What is Wal-Mart about? To its critics, Wal-Mart is about exploiting workers, gouging suppliers, and putting the mom and pops out of business. To its millions of customers, it's about good prices. In 2006 Wal-Mart tried to make it about "Look Beyond the Basics," encouraging its customers to splurge a little. That strategy hasn't worked so far. Now, in 2007, Wal-Mart will be rolling out "Saving people money so they can live better lives." Now if that doesn't bring a tear to your eye, I don't know what will. And all this time, you thought Wal-Mart was a ruthless corporate giant. According to The New York Times, Wal-Mart sees its customers as belonging to three groups:

"There are 'brand aspirationals' (people with low incomes who are obsessed with names like KitchenAid), 'price-sensitive affluents' (wealthier shoppers who love deals), and 'value-price shoppers' (who like low prices and cannot afford much more)."

From now on, all of Wal-Mart's marketing decisions will be centered around these three groups. Wal-Mart will continue to be an interesting company to watch (in my opinion, it's been the most interesting company to watch for awhile now) as they attempt to sell more higher-end products.

To do this, Wal-Mart will need to change its image. When a $263,000 necklace was stolen from a Sam's Club store in January, the reaction of most people (or at least most people who had a reaction) was "I didn't know you could get that kind of stuff at Sam's Club!" One of my friends had a particularly interesting reaction: "If I had that kind of money to spend on jewelry, I sure as heck wouldn't buy it at Wal-Mart. That would feel so trashy, even if it was a good deal."

And so, if Wal-Mart is to succeed in moving into more upscale product lines, it will have to correct this image problem. Not only will it have to offer great prices on luxury items, it will also have to be cool enough to appeal to luxury consumers. The company's rapid strides on environmental and employment issues may go a long way towards doing just that.