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The overarching brand of the store is coordinated with these sub-brands to accentuate breadth of selection and an aggressive direction on Everyday Low Price (EDLP) positioning. Wal-Mart's influence on its supply chain partners, the ability to continually drive down costs and increase quality, and its use of EDLP on Black Fridays (the shopping day after Thanksgiving in the U.S.) have continually reinforced the brand and also created a significant competitive advantage vs. competitors K-Mart Corporation and Target. K-Mart's positioning on EDLP historically has been to concentrate on low-priced leadership through its blue light specials throughout the store. In 2001, in an attempt to counteract the effects of Wal-Mart on its brand and market position, K-Mart initiated the "Blue Light Always" program to further underscore their EDLP strategy on 30,000 items, primary comprised of food, consumable and other high-frequency items. Consumers however did not equate the Blue Light Always campaign as being as competitive as the prices at Wal-Mart, specifically the latters' Sunday Specials and extensive use of loss leaders during the selling period between Black Friday and the holidays occurring at the end of the year. Instead, EDLP for the K-Mart brand connoted a lack of quality and lack of competitiveness relative to Wal-Mart products and the strategy eventually led to financial losses.
The effects on consumer behaviour of K-Mart attempting its own EDLP strategy showed that the...
It also showed that in discount retailing is not a tactic, it is a strategic direction and it takes years of brand equity to create sustainable and trustworthy EDLP positioning in consumers' minds. The failure of Blue Light Always also shows that consumers who trust their low-price mass merchandiser are not easily swayed even with Sunday Specials or special programs.
Summary
It can be seen from the analyses of Apple relative to its competitors, and Wal-Mart's performance relative to K-Mart with an EDLP strategy, that each of these two company's brands have a highly unique approach to invoking and sustaining trust in consumers. Further, Apple's highly unique branding strategy underscores the role of branding as creating exceptionally dedicated fans of the brand. For Wal-mart, their segmentation strategies all center on the value-oriented shopper, predominantly the woman of the household that is in charge of purchasing children clothes, supplies, stocking the home with food and supplies. This shopper makes a median income of $40K (U.S.) a year and often lives pay check to pay check, needing the Wal-mart prices to make ends meet. Wal-Mart has become so well trusted by this segment that this group comprises 30% of global sales of the company. Clearly the ability to gain trust and sustain its is inherent in each of these company's brands.
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