Eddie Lampert Might Want to Choke Someone

Posted Mar 21st 2010 10:10AM by Gary Sattler
Filed under: Management, Consumer Experience, Marketing and Advertising, Sears Holdings (SHLD)

The good news is, an Internet coupon offering went viral for Kmart. The bad news is that it wasn't supposed to.

Cue the face-palms as executives for Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD), parent of Kmart, decide the best method for damage control after at least one Kmart store manager allegedly accused a customer of fraud when attempting to use what appeared to be, or should have been, a legitimate store coupon.

The trouble all stems from a Kmart email marketing campaign that included a coupon for $10 off a $20 purchase. That sounds harmless enough. However, the problem is that the Kmart marketing geniuses who unleashed the email campaign saw to it that the coupon indicates it is valid at all Kmart stores, while the offer was intended for redemption only at company stores in the New York, Baltimore and Chicago areas. Someone forgot that the Internet knows no borders.

For those who may be interested, The Consumerist website goes into the matter in a more detail. I found that it was definitely worth my time just to go over there to read the comments posted by some angry Kmart patrons.

Eddie Lampert may wish to once again take notice that his mid to upper tier management staff might still need some tweaking and training when it comes to matters of interacting with the public. In the retail circles I've bumped up against, tossing 73-year-old ladies out on their ear is sort of frowned on.

Tags: coupon, internet, Kmart, online marketing, Sears, The Consumerist

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-22-2010 @ 10:45AM

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