Sears shifts gears with new image
By Dave Carpenter
Associated Press
CHICAGO — Sears, Roebuck and Co. is changing its image again in the latest effort to rev up sluggish sales, ditching its focus on discount prices in a new advertising campaign emphasizing its wide variety of goods.
The multimillion-dollar message: Shoppers can find most anything under one roof at Sears — even fun.
The switch in pitches comes at an important time for the nation's No. 4 retailer, hamstrung by a tightened economy as it tries to keep from losing more ground to discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp. and Kohl's Corp.
Sears remains the leader in U.S. appliance sales and a hardware powerhouse, but clothing sales have been weak for years despite its efforts to boost them in a much-ballyhooed campaign touting Sears' "softer side."
The struggles continued even when the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based company confronted its low-cost rivals head-on starting in 1999 by making prices the centerpiece of its marketing strategy with the tagline: "The Good Life At A Great Price. Guaranteed. Sears." In the first six months of 2001, the retailer lost $21 million.
The new campaign, to be launched Sept. 6 with a nationwide advertising blitz, will emphasize the extent of Sears' brand-name products, from its Craftsman and Kenmore brands to national names such as Levi's and Maytag.
Officials said it is just one part of the company's revised strategy under new chief executive Alan Lacy, who also is selling off non-core units and ordered 89 underperforming stores closed this year.
"We wanted to strike a balance between marketing purely on the basis of price and short-term promotional gains and ... investing in our brand for the long term," said David Selby Sears senior vice president of marketing. "What we're trying to do is play to our strengths."
Kurt Barnard, a retail consultant and president of Barnard's Retail Trend Report, said the campaign heralds a change in identity.
"It portrays Sears as a fun place to shop, which is a lot more than can be said of most department stores, while sidestepping pricing. And it rides on the strength of famous brands," he said. "The intent is to establish a clear-cut identity."
The campaign is being launched as Sears and other retailers brace for what some industry experts have said could be the weakest Christmas sales season in a decade.
Developed by the Sears marketing team with the Chicago ad agency Young & Rubicam, it uses humor to hawk Sears products.
For example, in a TV commercial, a man wearing a Levi's jacket and Timberland Pro boots cuts a hole in his hedge with a Craftsman hedge trimmer so he can peer into a neighbor's window to watch a football game on his Sony big-screen TV. One of the print ads shows a pot-bellied man wrapped in a towel in his bathroom next to a superimposed shopping list: "Fieldcrest bath towels, Whole Home accent rugs, NordicTrack treadmill."
The company declined to put a price on its campaign, but it spends $600 million to $1 billion annually on advertising.
