Trendy Walmart?
With the departure of Walmart’s top 2 marketing communications officers, we’re all filled with questions. Does this signify a desire for Walmart to get back to serving their regular customers? Or, were these 2 executives just not able to upscale Walmart while not alienating their base? It reminds me of the old days with Sears. You may remember that Sears once owned the regular folk market. Montgomery Ward, and many others tried to unseat them, but Sears unseated themselves.
Sears was known for their quality. They had stores everywhere, so they were convenient. And their prices delivered real value to Mr. And Mrs. us. Then they hired a guy named Brennan, whose brother held the top spot at Wards. At the same time, malls were springing up around the country along with other full line, low priced retailers like Zayres, E.J. Korvette, and even Kmart and Walmart. They all wanted a piece of Sears market. Instead of continuing to mine the wallets of the average family, Sears decided to upscale their stores and merchandise.
Inside their offices, Sears developed a culture of executives who didn’t think that Sears customers were very "hip". The customers weren’t as smart the executives. They didn’t look as good or make as much money either. So the Sears executives set out to change all that. They brought in designer stuff to replace many of their own brands. They developed upscale malls with their store as an anchor. They severed their ties to rural America by closing all their catalog pick-up/ hardware and appliance stores in small towns everywhere. The executives succeeded. They chased away enough regular customers to start the demise of the franchise.
Walmart easily stepped in and filled that gap. Sam Walton understood the average guy and built an empire on that knowledge. Sadly, Sam is no longer in charge. It looks like he has been replaced by a lot of old Sears executives. Hopefully, Walmart learned their lesson with the current exit of inward thinking executives.
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