Kmart – New and Improved?

June 19, 2013

Whether you find Kmart’s new ads to be hilarious or offensive, one thing is for certain – these controversial ads are getting major media attention. At face value, we think these ads are hilarious and can’t stop showing our friends and families. However, as advertising experts, we tend to delve a bit deeper and look at the world of advertising and brand strategy with a more critical eye. So here is what we’re pondering: Sure these ads are getting lots of views and are making people laugh, but is that enough to get people into Kmart?

Our skepticism stems from a very important thing called brand promise. Each brand has a personality and creates a relationship with its consumers. A brand’s promise is made through its advertisements, and it is kept or broken through the quality of its products, services or experiences. The keeping or breaking of this promise determines a brand’s relationship with its consumers.

Each person has his or her own unique relationship with a brand, but for the majority of us at Rearview, our relationships with Kmart are tepid. So as charmed as we are by these new commercials, we still probably won’t find ourselves shopping at Kmart over our current superstores of choice. Kmart will have to somehow convince us that the overall brand experience has improved before we will be swayed. We would hate to get our hopes up and go to one of the stores only to be even more disappointed if the promise of a new and improved Kmart, per new and improved marketing, is broken.

The takeaway here for business owners: Make sure your company keeps its brand promise. Advertising is very powerful and will point people to your business, but if your clients have a negative enough experience and are turned away from your brand, that is an extremely difficult wrong to right.