Bloghound

I shop at Target because I understand its point-of-view – cool stuff at
good prices. While I don’t choose to shop at Wal-Mart, I understand
what the retailer is all about. Wal-Mart is successful because it, too,
has a point-of-view that people understand: almost everything you need
at really low prices.

But Kmart and Sears? Neither company has a
point-of-view. The merger announced last week is like the bland (Sears)
following the blind (Kmart). What do these retailers stand for? What’s
the shorthand reason to shop there? Beats me. I’ve seen many
new Kmart television ads this fall but they confused me more than
helped me understand Kmart. Why exactly would I shop there? The ads
seemed disconnected from any bigger positioning. And Sears? Aside from
buying Craftsman tools, I’m not sure why I’d shop there.A
point-of-view helps we consumers understand what a brand is all about.
It’s the promise that helps us understand why to buy. Done right, it
drives brand communications so it all adds up to set the brand apart.
(And it makes it easier for marketing managers to plan, prioritize and
really integrate different marekting communications techniques.)

Staples
gets this. Its promise is to “make buying office products easy.” And
they do. Last week I bought cartridges for my home office printers and
received a rebate. Rather than having to fill out forms and mail them,
which I never get around to doing, Staples let me go to a Web site,
fill in a couple of numbers, and presto, the rebate process was
complete. That was easy.But merging two dying brands rarely
succeeds. It would have been far smarter to resuscitate K-Mart or Sears
with some real marketing. I tend to agree with retail consultant Howard
Davidowitz who says that the Kmart and Sears merger will produce one
thing: a cadaver.

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