The Sears marketing promotion calendar in July was filled with sales, specials, discounts, contests, freebies, networking, social media, celebrity spokespeople and seasonal sneak previews. It’s clear that Sears was eager to lead the U.S. retail industry in selling merchandise in the month of July. It’s not clear whether the chain’s relentless sales efforts were part of an aggressive drive into the Fall season, or a series of Hail Mary marketing passes thrown more out of desperation than thoughtful strategizing.
When you look at the eclectic mix of marketing tactics that were employed by Sears in a single month, rather than seeing a single cohesive campaign, it looks more like the uncensored whiteboard from a free form word association marketing brainstorm session. In my mind, I imagine that the Sears marketing team locked itself in a boardroom one day with plenty of caffeine, high-carb snacks, and erasable markers, and the conversation went something like this.
“We need to sell more stuff. Let’s brainstorm.”
“I think we should start selling toys again. ”
“How are we going to compete with Toys ‘R Us and Wal-Mart?”
“Sell them cheaper.”
[SNICKERS]
“Sell them earlier.”
“Before Halloween.”
“Before Labor Day.”
“Before Fourth of July.”
“Fourth of July is a lame holiday for us anyway.”
“What could we do with July?”
“Everybody’s doing discounts. We need some discounts.”
“Freebies are the new discount.”
“Contests are the old freebies.”
“We don’t need old, we need young.”
“Young adults.”
“Young kids.”
“If we want kids, then we need to get Miley Cyrus.”
[LAUGHTER]
“Perhaps a cheaper minor Disney celebrity.”
“The cheapest advertising is social media.”
[IN UNISON] “Facebook.”
“Our core customers don’t even own computers.”
“Senior citizens month.”
“That’s too long. They’ll get exhausted.”
“Senior citizens week.”
“Senior citizens day. They get a day.”
“Okay, good ideas. Let’s censor.”
“Who put out the permanent markers instead of the erasable ones?”
Thus the Selena-Gomez-Air-Band-Casting-Call-Lands-End-Pack-Pal-Facebook-Campus-Ready-Senior-Day-Christmas-in-July month was born at Sears (hypothetically). And it all culminated in a Thank You sale with in-store specials every hour this past weekend.
“We’ll end the month with a one-day sale. Those usually work.”
"Those blue light specials are working again at Kmart."
"We can't bring blue lights into Sears."
"Why not? Kmart's selling Sears appliances."
"People are already starting to call us SearsMart."
"Thank you!"
“Let’s call it a Thank You sale.”
“Thank you for what?”
“Thank you for parking in our lot and making it look full.”
“Thank you for cutting through our store on your way to the mall.”
“Thanks for watching our Extreme Home Infomercial, here’s an appliance discount.”
“Thanks for bringing your broken screwdriver back. How about a power tool?”
“Thank you for remembering we exist, you look like you need a new lawn mower.”
“Thank you for being one of the last people in America who knows how to use a sewing machine.”
“Do we have to say what the Thank You sale is for?”
“Don’t you think people will notice if we don’t say what we’re thanking them for?”
“Nobody cares any more as long as the deal is good enough.”
“Probably some lame blogger will bring it up, but who cares what those people think?”
Or something similar.
One can only hope that there was more thought and planning that went into it than that, but in execution, Sears looked like it was running a Marketing 101 Glossary of Terms campaign in July. Perhaps the time on the quarterly same store sales clock was running out and the numbers on the scoreboard weren't looking good. Perhaps it seemed risky to put all their marketing resources behind a single idea that may or may not hit with the hard-to-read recessionary consumer. Or perhaps Sears is just feeling a little bit desperate these days.
Last quarter Sears reported a $1 billion decline in revenue, and an 11.7% decrease in same store sales. Its second fiscal quarter did end this weekend, so the second-quarter push theory is not so far-fetched.
In the first quarter the chain decreased its debt, decreased its inventory levels, and had more than $1 billion of cash safely tucked away. Sears extended and expanded its revolving credit facility in May, and its share prices have been on a slow but steady rise since the beginning of the year.
Seemingly Sears is not as desperate as its mish mash marketing madness would suggest. But since it's not one of the companies that plays the monthly same store sales reporting game, we can only speculate that maybe consumers decided that Mother's Day and Father's Day shopping at Sears was not "life well spent" this year and the company had to make up for it in July. Perhaps Sears is just tired of looking tired.
