Bachelor In Marketing And Finance

Sears Marketing Strategy Review


Introduction

Sears is a broad-line retailer with thousands of full-line stores in United States and Canada. It has captured the 10th position in the list of retailers, behind Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, Costco, Target, CVS, Walgreens, Kroger, Lowes and Best Buy in USA. (Stores org., 2011).

Sears Past objectives (Lampert, 2009, 2010)
- “Create lastingrelationships with customers by empowering them to manage their lives.”
- “Build their Brands”
- Improve the customer satisfaction
- “Reinvent the company continuously through technology and innovation”


Past Marketing actions:

From the beginning, Sears’ strategy has been somewhat of a moving target, changing from low-price to upscale, watches to appliances and integratingin the addition of soft-lines. However, the company’s generic strategy is not well defined, as it is neither a discounter nor a differentiated store. (appendix 3)

In an effort to face the economy recession Sears’ marketing strategy in 2009 was represented by its slogan: “Life, Well Spent.” In an effort to target price sensitive customers and send them the message that even though it might notbe cheapest alternative, it is well worth the cost. On behalf of its hard-lines, Sears created in 2008 the “ Sears Blue Appliance Crew”, that consists on a service of assistance while shopping, delivery, installation and servicing of appliances at home and launched a web version in 2009 to the shoppers online. (Sears, 2009. Sears’ TV commercials 2008-2010) (Appendix 4).

Other strategicinitiatives launched by Sears are the investment in promotion and advertising activities to attract the Latin American market in the US, as well as technological investments to increase online traffic. The latter course has been embarked on due to a decline in store traffic. Both strategic courses embarked on by Sears are still being chartered (Sears Holding, San Juan PR, 2011).


Sears’ currentobjectives (Lampert, 2011, 2012):

- Improve the profitability of the company
- Increase the traffic of the people in the stores.
- Improve the image and perception of the stores.
- “Build close relationships with the customers”
- “Build their brands”
- “Reinvent the company continuously through technology and innovation”

Current Marketing Actions:

CurrentlySears maintains its departmental multichannel sales strategy. This strategy, however, is not working and the company is facing negative results in its financial statements (Sears 10-K , 2011, pp. 54-56).

The Company’s latest efforts have been focus on developing strategic alliances with the Kardashians, the famous reality show celebrities who launched their own apparel collection exclusively toSears stores (Jupi International, 2011). Another line of clothing that Sears added to its stores is The UK French Connections, a famous European brand (Sears, Roebuck and Co., 2010). Both of these initiatives server to further promote Sears’ soft-lines (Appendix 5).

Regarding their hard-lines, Sears launched a campaign titled “ Think Again” in an effort to reinforce their private labelappliances by staying relevant as the number one appliance store (Appendix 6) (Sears, 2011).

Sears has keep investing in its online strategy, having linked it with its membership program “Shop your way” which puts web kiosks in stores, and Sears2go, which facilitates shopping through mobile phones. (Appendix 7) (Sears Brands, 2008)






















|Competitor|Strategy |Target Market |Mkt. Strengths |Mkt. Weaknesses |2011 sales per |
| | | | | |square foot |
|Wal-mart |Cost- leadership |Families of modest income |Strong brand |Quality questioning |...