Welcome to the 37th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.
Last week, I peered into the communication problems that stem from the massive culture Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has. When it comes to notifying customers about serious product recalls, a commenter to one of BloggingStocks' posts said that it took three days to get an answer to the Aqua Dots recall from a local Wal-Mart store.
From that, it appeared that customer communication (and intra-store communication) was a tad problematic for the world's largest retailer. Maybe there is no single person or department charged with notifying stores of high-profile product recalls? If not, there certainly should be.
This week, we're going to tackle something that Wal-Mart has been snippy about this year: the revealing of Black Friday advertisements before actual distribution by the retailer. Wal-Mart could use viral marketing and some innovative techniques to light the fire under sales this year, but instead it's threatening to sue any entity that posts Black Friday sales information before it does. Why not break past tradition and become an innovator, Wal-Mart?
Black Friday, one of the most important retail shopping days of the year
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. It's the day when many Americans jump into their cars at the crack of dawn, hoping to score more retail bargains than any other day of the year. In recent times, the more high-tech solution is for web-happy shoppers to be poised over their web browsers at midnight the day before Thanksgiving to see what specials e-tailers like Amazon.com and Wal-Mart can offer -- all without leaving the comfort of home.
In recent years, websites like gottadeal.com and bfads.net hosted scanned images of leaked flyers from large retailers like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Wal-Mart, Target (NYSE:TGT) and others. Increasingly, these retailers have become miffed in that customers who visited these sites knew beforehand which items were going to be on special early on Black Friday morning, empowering them to play retailers against each other in obtaining the absolute lowest prices. Now, paying the lowest prices is not a crime, but posting of non-public material before publication date is, and retailers have every right to protect intellectual property before public consumption is scheduled to happen.
This year, Wal-Mart threatened to sue any website which posted, directly or indirectly, its Black Friday ads, specials or other privileged information before it does. Well, that makes sense based on prior years of frustration by Bentonville. But, why not show some innovative holiday marketing in lieu of that and really shape up sales this holiday season?
Wal-Mart's stodgy brand could regain some sense of hip legitimacy
Target is, at this time, the hip retailer to beat. It has a great marketing message, a bright and cheery image and low prices to match its clean stores. Hence, it continues to post decent gains every month when it comes to same-store sales, even though it just had its shares downgraded on spending fears this holiday season. Target, however, is doing nothing out of the ordinary regarding Black Friday leaks and advance notice of sales happening a week from today. Hence, Wal-Mart's opportunity.
Wal-Mart could have begun in September. That is, it could have created some kind of sleuthy, viral marketing web campaign to get customers intrigued and interested in holiday shopping months before Black Friday was set to happen. It could have hired individuals or a web-savvy company to drop hints on specific web properties (where its target shoppers visit on a frequent basis) and even sites like Facebook.com and MySpace.com. The goal: to get customers interested in holiday shopping way in advance and build that mindshare as good as possible without dropping any names in regards to who or what was actually advertising.
There's the wrinkle -- Wal-Mart's brand has been dragged so successfully through the mud this year that letting all these potential customers know who or what was advertising would just turn legions of customers off (potentially). The secret to many successful viral marketing campaigns is keeping identities secret until the very last second while keeping interest levels as high as possible from the start until the finish.
Regaining a lost opportunity
It's too late for the world's largest retailer this year to capitalize on some kind of innovative marketing campaign leading up to the Black Friday feeding frenzy, so perhaps it should shoot for next year instead. Wal-Mart's sales have not lit any fires below Wal-Mart investors this year, and something exciting centered on Black Friday sales and holiday shopping in general might have staved off all the news of a spending crunch this year due to housing troubles and credit problems nationwide (not to mention soaring energy prices).
Alas, that didn't happen, which prompts the question: Can a company as sprawling and corporate as Wal-Mart ever be a marketing innovator? Right now, the retailer's image is muddled and it has hunkered down into the familiar territory of "low prices" to spur holiday sales and make those quarterly numbers. It's working, but something fresh and new could have made it a whole lot better. If Wal-Mart ever wants to regain some semblance of being a cool retailer (using any definition), it has to do more. Although lowering prices at predictable intervals will always garner attention, the retailer needs more or it will never change the public perception about how it can serve increasingly sophisticated customers, much of whom are quite internet-centric. Aren't we all?
