grace Kelly, and Coco Chanel). The awards attracted attention to Neiman Marcus and led the Store to sometimes being able to secure exclusivity with some of the recognized designers and to continue to make Neiman Marcus an authority in fashion (the awards became known as the “Oscars of the Fashion Industry” [The Relentless Reign, p. 44]).

“It was this uncanny ability to dream and, in truth to connive, in a circuitous way that made Stanley the marketing expert he was to become. Blessed with a limitless vision that enabled him to see far beyond the city limits of Dallas and even the far reaching borders of Texas, Stanley managed to put the store his father had so firmly founded well on the way to national retail stardom by the time the store was barely thirty years old.” (The Relentless Reign, pp. 44-45)

Stanley Marcus also decided to advertise in national fashion magazines, such as Vogue, to give the Dallas store visibility in the world of fashion, which was then dominated mostly by New York City. Neiman Marcus became the first department store outside of New York City to advertise in these magazines.

Neiman Marcus had sent a Christmas Catalog since very early, but Stanley Marcus improved on it starting in 1959 and made it, again, an international subject of interest, by adding out of-the-ordinary, exotic, or outrageous “His and Her” gifts to it, making the catalog the subject of news coverage every year—again giving Neiman Marcus publicity nationally and internationally. Some of these gifts included camels, mummy cases, Chinese junks, or life-size Lego sculptures (see The Relentless Reign, p. 252, for the full list of gifts).

But his most well-known and grandiose innovation to the Store was the launch in 1957 of the Fortnights. The annual event to happen in the fall was thought of with two benefits in mind: increasing both sales in a period—before Christmas—when sales were generally low and Neiman Marcus’ visibility nationally and internationally. Each Fortnight was to feature a foreign country—not just in Neiman Marcus’ store, but in downtown Dallas as well. This annual event was, each time, a very ambitious project. Neiman Marcus would redecorate the store to represent a specific country, feature exclusive and high-quality products best representative of this country, and convince various institutions in the city to display art or other products representative of the country. Finally, many expenses necessary to make these events possible would be sponsored by companies from the country featured… or funded by its government. Talk about early economic development!

“It was the store's ability to compel an entire city to voluntarily participate in the Fortnights that paid homage to the marketing skills of Stanley Marcus and the powerfully influential store over which he presided.” (The Relentless Reign,
p. 62)

Preparing for these events necessitated a lot of work months in advance. Once a country was selected, negotiations would start with that country. Buyers would go there to find exquisite and never-before-seen-in-the-U.S. products that could be sold at Neiman Marcus during the event, which had to be approved by Stanley Marcus.

The first country to be featured was France, which would be the focus of 5 Fortnights during the nearly 30 years they were held.

Several of those who wrote about Neiman Marcus pointed out that Stanley Marcus did not invent anything—that every innovation he brought to the Store had been tried elsewhere first, such as the Fortnights in Europe. But each of these authors also insisted that Stanley Marcus tremendously improved upon these innovations—in a true Texan way, making them bigger and more grandiose (The Relentless Reign, p. 57; Merchant Princes, p. 174).

Exclusivity

Finally, as outlined in the store's first ad, exclusivity was part of Neiman Marcus’ strategy from the beginning. Neiman Marcus benefited from being the only store selling a specific manufacturer’s or designer’s products, but it also benefited the brand since the Store gave that brand premium placement in its advertisements and higher commissions to its salespersons for selling this brand’s products (The Relentless Reign, p. 22). It bears repeating that Neiman Marcus always sought a win-win relationship with its stakeholders.

Conclusion

As I was reading about Stanley Marcus, another achiever, although not a Texan, often came to mind: Steve Jobs. I haven’t studied Jobs in depth, but the relentless quest for excellence, expecting it and demanding it from those they thought could deliver it, seemed to me to be shared between the two. In his Relentless Reign, Thomas Alexander tells how Stanley Marcus’ criticism sometimes came harsh but that he also helped him “becom[e] far more than I could have otherwise been” (p. v).

In my first Neiman Marcus story, I wondered whether Amazon was inspired by the legendary customer service Neiman Marcus has been known for. No real surprise here: I discovered that Jeff Bezos had hired 94-year-old Stanley Marcus as a consultant for Amazon! Both businesses have been extraordinarily customer-centric with the results we know for both.

I found Stanley Marcus’ story incredibly interesting in that he had much to prove and do to make a name for himself. Neiman Marcus was well-known and admired before he started working there, plus there is generally pressure for heirs to prove that merit, not nepotism, is the reason why they end up running a success story they haven’t started. Stanley Marcus continued his family’s success story, improved upon it, and made a name that is now forever linked to Neiman Marcus as if he had been one of the founders of the Store—and in a certain way, he has.

Sources

Neiman-Marcus, Texas: The Story of the Proud Dallas Store by Frank X. Tolbert, Henry Holt and Company, 1953.

Minding the Store by Stanley Marcus, University of North Texas Press, 1997/1974.

The Viewpoints of Stanley Marcus: A Ten-Year Perspective by Stanley Marcus, University of North Texas Press, 1995.

Stanley Marcus From A-Z: Viewpoints, Volume II by Stanley Marcus, University of North Texas Press, 2000.

Stanley Marcus: The Relentless Reign of a Merchant Prince by Thomas E. Alexander, State House Press, 2018.

Merchant Princes: An Intimate History of Jewish Families Who Built Great Department Stores by Leon A. Harris, Berkley Publishing Corporation, 1980.

The Store by Director Frederick Wiseman (1983).

Stanley Marcus, J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award, Office of the Provost, Southern Methodist University, n.d.

Made In Texas: Why Was The Neiman Marcus Fortnight Event So Cool? by Lance Avery Morgan, Curated Texan, March 24, 2023.

Never Out of Style: At 94, Marcus Maintains Zest for Work, Passion for Shopping, News On 6, March 21, 2000.

Stanley Marcus: A Life With Books by David R. Farmer, Texas Christian University Press, 1995.