Wal-Mart’s War Room

by | November 1, 2005

Many large companies face vocal critics of their business practices often focusing on domestic or international hiring and wage issues or envrionmental issues. Companies typically confront these challenges with a signficant use of PR to play them down or downright deny them. Wal-Mart is a company that has traditionally viewed PR expense as unnecessary but as it faces more and more vocal and ambitious efforts to bring Wal-Mart’s practices to light, the company is finding growth in a new segment difficult. Wal-Mart has been struggling to capture the upper-middle class market share but is finding this group to be not only interested in low-cost (which Wal-Mart easily provides) but also image (which it is struggling with). In response, Wal-Mart is working with top advisors and image makers that have historically been behind key political campaigns to create a strategy for reaching this market. A couple of lessons to be learned from Wal-Mart: 1) Public Relations and Corporate Communications are essential, regardless of your business size. As most small business owners know, your name and reputation are key to success and growth in the market. The more people that know about you and your business and respect your business practices, the more referrals and repeat business you can expect; and 2) Always be thinking about how your actions today may impact your ability to move into a new segment or reach a new audience in the future. That being said, small businesses are nimble — a significant advantage over their competitors — and changing your route mid-stream to capitalize on an opportunity may make sense even if it means conflicting with prior words or actions. You’ll simply have to weigh the PR implications against the market opportunity. For more info on Wal-Mart’s War Room see The New York Times article.

Author: Michelle Bomberger, Seattle Business Attorney