Have a great weekend and be sure and stay tuned next week for a Black Friday edition of The Wal-Mart Weekly. After you've rested your feet (or typing fingers) from a crazy Friday of holiday shopping, you'll be able to enjoy the latest Wal-Mart Weekly right here at BloggingStocks.
Entrepreneur's Journal: Key steps for telesales success
The week in preview: Focus returns to earnings: Alcoa, Chevron, Family Dollar
Comfort Zone Investing: Survival of the fittest -- letting some banks fail
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-17-2007 @ 7:04AM
Dan said...
Brian, I’m a little confused. Wasn’t it you that ran the story about Walmart starting Black Friday early about two weeks ago.
Wal-Mart launches secret 'Early Black Friday' website
Posted Nov 1st 2007 2:40PM by Brian White
Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising
Well, well. The world's largest retailer has launched an apparently "secret website" that details some special offers for an "Early Black Friday" that will start pleasing shoppers the morning of November 2. The regular Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) Christmas Shop website is already open to the general public, but this special section is apparently available only if you know the web link to get there. Neat-o!
If that’s not an “innovative marketing campaign” I don’t know what is.
11-19-2007 @ 5:37PM
mark wessler said...
Careful where you shop on Black Friday. You might have to make a return someday. Here's a real journalist's take on the matter:
Tell Mel: Triplets won’t be shopping at Target
Originally published on November 19, 2007
Target was Jennifer Seluk’s favorite store.
Notice I’m using the past tense.
“I’ve completely lost my love for the store,” the 26-year-old woman said. And I did too after hearing Seluk’s story.
Seluk is pregnant and due to deliver triplets — all boys — in a few months. She set up a baby gift registry at Target and listed about $1,500 worth of items she needed, including a bouncer and a swing.
But at her shower she received eight of them.
Babies “R” Us, where she is also registered, took back the extras that were purchased there and gave Seluk store credit when she didn’t have the receipts.
But when Seluk went to Target to return one of the bouncers and two of the swings, things didn’t go as smoothly.
The items were on her registry and were marked with Target stickers — but the manager didn’t budge — he wouldn’t take them back without a receipt.
He did offer to take two of the swings off her hands, though, and give her two $20 store gift cards in return. The swings cost $139 each.
Target spokesman Joshua Thomas said the store used to allow customers to make two returns without receipts and get up to $100 for the items. The amount dropped to $40 for a return without a receipt and now it’s $20, he said.
“Our stated and posted return policy says a receipt is necessary for returns and applies for registry items as well,” he said.
Target gives gift receipts at the register, he said, and people should have given the gift receipts to Seluk when they presented her with the gifts. Those gift-givers had other responsibilities too, he said. They should have printed out her registry and handed it to the cashier to scan when they made the purchase. That way Seluk’s registry would have shown someone had already purchased the bouncer and swing she wanted.
George Whalin, president and CEO of Retail Management Consultants in Carlsbad, Calif., said that these strict return policies are a response to consumers’ abuse.
Returns, Whalin said, are costly for stores such as Target.
Still, Whalin said, “I don’t know of any reasonably intelligent company that won’t make exceptions if there are legitimate, exceptional circumstances.”
I’m not sure how much more of an exception triplets can be. And if the situation with bogus returns is so bad, why are things so different at Babies “R” Us and Macy’s?
Macy’s accepts returns for 180 days without a receipt, giving the person a store credit for the lowest price for which the item has sold. And if the item was on a gift registry, the refund is for store credit of the listed price.
So before running out and doing Christmas shopping this week, I’d suggest checking the store’s return policy. Some retailers won’t accept returns even if you have a receipt.
Knowing the return policy might change where you shop. As it will for Seluk, who has sworn off Target, where she spent more than $6,000 this year.
“They’re going to lose my money. Money for diapers, formula, groceries, everything,” said Seluk, who, with three boys on the way, would have been a high-volume shopper until at least 2026.
“I was never a Wal-Mart fan,” she said, “but that’s where I’ll be shopping.”
— For more Tell Mel columns and reader forums go to news-press.com/tellmel. Write to Tell Mel at 2442 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Fort Myers, 33901. Call 239-344-4772. E-mail her at tellmel@news-press.com.