Some investment analysts labeled Sears as one of the world's "least admired" companies of 2009 in one of Fortune Magazine's famous annual ranking lists. Specifically, the magazine’s experts assessed that Sears was lacking in innovation, social responsibility, and people management, among other things. But in the middle of a global retail recession, who cares if you're "admired" as long as you're still solvent?
The thing that should disturb Sears leaders, however, are the other companies sharing the "least admired" designation with them. One of those companies is the now defunct Circuit City, which was not "admired" for a long time before it was forced to liquidate itself. Another "least admired" company on the list is Dillard's, which has also been assessed to be at high risk for bankruptcy this year.
So while extreme focus on marketing promotions may seem like the best way to drive customers to the stores in the short-term, perhaps the lack of innovation, social responsibility, and people management is exactly what drove customers away from Sears in the long-term.
Perhaps Sears leaders need to focus less on promotions and more on reidentification, relevance, and reinventing itself. Pehaps they already are. We won't know for sure until we see what Sears pitches out to consumers in the second half of 2009. Until then, we can only imagine.
"So what about August?"
"I'm exhausted from July."
"I don't even know who we're trying to BE any more."
"We're trying to BE employed."
"Right. How about Mardi Gras in August?"
"August is National Catfish Month. Can we do something with that?"
"It's also National Water Quality Month."
"It's Romance Awareness Month!"
"We could have an Every Day is Valentne's Day promotion!"
"Did you SEE our February sales numbers?"
"August is also National Foot Health Month."
"Free foot screenings. That would bring in our core customer base."
"Free foot screenings for a month."
"Foot Screening Week with discounts on feet-related stuff."
"Foot Screening Day. They get a day."
"August 15th is National Failures Day. We could run a cross-promotion with Dillard's and run some ads on the Circuit City website."
[SNICKERS]
"Okay, okay. Let's see what we've got here..."
"Who put the permanent markers out again?"
When you look at the eclectic mix of marketing tactics that were employed by Sears in a single month, rather than seeing a single cohesive campaign, it looks more like the uncensored whiteboard from a free form word association marketing brainstorm session. In my mind, I imagine that the Sears marketing team locked itself in a boardroom one day with plenty of caffeine, high-carb snacks, and erasable markers, and the conversation went something like this.
“We need to sell more stuff. Let’s brainstorm.”
“I think we should start selling toys again. ”
“How are we going to compete with Toys ‘R Us and Wal-Mart?”
“Sell them cheaper.”
[SNICKERS]
“Sell them earlier.”
“Before Halloween.”
“Before Labor Day.”
“Before Fourth of July.”
“Fourth of July is a lame holiday for us anyway.”
“What could we do with July?”
“Everybody’s doing discounts. We need some discounts.”
“Freebies are the new discount.”
“Contests are the old freebies.”
“We don’t need old, we need young.”
“Young adults.”
“Young kids.”
“If we want kids, then we need to get Miley Cyrus.”
[LAUGHTER]
“Perhaps a cheaper minor Disney celebrity.”
“The cheapest advertising is social media.”
[IN UNISON] “Facebook.”
“Our core customers don’t even own computers.”
“Senior citizens month.”
“That’s too long. They’ll get exhausted.”
“Senior citizens week.”
“Senior citizens day. They get a day.”
“Okay, good ideas. Let’s censor.”
“Who put out the permanent markers instead of the erasable ones?”
Thus the Selena-Gomez-Air-Band-Casting-Call-Lands-End-Pack-Pal-Facebook-Campus-Ready-Senior-Day-Christmas-in-July month was born at Sears (hypothetically). And it all culminated in a Thank You sale with in-store specials every hour this past weekend.
“We’ll end the month with a one-day sale. Those usually work.”
"Those blue light specials are working again at Kmart."
"We can't bring blue lights into Sears."
"Why not? Kmart's selling Sears appliances."
"People are already starting to call us SearsMart."
"Thank you!"
“Let’s call it a Thank You sale.”
“Thank you for what?”
“Thank you for parking in our lot and making it look full.”
“Thank you for cutting through our store on your way to the mall.”
“Thanks for watching our Extreme Home Infomercial, here’s an appliance discount.”
“Thanks for bringing your broken screwdriver back. How about a power tool?”
“Thank you for remembering we exist, you look like you need a new lawn mower.”
“Thank you for being one of the last people in America who knows how to use a sewing machine.”
“Do we have to say what the Thank You sale is for?”
“Don’t you think people will notice if we don’t say what we’re thanking them for?”
“Nobody cares any more as long as the deal is good enough.”
“Probably some lame blogger will bring it up, but who cares what those people think?”
