Filed under: Consumer experience, Wal-Mart (WMT)
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) wants to overshadow the House’s stimulus plan by rolling out its own economic stimulus package. To do that, the world’s largest retailer has announced that it will be “rolling back” prices on thousands of products that will equate to a 10% to 30% savings for customers — starting now.
After Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott’s presentation last week to over 7,000 Wal-Mart managers, the company is taking its standard marketing line as being the retailer that helps Americans when the times are tight. John Fleming, Wal-Mart’s chief marketing officer and an alum of competitor Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), said that “We all know economic times are tough so our plan is to help with added savings throughout the year, focusing especially on what people want, when they need it … we won’t let them down.”
Wal-Mart is not stupid; the company wants to bring comfort to the U.S. consumer population by caudling them with news of Wal-Mart being one of the few corporate friends available. From a retail perspective, slashing prices when economic hard times are present is not only a good marketing strategy, but one that imbues consumers with the feeling that Wal-Mart really is helping them.
Wal-Mart’s price reductions aren’t all over the map, either: they include seasonal product categories for this time of year, like fitness and home products. Wal-Mart even provided a buying grid for those wanting to feed a crowd for this weekend’s Super Bowl — a nice marketing touch. In addition to lower prices, it’s offering 18 months no interest financing for $250 purchases made on Wal-Mart store-branded credit cards. Bah — one thing many consumers don’t need is more credit debt.
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