Wal-Mart's PR brain trust -- can it really translate into more sales?

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has retained PR operation Edelman [subscription required] in another sign that the retailer is focusing on form over substance. The public relations firm is using employees who have helped in political campaigns to run something called "Candidate Wal-Mart."

Wal-Mart is guessing that if it improves its image with the public then sales might go up. Bad feelings about putting small retailers out of business and pushing around employees must be the fall guy for the company's dropping same-store sales.

The PR operation even helped turn the Wal-Mart launch of $4 prescriptions into a campaign claiming the retailer is a force behind promoting health-care changes and, of course, lowering health-care costs.

Today, The Wall Street Journal has"outed" Wal-Mart's fancy campaign to win over the press and consumers. Now the troubling question arises as to whether people don't shop at Wal-Mart because they don't like the company or because they don't think the stores have the products they want at the price they want.

Maybe if Wal-Mart would put the kind of effort that it appears to be putting into burnishing its image into merchandising instead, the financial health of the company might actually improve. The disclosure in the Wall Street Journal article probably offsets any progress from the PR work.

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.