Possible to outrank the mother company?

Well, in your example, the domain name = brand name is also in the keyword you are competing for so if this site is old and has thousands of links (whatever the anchor text, probably many anchor texts will carry the brand name), it does seem natural that it is considered relevant for a keyword including it's domain name/brand name.
Have you checked the overall density of the remaining "week-end specials" at the competitor's site? It never appears?
If you work hard on "Macy's weekend specials", you should get somewhere, eventually...
There might be some legal implications on this in the future, the courts in Europe are handing down some worrying decisions regarding disloyal competition via SEO, especially when competing for a brand name keyword. This probably doesn't affect us right now but it could in the future.

Go for it.

If the 1% of backlinks to a site like Macy's are anchored by the keyword you want to use, and those backlinks are weak, then you have a strong chance of reaching #1.

However...

I would not try to create a site like macysweeklyspecials.com. Primarily because of the legal issues. But secondly because of the loss of a great opportunity which is more cost and time effective.

Let me explain...

I've seen several websites where a person is trying to rank for a keyword like "Macy's weekly specials." In addition to putting that keyword as a domain name, they will create multiple pages for their site all centered around that keyword. This is an attempt to make the site like full. To me this is a waste of time.

My suggestion...

Create a site that establishes brand identity. Get a domain like insidescoop.com or smartshopping.com and then create just a single page entitled "macy's weekly specials." This is much more time effective as you only need one page. After all, it is the pages that get ranked.

It is also cost effective if you intend to do this with other stores. Instead of creating multiple domains, create multiple pages targeting different stores.

Don't say this. Go outrank Facebook for the keyword Facebook.

Don't make broad statements like this that lead people in the wrong direction.

I'd be cautious about your ability to outrank a real brand, if the keyword has the real brand in it.

One thing of note in the google quality rating guide that caught my attention is that specific example is used. They talk about the importance of the brand page when search for a brand


So when people search for macy's weekly specials, the only correct #1 spot logically is a page on macy's site showing the macy weekly specials.


Guess it depends on how much you want to spend to find out.

I know what you meant. But just think logically. What's the best possible page on the internet for Macy's weekly specials? That's the page Google wants to show, period.

Now, maybe you do something different, maybe you show all the weekly macy's specials from all 50 states every week. Now your site becomes a macy weekly specials site.

Then you might have a chance.

All I'm saying is that if you're going to target a real brand, in their core competency, it's not going to be easy.

Something like "blankets at Macy's" sure I suppose.

The real brands have a huge advantage. They have insane PR, and tons of real, natural links, and if necessary the budget to do what it takes to win.

If you're talking about a search term with 100s of thousands of exact searches, I think it's going to be hard, because the brand will fight for that traffic.