Or something similar.
One can only hope that there was more thought and planning that went into it than that, but in execution, Sears looked like it was running a Marketing 101 Glossary of Terms campaign in July. Perhaps the time on the quarterly same store sales clock was running out and the numbers on the scoreboard weren't looking good. Perhaps it seemed risky to put all their marketing resources behind a single idea that may or may not hit with the hard-to-read recessionary consumer. Or perhaps Sears is just feeling a little bit desperate these days.
Last quarter Sears reported a $1 billion decline in revenue, and an 11.7% decrease in same store sales. Its second fiscal quarter did end this weekend, so the second-quarter push theory is not so far-fetched.
In the first quarter the chain decreased its debt, decreased its inventory levels, and had more than $1 billion of cash safely tucked away. Sears extended and expanded its revolving credit facility in May, and its share prices have been on a slow but steady rise since the beginning of the year.
Seemingly Sears is not as desperate as its mish mash marketing madness would suggest. But since it's not one of the companies that plays the monthly same store sales reporting game, we can only speculate that maybe consumers decided that Mother's Day and Father's Day shopping at Sears was not "life well spent" this year and the company had to make up for it in July. Perhaps Sears is just tired of looking tired.
Some investment analysts labeled Sears as one of the world's "least admired" companies of 2009 in one of Fortune Magazine's famous annual ranking lists. Specifically, the magazine’s experts assessed that Sears was lacking in innovation, social responsibility, and people management, among other things. But in the middle of a global retail recession, who cares if you're "admired" as long as you're still solvent?
The thing that should disturb Sears leaders, however, are the other companies sharing the "least admired" designation with them. One of those companies is the now defunct Circuit City, which was not "admired" for a long time before it was forced to liquidate itself. Another "least admired" company on the list is Dillard's, which has also been assessed to be at high risk for bankruptcy this year.
So while extreme focus on marketing promotions may seem like the best way to drive customers to the stores in the short-term, perhaps the lack of innovation, social responsibility, and people management is exactly what drove customers away from Sears in the long-term.
Perhaps Sears leaders need to focus less on promotions and more on reidentification, relevance, and reinventing itself. Pehaps they already are. We won't know for sure until we see what Sears pitches out to consumers in the second half of 2009. Until then, we can only imagine.
"So what about August?"
"I'm exhausted from July."
"I don't even know who we're trying to BE any more."
"We're trying to BE employed."
"Right. How about Mardi Gras in August?"
"August is National Catfish Month. Can we do something with that?"
"It's also National Water Quality Month."
"It's Romance Awareness Month!"
"We could have an Every Day is Valentne's Day promotion!"
"Did you SEE our February sales numbers?"
"August is also National Foot Health Month."
"Free foot screenings. That would bring in our core customer base."
"Free foot screenings for a month."
"Foot Screening Week with discounts on feet-related stuff."
"Foot Screening Day. They get a day."
"August 15th is National Failures Day. We could run a cross-promotion with Dillard's and run some ads on the Circuit City website."
[SNICKERS]
"Okay, okay. Let's see what we've got here..."
"Who put the permanent markers out again?"
Comments
My retail consulting firm has been closely involved with Sears projects for concept shops, displays and overall department productivity. We have been assigned projects directly from Sears as well as their major vendors.
In all of our experience in store planning and display design Sears has set up a bureaucracy which has hindered their ability to react to trends, presentation, and overall performance.
With approximately ten major projects over my thirty-five years of working with Sears, the amount of staff that are involved with a single project makes it virtually impossible to get approval in a timely fashion.
Most recently I presented a fabulous Automotive Licensing brand to Sears as an exclusive. After four months of meetings upon meetings, we were at a point to move the project along. In the eleventh hour another meeting was called and ten new faces appeared at the meeting for the first time ever. The results were backtracking and ultimately dying on the vine. The merchants were on board, but legal, marketing, promotions, regional managers managed to make a simple winning concept and bury it alive.
Your point about addressing the younger customer is right on the money. If you cannot develop the next generation SEARS shopper by providing what they want and being relevant to them, they will never step back into the store when they get older. There future is in their youth and besides a few attempts with Mckids which failed ( and Walmart did extremely well with ) A crayola apparel concept well planned by Cayset Apparel, or their tuff kid large size clothing, they have passed this group up.
As a nationally recognized store planning firm, we have worked with every major retailer in American and in our opinion, Sears needs to divide their country into states so that the rights and interests of the states can move to the quick pace of retail without have a central government rule the conservative safe store offerings and look.