Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

298 BRAND RELEVANCE
a strong market position. Its story is instructive and is presented
in the fi nal section of this chapter.
Walmart
In 2005 Walmart was rolling. 1 Its sales were nearly $300 billion —
almost three times those of ten years earlier. It had some five thousand
stores, up from three thousand a decade before, and the stores
on average had bigger footprints. However, there were nagging
negative issues, some accompanied by lawsuits or boycotts, that
were almost continuously in the press in one form or another.
There were four issues that stood out. First, Walmart had a
reputation, fueled by unions, of treating its employees unfairly
with inadequate health insurance programs, low wages (described
by some as unlivable), and discrimination against female
workers — a set of policies that was said to encourage if not force
competitors to do the same. Second, the sourcing of goods in
China and elsewhere, which affected the U.S. balance of payments,
sent jobs overseas, and raised the specter of worker
exploitation, was thought to be driven in part by Walmart ’ s focus
(an obsession in the eyes of some) on low costs. Third, there
was the belief among local politicians and voters that the entry
of Walmart into an area caused small retailers to go out of business
and created undesirable traffi c and sprawl. Fourth, there
were stories about how Walmart put so many pricing and brand
demands on suppliers who were dependent on Walmart ’ s business
that they were forced to compromise their products and
brands, source offshore, and even go out of business.
These negative issues not only tended to divert attention
from Walmart ’ s messaging but also had a practical impact on its
business strategy. More communities were turning down Walmart
stores, which affected growth strategies and location decisions.
Perhaps more important, a negative image of Walmart among a
growing portion of the market, those socially concerned, affected
its ability to gain customers and increase loyalty, especially in
the face of such competitors as Costco and Target. In one survey,