Posted on 08/30/2006 5:40:22 AM PDT by ShadowDancer
Wal-Mart Launches Ads To Boost Reputation
POSTED: 7:59 am EDT August 30, 2006
BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. unveiled a new tool Tuesday in its self-defense kit against organized critics, launching political-style television ads that tout issues rather than the products it sells at its nearly 4,000 U.S. stores.
The ads come as Wal-Mart's running battle with union-backed critics takes on an increasingly political tone, with potential 2008 presidential candidates weighing in on whether the world's largest retailer is good or bad for its more than 1.3 million U.S. workers or their communities.
The 30- and 60-second ads, running at first in the test markets of Tucson, Ariz., and Omaha, Neb., stake Wal-Mart's claim that it benefits workers and communities by offering affordable health insurance, creating tens of thousands of jobs a year, saving families money with its low prices and donating more than $245 million to charity last year.
"The more people learn about who we are and how we strive to do better every day, the more they know that we are good for America's working families," Bob McAdam, vice president of Wal-Mart corporate affairs, said in a statement.
Corporate communications expert Paul Argenti said Wal-Mart is doing the right thing by advertising its image, not just its products. But he said the Bentonville, Ark.-based company should have started years ago to head off the union-led criticism.
"Now it looks like its just a response. It's not a good position to be in, to be defensive," said Argenti, a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.
Wal-Mart's leading critics - union-funded groups Wal-Mart Watch and WakeUpWalMart.com - said the ads showed their campaigns to shame the retailer into improving pay and benefits were having an impact on the company's image.
Wal-Mart Watch said it would file truth-in-advertising complaints with the Arizona and Nebraska attorneys general as well as with the TV stations airing the ads.
Those complaints will include a reference to Wal-Mart's assertion that its low prices save the average family more than $2,300 a year, a figure that stems from a study the company commissioned from Global Insight, an economic forecasting company in Waltham, Mass.
Wal-Mart says Global Insight was given unfettered access to its internal financial data for the study and acted independently. Wal-Mart Watch disputes that figure and instead follows one by a union-backed think tank, The Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C., that said Global Insight's methodology was flawed.
WakeUpWalMart said it plans its own advertising campaign this fall that will criticize Wal-Mart health plans and wages.
"Wal-Mart finally realizes this is a campaign issue. They just fail to realize that Americans will never support a Wal-Mart agenda that pays poverty-level wages and leaves workers without health care," WakeUpWalmart spokesman Chris Kofinis said.
WakeUpWalMart has hosted several potential Democratic 2008 presidential candidates at its rallies this month, including Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack; Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.; Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.; Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; and former North Carolina Democratic Sen. John Edwards.
On the other side, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican who is considering a 2008 presidential campaign, recently blasted Wal-Mart Watch in an open letter as a "traveling circus" and defended Wal-Mart's benefits for workers and communities.
Me thinketh thou dost protesteth thine innocence too loudly
Maybe WM should shut down all their stores and layoff every employee. Then let's see if their existence is good or bad.
It does make you wonder why they feel the need to address their critics like this- are sales down? Otherwise, what does it matter what the critics think?
Mr. Kofinis must be living in a parallel universe. When I go to a Wal-Mart they're packed with shoppers. Why? You see, Mr. Kofinis, they have damn near everything, the prices are cheap, and they have enough cashiers for checkout.
It does not appear that either of you have ever worked in sales or marketing.
because the critics are trying to use politicians to basically illegalize wal-mart.
Up north, they've passed laws aimed directly at Wal-Mart making it harder for WM to do business. Then they're trying to dictate business practices to the retailer.
And they're doing it by smearing WM's public image via political-style ads.
WM would be stupid to allow it's image to be smeared in such a way, as it WOULD hurt their bottom line. After all, if all anyone hears on the tv is that WM is bad, and they don't pay their employees or allow them healthcare then folks will believe it.
humanity, as a collective group, has a horrid ability to take for truth what the person screaming the loudest is saying...
Admittedly, I haven't. Why do you believe that this a good strategy on Wal-Mart's part? IMO, the critics will never be convinced and their customers likely don't care one way or another so long as their prices remain low.
I have been in specialty chemical sales for 16 years. I am very aware of how the process works.
Very well. So if a political party, say, the Democrats were to try and make your industry a campaign issue, would you fight back?
Spoken like someone who has nothing justify their opinion, so they instead make vague accusations and misrepresentations.
The ads I have seen here in Ohio attacking Walmart are blatant misrepresentations of the facts.
If the Bush administration wasn't too afraid to upset the Unions, they would be facing raqueteering charges for these stunts.
The Unions haven't been able to entice workers at Walmart to unionize honestly, so they're spending millions on attacking them dishonestly.
Walmart isn't the one misleading workers. They offer wages and benefits in exchange for their employees performing their jobs. They aren't forcing employees to work for them, nor are the illegally keeping other companies from competing for their workers or their customers.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
All Walmart has to do is say two words this year to get me back on their side. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
If anything they should attack Democraps, stating that anyone who votes against them gets 20% off all items on election day! Crushing landslide defeat for Democraps!
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