BUSINESS

Midlife Crisis at Wal Mart

Midlife Crisis at Wal Mart

Introduction

Wal-Mart is part of the daily lives of Americans. But the company is a victim of the strategy that has become the largest retailer in the world. To counter the wave of criticism he is receiving right and left just changed advertising agencies, in another attempt to refurbish its image and sell better to the American consumer, who begins to flow to rival discount chains like Target or Costco .

Problems for Wal Mart

The image problems of Wal-Mart are not new and difficult to grow in hostile areas like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago or Boston. And if that was not enough, Democratic leaders like John Edwards and Barack Obama, presidential candidates in 2008, also speak out against their low prices and low wages. That Wal-Mart insists none of these outputs "is connected With One Another." However, the dismissal of Roehm, who has just sued the company, was the clearest sign of the identity problems of the chain. So much so that the company has been forced to change their advertising agencies and launch a new campaign to clean up its image. Its juicy portfolio of 580 million dollars beats the Martin Agency and distributed Media Vest, and the latter works for Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble (Kipple et al, 2010).

A McKinsey study estimated that between 2% and 8% of consumers stop buying at Wal-Mart for their bad image. Sales at its premises during the month of December rose 1.6%, after falling in November, while its rivals Costco and Target rose 9% and 4.1% respectively. Meanwhile, its stock price remains flat at $ 47, despite strong Wall Street rally that lived during 2006 and are now 22% lower than the peak in 2000, equivalent to 90,000 million less in value market.

The aim, says John Adams, CEO of Martin Agency, is to make ads "provocative", able to attract the broad American middle class. Your agency will handle the creative and Media Vest of planning. Campaigns to minority groups remain in the hands of Lopez Negrete and W Group, which will add GlobalHue. Lopez specializes in the Hispanic market, while the other two work with the African American.

The network already tried in the past to advance a campaign similar to that of rival Target, emphasizing branded products and stylish, to begin to shed that image that is associated with cheap chain. Last season holiday shopping again played the trick of the strategy off without great results. And in parallel just launched a new system to manage working time of staff.

Despite the negative image surrounding Wal-Mart, continues to draw attention to some 25,000 people filed their candidacy for one of the 325 jobs that were offered for the opening of a new shopping center in Chicago, where it is assumed that the movement union remains strong. And in the meantime, Wall Street analysts believe that Wal-Mart is a company with better prospects for 2007, to the point they say that their titles ...