To be sure, Wal-Mart is attempting to persuade. But the goal is different- to change people's impressions about the firm itself, its image, not its products and services. This much the excerpt below makes clear.

In a local experiment that is eventually to be seen across the country, the giant discount retailer began broadcasting two television spots that, in unusually detailed terms, trumpet its health care plans, charitable contributions and positive impact on the American economy. The ads do not attack Wal-Mart critics but introduce its merits, much as a candidate would. “Our low prices save the average working family $2,300 a year,” says the narrator of one ad. “Which buys a lot of things — and a whole lot of freedom.”

"Trumpeting" the dollar amount per family of consumer surplus your firm contributes to the economy is not something you tell people to get them to come to your store and buy a toaster oven or to load up on Tupperware or back-to-school supplies. If that's what you want to do, you tell them how low the prices are. The same applies to the telling the audience about your health care plans and charitable contributions. A "marketing" campaign this is not but, again, its description seems accurate enough. What's important to recognize from this distinction is that the target audience for the ads must include more than existing or potential customers. If they don't they are a waste of money.

Another concern I have with the article relates to Barabaro's characterization of Wal-Mart's corporate transformation, something he seems to link causally to the current PR campaign:

The ads look and sound like campaign spots — and are a far cry from previous Wal-Mart TV campaigns, which featured a yellow smiley face and blue-smocked employees. One of the spots, which evokes Bill Clinton’s “A Place Called Hope” message during the 1992 presidential election, begins with an image of Sam Walton’s first five-and-dime store. “It all began with a big dream in a small town,” says the narrator, “Sam Walton’s dream.”

Later, the narrator ticks off a list of Wal-Mart’s benefits: “Last year alone, Wal-Mart created tens of thousands of new American jobs — many in areas where they’re needed most. And we offer eligible associates health insurance for less than a dollar a day.”

The ads, running in Omaha and Tucson, underscore Wal-Mart’s transformation over the last several years from an insular company obsessed with low prices and technological efficiency to one that openly acknowledges its public relations troubles and has introduced numerous programs to counter them.

Insular? Maybe. But "obsessed" with low prices and technological efficiency? I think not. While it is easy to become enamored with technology for technology's sake, smart managers are fully aware that technology is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. They know that investments in information technology, like other capital investments, have diminishing returns. Managers obsessed with technology would over-invest or invest too much faith in it, the consquences of which would be reduced efficiency and profits. To describe Wal-Mart as having been "obsessed" with IT rather than as an extradordinarily savvy user of it is to miss the mark.

My thesis involved and much of my subsequent research investigated the strategic and organizational uses of information technology in the retail sector. There is no evidence of which I am aware that suggests Wal-Mart ever went overboard in its technology spending or that its technology strategy hasn't been tightly coupled to its highly successful competitive and corporate strategies.

The same goes for the remark about low prices. I am aware of no information that suggests that the firm was ever concerned with lowering prices just for the sake of doing so. Rather, it appears that the opposite is the case, i.e. that low prices have been the effect of the relentless and focused pursuit of the firm's long-articulated and well-executed strategy. That's a far cry from idée fixe.

Finally, there's a paragraph toward the end that really caught my eye, something about the potential consequences of the aforementioned moves:

The ads also reflect the influence of Edelman, the public relations firm Wal-Mart has hired to rehabilitate its image. The firm has assigned former political operatives to develop a public relations strategy for the retailer, including a rapid-response war room and a blog that attacks its union-backed critics, like WakeUpWalmart.com, which organized a bus tour featuring Democratic leaders. Blue Worldwide, a division of Edelman, created the ads.

First all it is not clear to me that Wal-Mart's image needs "rehabilitating." Perhaps in the eyes of New York Times readers it does, but as recent polls suggest Wal-Mart's millions of regular customers don't have a problem with the store. Nor, apparently, do the thousands of people who line up get jobs there.

As for the "rapid-response war room", the use of "former political operatives", and "a blog that attacks" I'll just remark that there are at least two possible interpretations of these developments. The firm could, as Barbaro seems to suggest, be circling the wagons. On the other hand, it could be circling for the kill.

File Under: Wal-Mart

Tags: Wal-Mart | WalMart | Retail | Politics | Economy | Public Relations | PR | Marketing | Advertising

Note: Like many bloggers I get occasionally get email from employees of Edelman about articles written about Wal-Mart. I learned about this article in another way- by way of a "google alert" for news stories about Wal-Mart.

See also: Wal-Mart's a Diversion |