Nordstrom to Sell CDs: More Signal than Noise

It would be easy to miss (or dismiss) the announcement by retailer Nordstrom that it was joining Starbucks in selling music CDs.  You could call it a gimmick aimed at lending a hip factor to a fairly stodgy brand, or you could consider it as an experiment in the evolving direction of lifestyle marketing.  You could even say there is something in the Seattle water (both Nordstrom and Starbucks being headquartered there).  But the truth is, the company simply wants to serve its customers--its largely older than 30 clientele--and they still buy CDs.

When I wrote earlier that record stores had become dinosaurs--the next day the Tower Records chain announced its final swan song--I meant that stores that sell records (CDs) had failed to use technology well and they were now being creatively destroyed by it.  In that blog, I pointed out how record stores could fight back, reinventing themselves into cool listening, sharing and downloading music spaces.  Places hipsters and edglings could gather and talk and test new indie offerings, which would make the stores interesting and dangerous again.  But mostly I talked about the underlying technology shift: CDs, as a medium, now belong to older folks.  Kids, the heart beat of rock and roll, have made the leap to digital downloads, to peer-to-peer, to portability.  CDs were a bridge technology and the chasm has been crossed. 

However, there is still plenty of infrastructure out there to protect.  Many people have CD systems in home and car, and even if there were zero switching costs, they are not ready to make the leap.  That means the world is divided into iPod Nation and the Gray Hairs.  When buttoned-up clothier Nordstrom starts pedaling Beastie Boys CDs, you know one of those two brands is skewing older. 

When you read the chai leaves, it is clear that a new market is taking shape.  The Bubble Generation consumer is already changing retailing--not just with her likes and dislikes, but with her disdains.  Want a glimpse of the future?  Just look at what the BubbleGen consumer ignores to get an idea.

If soon the only place you can pick up a CD is Starbucks and Nordstrom, may I suggest that restroom advertising is about to experience a serious spike.