Sears Planting Seeds of Growth in Spring Push
March 27, 2006
NEW YORK -- With same-store sales down and the long-term strategy following its merger with Kmart still in transition, Sears aims to keep its core consumers from defecting to rivals with a new campaign, "Spring changes everything."
The effort, via Y&R, Chicago, uses themes associated with spring—which ties in with the rebirth of the company itself—and targets a demographic Sears describes internally as being in their "Sears years," 35-50-year-old women tending to a home and kids.
"That's when you're most concentrated on your home and family, and you're growing up with us," said Becky Case, vp-creative/specialty marketing at Sears Holdings, Hoffman Estates, Ill. "It's really expanding the relationship that we do have with our customers, relationships being very important for us, on both an emotional and rational level."
Two 30-second TV spots launching this week begin with a plant slowly sprouting through the ground. Sears' lawn and garden products are integrated into the plant as it unfolds, with a snail, frog and insects looking on. One spot touts 0% financing; a second branded spot will run with seasonal updates. Ads will run on network and cable, during such shows as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (which is presented by Sears), NCIS, Numb3rs and Without a Trace.
Sears' first print effort in more than a year echoes the rebirth theme, with apparel ads juxtaposing spring outfits on one side of the page and fabric flowers on the other. Ads will run through June in such publications as Elle, Lucky, Redbook, InStyle, Essence, Women's Day, Oprah and People.
New elements include a component at www.Sears.com, where consumers can download and care for a desktop plant; if the plant survives, they will get an as-yet undetermined "reward" to use at Sears. A guerrilla tactic will put 100 women of all shapes and sizes wearing the same outfit on New York streets next month distributing an eight-page fashion insert.
Budget was not revealed. Sears spent $324 million last year, with $156 million April-June, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
Some analysts feel Sears' strategy to focus on its core customers makes sense.
"Who is most likely to listen to Sears? Sears customers," said Seth Godin, an Irvington, N.Y.-based marketing strategist. "Sears can profit by telling a story that [some] people want to hear and are ready to listen to." But Godin stressed, "The challenge is getting those people to spread the word."
Such competitors as Wal-Mart and J.C. Penney are reformulating their tactics to attract this same financial and age demographic. Sears is even losing sales to The Home Depot, which "continues to benefit at the expense of Sears, given 63% of Sears' stores are within five miles of Home Depot's stores," retail analyst Gregory Melich of Morgan Stanley, New York, wrote in a research report last month.
If financial results are an indicator, that challenge could be significant. Same-store sales fell 5.3% at the combined chain in 2005, according to year-end figures released this month. Sales at Sears' core chain of 900 stores fell more than 8% for the year and were down 12% during the important holiday season. Edward Lampert, chairman at Sears Holdings, downplayed those numbers in a March 15 letter to investors, marking the year-old merger. "Same-store sales is not always the best measure of a retailer's performance . . . Our goal is to increase the per-share value of Sears Holdings."
The company is transforming Kmart stores under the banner of Sears Grand (which formerly had the working title of Sears Essentials) and integrating its marketing, merchandising and store operations. Lampert described the company as a "$55 billion, 350,000-person start-up."
"Things are happening at Sears in terms of management and product offerings," Mark Figliulo, chief creative officer at Y&R (which has handled the account for six years) said of the new campaign. "We don't want to scream it, but start the seed of the idea."
--Sandra O'Loughlin
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