Neiman Marcus

Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Known as a prestigious department-store chain, it's one of the largest multi-brand luxury integrated retailers in the United States.

History[]

Barney[]

Boutique[]

Leslee Feiwus, a 'Mom Blitzer' who was selling Barney & The Backyard Gang videos on behalf of The Lyons Group, alongside her husband Bernie Feiwus, who was the president of Neiman Marcus's Catalogue division at the time,^[1] had the idea of bringing the Barney character into the Neiman Marcus stores. Neiman Marcus helped set The Lyons Group up with suppliers that helped to supply them with Barney products and they started developing the idea. Announced in August 1991, Neiman Marcus planned to premiere fourteen Barney boutiques within their stores on September 21, 1991.^[2] Barney appeared at a couple of boutiques in person to promote himself.^[3] Around six to eight thousand people showed up at the boutiques.^[4] Within the same year as its debut, Neiman Marcus created a special Christmas "Barney Boutique" in eleven of its stores.^[5] Neiman Marcus gave The Lyons Group its first national merchandising deal.

Parade[]

In 1993, Neiman Marcus signed on as the title sponsor of the annual Christmas Children's Parade that occurred in Dallas, Texas by The Adolphus and Children's Medical Center Dallas. Under their sponsorship, the parade was titled the Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade. Under the sponsorship of Neiman Marcus, Barney would make several appearances throughout the years. In 2008, after fifteen years, Neiman Marcus retired as the title sponsor of the parade.^[6]

Products[]

Barney & The Backyard Gang[]

The boutiques featured thirty children's products, including two clothing lines with the Barney label, and accessories such as hats, calendars, umbrellas and tote bags, sleeping bags (that were either Barney or Baby Bop), hair ties, watches, and two different sized Barney plush dolls made by Gund (with one being 18"). The video Rock with Barney was also exclusively sold within the boutiques at the time until January 1992 when it received a wide public release. The video would play on repeat on the television screens within the boutiques.^[1]