Brids Of A Feather Flocking Together

The “see it, do it” dogma of the “good ole boy” marketers!

Banks have been doing it for years with FREE CHECKING. Healthcare with what we define as the “no-no” word – CARE. Insurance companies now are all rolling out with slapstick humor ads ala Geico.

But hey…banks, hospitals, insurance agencies…accountants, physicians and knock-on-door sales reps…we’re really not talking about the most creative headsets.

But Wal-Mart… now that’s another story.

Wal-Mart leads the retail pack as the largest overall ad spender. They also lead the pack with the most stores from “the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam!”

For many small towns in America, Wal-Mart has successfully moved the town squares to their aisles decked out with blue light specials.

Based on the mullah in their wallet, wouldn’t you reckon Wal-Mart might have enough bucks (and balls) to be innovative in addressing the maturity and saturation of their brand?

Turn back time a couple of years…

In early 2006, Wal-Mart teamed up with GSD&M to launch their new “Look Beyond The Basics” brand campaign.

Unfortunately, Wall Street and the press reacted quickly with how much the campaign resembled their competitor’s long-running “Come see the softer side of Sears” advertising.

Roy Spence, President of GSD&M noted that the two campaigns were “scarily similar,” but then went on to say that the agency did not try to copy Sears campaign. He went on to say that Wal-Mart’s new campaign was “authored by a copywriter in her 20s” …someone not even in high school when Sears ran the original campaign.

WOW… Isn’t that nice that GSD&M lets the new talent write the campaigns for the top account!

Wasn’t long after the media hype that Wal-Mart pulled the plug on GSD&M and got next in bed with Bernstein-Rein to launch their “new” brand campaign…“Save More, Smile More”

John Fleming, Wal-Mart’s CMO launched the campaign with the quote…“This campaign is very much in line with Wal-Mart’s strategy of becoming constantly more relevant to the broad range of customers who shop our stores.”

That wouldn’t be Target by any chance?

Doesn’t this remind you of the guy in your 7th grade class that kept looking over your shoulder while you were answering the test?

On January 7th earlier this year…the following quote posted on BLOGGING STOCKS… “These guys at Wal-Mart still aren't getting the message from either Main Street nor from Wall Street. The company needs to make a sacrifice and essentially start over with a new clean and fun image.”

So what did Wal-Mart do next?

They fired Bernstein-Reid and John Fleming. Then they hired Martin Agency who crafted their new tagline and campaign that is running right now on television sets nationwide.

The “new” tagline? …“Save money. Live better”

WOW…four words with punctuation in between!

In early 2001, Target launched “Expect More, Pay Less.” The campaign catapulted Target to being THE cool place to shop. Period.

In client presentations, I feature Target right up next to Apple and Starbucks as brands that take the risk to do things differently, to march to the beat of their own drummers.

Target works with some great agencies. But Target’s commitment to their brand and its culture is what drives their success.

Having big bucks doesn’t guarantee that you can generate market buzz and consumer bonds.

And the agencies like GSD&M, Bernstein-Reid and Martin Agency ought to go stand in the corner along with Wal-Mart and stare at the wall contemplating the outcome of their behaviors too.

Birds of a feather might flock together…but those who challenge convention with new ideas are the ones that travel on a higher plane!