Reinventing Walmart: Why Roehm & Walmart Failed

An article was posted on Businessweek’s Brand New Day blog which included a lengthy interview excerpt with Walmart Inc. CEO Lee Scott. With all the media hoopla going on lately between the store giant and former ad chief Julie Roehm – and every trivial, less-than-interesting detail being squeezed by every trade magazine and marketing news site – reading through his very candid interview sans mention of the Roehm/Wommack/Draft FCB scandal was a huge breath of fresh air. But it also got me thinking...about Walmart's attempt to reinvent their brand image and why recent efforts failed to deliver.

Obviously Scott understands who Walmart's core audience is and he recognizes how deeply embedded the association is with more affluent customers. It doesn't require mensa-level thinking to figure out that Walmart is not synonymous with designer fashion and high-end retail (or necessarily high quality and high value). They have a large inventory of products and services that satisfy the average consumers needs and they're available at low prices.

In an attempt to draw in the affluent base they put out high-fashion and high-end retail at double or triple the price. So what happened? They couldn't move the high-end products off the shelves because their core audience wouldn't pay the higher prices and most affluent customers won't shop there because it's Walmart and Walmart = "low end" and "cheap". You can't change such rudimentary perceptions over night.

Over-hyped scandals aside, from a marketing perspective Walmart needed to cut Roehm loose. The synergy between Roehme's style and Walmart's vision was lacking from the get go - having mutual trust and sharing a passion for your belief in something is crucial for creating a unified message that connects with customers. Even in retail, customers need to be able to emotionally "connect" on some level with where they shop on a regular basis. Marketing strategies that push the envelope can be extremely effective but ultimately what ever the image you’re trying to portray your customers need to be believe it. Walmart = premium brand, high fashion, high-end retail? ha ha ha....not.


Creating value must be real, and tangible to a targeted audience.
For Roehm's part - there was a process that needed to take place in order to move Walmart’s brand image from point A to point D (and subsequently from point D to whatever point you're trying to reach). Beyond just having a strong marketing concept you need to have a well developed, "thoughtful" execution strategy that is laid out over a period of time. The period of time depends on the brand and it's target audience. Bold/edgy marketing strategies won't deliver if the brand hasn't earned the right to ask it's audience to accept such new possibilities.

Taking out a few snazzy spreads in Vogue magazine, putting on a runway show in New York, and throwing $200 bottles of wine in the isles all-the-while asking would-be customers to believe that it's any more impressive than what it's always been....is asking too much, too soon.

"A brand is a living entity - and it is enriched or undermined - cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures." [Michael Eisner, ex-CEO of Disney]

Personally, I wouldn’t be caught dead stopping on a Walmart spread while flipping through a Vogue magazine, except maybe to gasp at the intrusion. Think of the types of people who typically go to a fashion show in the city. Sure you'll have trendsetters that show up..even those that won't get the premium gifts just for being there. Attending fashion shows is, after all, a Manhattan affair. But if you think that afterwards they'll be touting those front-row seats to all of their friends and then running off to the nearest Walmart...all I can say is "life must be a wonderland inside that head". For the moderately affluent or trend-conscious, what motivation do they have to buy clothes from a store where the feel and look of the place, employees included, is so seemingly dumpy? You'd be better off taking your money to H&M, Express, Zara, and the like - at least in these places you can buy-in to the idea that you're still maintaining "coolness" without feeling like you're lying to yourself and everyone else because of where you bought your clothes.

For Walmart, marketing to the affluent with a fashion-forward approach might have been a good strategy in concept but Roehm failed to execute it "intelligently". They could learn a thing or two from the marketing team at Target who brought in designer labels at low prices for their core customers and put them up on e-bay at higher prices to attract high-end customers. Eventually some of those high-end customers starting going into the retail store to get the benefit of lower store pricing.


Walmart: the other half of a "failed formula"
Culpability for success or failure is not entirely on Roehm here. This blame-game is two-fold and Walmart's corporate governance is the other half of a failed formula.

Even if a strong ad or marketing tactic is successfull it will only provide a temporary lift if a business consistently delivers a weak personal experience factor. Brand image begins with a vision and the vision starts with the CEO and president and filters down to every employee of the company. The employees are the brand stewards if you will; they’re constantly communicating/reflecting the values of the brand to customers in one way or another. If the brand image you’re trying to portray isn’t at least moderately reflected through your brand’s constituents, good luck convincing your audience.

Unimpressive reputations nullify good marketing strategies.

After sections of New York recently shunned Walmart's attempts to build stores in the local areas, Walmart CEO Lee Scott responded with a few comments that I think a) are inappropriate from a PR-standpoint but more importantly b) give strong indication that Walmart's internal branding strategy is badly in need of an overhaul (assuming it ever existed in the first place). In this New York Times article, Scott's reaction to what he calls the snobbish elites was shall we say less than exemplary and less than what we would expect from a C-level exec. Amongst other things he says, "You have people who are just better than us and don’t want a Wal-Mart in their community". Yikes. Maybe he or the NYT forgot the words "think they are".

Still...I mentioned earlier in this post that when I read the excerpt of businessweek's interview with Scott I found his candidness to be a refreshing change. But it was also somewhat sobering and most certainly not inspiring. Note to self: Even if my previous efforts turned out to be a flop and I'm feeling dismayed by the notion that I can't change perception...what I say in public, how I say it and when I say it are all good PR opportunities to do just that. 'Be the brand'. That said, is it any wonder why Walmart's brand image is suffering? If the CEO doesn't reflect the integrity and pride of the brand, neither will the employees who interact with the brand's core customers.

Walmart thought that by bringing in a change agent they could turn things around. Note to Walmart: focus on internal brand management first. "Change management" has to start from within and it has to lead from the top down.