Wal-Mart’s New ‘Checkout Promise’ and ‘Price First’ Private Brand

Posted on August 22, 2014 by bermanevansretail
As we discussed last month, the tough times continue for Wal-Mart. As a result, two of its various new initiatives to turn things around are a customer service pledge and introduction of the Price First brand.
With regard to customer service, Wal-Mart is going to offer a checkout promise this holiday shopping season. Shelly Banjo reports for the Wall Street Journal that:
In an attempt to lure more customers this holiday season, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is promising to staff each of its cash registers from the day after Thanksgiving through the days just before Christmas during peak shopping times. The move, called the ‘checkout promise,’ is aimed at addressing one of the retailer’s biggest customer complaints: long waits in checkout lines, which can cause even more frustration when positions aren’t fully staffed. The pledge will cover hours typically on weekend afternoons but which can vary by store. ‘We feel good about price and having the top gifts of the season, so the next priority is about getting customers in and out of the stores quickly,’ Duncan Mac Naughton, Wal-Mart’s chief merchandising officer, said in an interview. ‘Taking the possibility of waiting in long lines off the table will attract more people into stores.'”
 Click the image to read more from Banjo.
Photo by Reuters
And to re-establish with customers its emphasis on low prices, Wal-Mart is rolling out its Price First private brand that is intended to appeal to generic brand shoppers — those interested in the deepest discounts. Monica Watrous reports for Food Business News that:
“Price First, a new opening-price-point private-label line, is set to debut nationally in Wal-Mart U.S. stores in the coming months. Peanut butter, pasta, snacks, baking mixes, and condiments are among items offered at significantly lower prices than branded products. Over the past year, Wal-Mart piloted approximately 50 items in a couple of hundred stores and now has expanded distribution to more than 2,500 stores, according to a company representative.”
“‘In an environment where customers have so many choices about where to shop and how to buy, and many of them are feeling pressure on their budgets, we have to be at our best,’ said Doug McMillon, president and chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., during an August conference call with financial analysts to discuss second-quarter earnings. ‘That’s why it’s so important for us to deliver a compelling customer proposition of low prices and quality service for every transaction.’”
Click the image to read more from Watrous.


 

Posted in Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Part 8: Putting It All Together | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Better Understanding Hispanics: Ad Age’s 2014 Fact Pack

Posted on August 21, 2014 by bermanevansretail
There are more than 55 million Hispanics in the United States, representing about 17 percent of the total U.S. population. As such, Hispanics represent an important — and growing — market segment for marketers.
One good resource for understanding and marketing to Hispanics is the FREE Advertising Age Hispanic Fact Pack 2014.
Click the chart to access the full report.
 
Hispanic Fact Pack2

 

Posted in Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Social Media and Retailing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Young Guns Now Leading Burger King

Posted on August 20, 2014 by bermanevansretail
For most of its history, Burger King has  lagged well behind McDonald’s in the fast-food burger wars. This is a major reason why the company has had 21 chief executive in the 60 years since Burger King’s founding.
Now, the firm has decided to turn its management over to a younger generation of senior executives to try to turn things around — again.
As recently reported by Devin Leonard for Bloomberg Businessweek:
“Last summer, a trim guy with wavy brown hair, high cheekbones, and a broad smile could be found making Whoppers, working the drive-through window, and scrubbing bathrooms at a Burger King in Miami. His name was Daniel Schwartz. He learned to make a Whopper in less than 35 seconds and blended in well with his fellow employees, except for the fact that Schwartz had a guy with a video camera trailing him. ‘I cleaned about 15 toilets in the past two days,’ he boasted at one point, as if he’d just completed a marathon. Schwartz was justifiably pumped. That June he’d been named Burger King’s chief executive officer, with a $700,000 annual salary and a potential bonus of twice that. There was another reason for him to be exuberant: He was only 32 and on his way to becoming a star in the fast-food industry.”
“Making sure the fixtures in Burger King’s restrooms gleam is only one of Schwartz’s challenges. The chain has had six owners and suffered from years of neglect and strategic incoherence. Unlike his predecessors, Schwartz isn’t just competing with McDonald’s and Wendy’s. He has to keep customers from straying to trendy newcomers such as Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread. Their sales in the U.S. last year grew 17 percent and 12 percent, respectively, according to Technomic, a food industry consultant. Sales were essentially flat for Burger King and its two primary rivals.”
Click the image to read Schwartz’s plans.

Illustration by Kyle Platts

 

Posted in Career Useful Information, Careers in Retailing, Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments