Source: Kmart “Disguise”
The RetailWire Christmas Commercial Challenge: Kmart vs. Walmart
According to forecasts — most notably those from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) — the 2016 Christmas selling season promises to be a good one for retailers. With Thanksgiving just a little over a week away, retailers are taking to the airways and going online with their holiday commercials.
Throughout the rest of the 2016 holiday selling season, the RetailWire Christmas Commercial Challenge (now in its fourth year) will offer up ads from two different retailers on a weekly basis for you to critique. In the end, we will collect the head-to-head winners and let you decide which company has done the most effective job of communicating its holiday message(s) to new and core customers.
To kick off this year’s challenge, we offer two spots for your viewing pleasure (or not) from Kmart and Walmart. The Kmart commercial uses two familiar-looking characters to emphasize product variety, rewards program perks and layaway values. Walmart’s spot introduces us to its new holiday helpers and the role they will play in making shopping its stores more enjoyable this year.
PLEASE VIEW THE ADS AND VOTE IN THE INSTANT POLL TO THE RIGHT.
Kmart “Disguise”
Walmart “Holiday Helpers”
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTION: What is your critique of Kmart’s “Disguise” and Walmart’s “Holiday Helpers”? Which do you think does a better job of connecting with each company’s core customers while reaching out to new shoppers?
Poll
BrainTrust
Lee Peterson
EVP Thought Leadership, Marketing, WD Partners
Lee Kent
Principal, Your Retail Authority, LLC
I don’t like either spot, as neither focuses on the spirit of the holiday other than raw consumerism. The Walmart spot directly addresses a consumer-voiced flaw — not enough help in the stores and long checkout lines. The Kmart spot highlights one of its few consumer-pleasers — layaway. Both retailers and their agencies can do better.
I did like the Kmart ad better than the Walmart ad. The Kmart ad reaches out to those who shop at the remaining Kmart stores with its layaway program and the ad hits home on that mark. Walmart does not normally have line issues so it was difficult for me and most likely their customers to relate to it. The candy cane was a nice touch and out of character for Walmart! If anything the Walmart ad would be better in reaching out to new customers only because there are more stores under the Walmart banner and the Kmart ad is not going to bring any new business to Sears.
Well, one is funny and one is selling customer experience but both are selling in-store shopping. Seems to me there should be something “omni” about any ad this year: how customers can get what they want any way that works best for them.
In any case, i vote Walmart here — we know from our own studies that issues at checkout are massive to consumers and driving them further online so, from a practical point of view (since they have more than 4000 stores), it makes more sense and should work (unless they don’t deliver).
Kmart wins for using an innovative take on Santa to generate excitement for their holiday merchandise. The commercial gives the impression that the aisles of Kmart are filled with fun and magic, plus they manage to sneak in information about their promotions at the same time.
Although Walmart has the more rockin’ tune, their focus on Holiday Helpers gives one the impression their lines are difficult to navigate. Long checkout lines hardly create enthusiasm for their holiday merchandise. Where’s the magic?
Kmart. Fun ad. If only its operations matched its commercials.
Good spots both as mana for the masses. They will generate buzz and perhaps be a salve for shoppers, and may even motivate staff. Communicating actions toward improved customer experience through fun and service is worthy of applause on both counts.
OK, both are good ads. Very creative and addressing past images or current concerns of the shoppers. Some quick observations: 1.) Is Kmart still alive? and, 2.) The lines at Walmart kill me. They are worse than Costco.
But the true winner for my “OWN THE MIND” score is Kmart — they are going right for the kids’ heart. Santa and elves. Christmas spirit and the holidays does not matter much to the target audience of kids under 10. They WANT STUFF. It is how we retail people have stripped Christmas of the spirit and people expect it. Fewer people attend church — and some not at all. Christmas is all about stuff. So the best STUFF commercial wins and OWNS MORE MIND.
Other than Guam, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and parts of Hawaii, where are there any Kmarts? Does it even make sense for Kmart to advertise with so few stores left? Walmart would get the nod if all they showed was a test pattern for 30 seconds.
I agree with Max. I hope these do not represent the better ones we will be reviewing as the weeks go on. I selected the Kmart ad as it seems to have good holiday spirit. But, to be honest, I have no idea where a Kmart store is located anywhere close to my area. So it will do me no good. As for the Walmart ad, I almost saw the Walmart employee smiling. Come on ad agency — you know this never happens.
I agree with those who had said neither ad really shows any holiday spirit. I realize that the idea behind them is to sell more stuff so in that regard, I believe the Kmart ad does a better job. The Walmart ad does address an operational issue of their own making. Gee we know we don’t provide a fast checkout process, but hey we are adding helpers so you can get into line faster.
Neither ad did anything for me, however, Walmart is putting those “elves” in their stores this year, so hopefully the shopping experience will look sort of like the ad.
For my 2 cents.
Walmart’s research must show they have a line-wait perception issue. Just planted the seed in my mind that lines must be terrible, so why visit there? Kmart — beyond showing it has a pulse — as pointed out by others, didn’t seem very on point for just about anything. The V/O brings attention to layaway promotion. A bit flat, predictable. Grudgingly give this round to Walmart.
Neither ad is good enough to get a vote from me.
The Kmart ad is clever. I like Santa and his elf… But given KMart’s reputation at this point, my own response was an incredible cognitive dissonance with the idea that Kmart has a rich stock of outstanding merchandise. I’ve been in their stores off and on for the past few years. And they’re badly stocked — so Santa shopping there was clever. But to reveal he was buying “everything” stopped my interest flat. A zero take away form the ad. They would have been better off to keep Santa and his elf, but leverage specifics (products or values) to draw people to the store rather than to suggest “we have everything you need.”
On the other hand, Walmart’s ad is about as meaningless as I’ve seen. The idea of “holiday helpers” is outstanding – what a great plan. But to dedicate them to pointing you to an open check stand? On a day that the store is quite empty? My mind just kept wondering why they’d waste so much money paying these people to be in the stores. The ad also didn’t strike me as consistent with the Walmart brand. They have a firmly defined execution so that, in watching an ad, I usually instantly know it’s Walmart. This ad left the distinctive assets they’ve built unused — so I wasn’t really sure what it was about.
Hoping to see some better work this holiday season….
I don’t see either ad as compelling. Walmart’s helpers would better characterize helpfulness if they were shown doing more than pointing out the shortest line. By the way, I think the kid is more startled than happy to receive the candy cane. His look suggested that his parents strong advised him not to accept candy from strangers.
Kmart is demonstrating how much they have in the way of Christmas gift merchandise, but I think the execution of the ad is rather flat. They appear more two dimensional in what should have been a more exciting, i.e. Wow! Look what Santa is buying.
As Kmart has no core customers to speak of, it is an easy pick. I would say that the Kmart commercial connects with both of their core customers. I apologize in advance for my sneakiness but of course the Walmart commercial is better.
Kmart’s holiday season won’t be saved with a TV campaign. It has MUCH deeper problems. The brand has NO meaning and it has no position in the market. At some point, retailers need to look at truths and stop trying to treat a brain hemorrhage with a Band-Aid.
I can’t wait until Sears commercials are examined. I use both as an example of failed brands and surrendered brand equity.
So in short, Walmart wins. It’s a prize fight between the Heavyweight Champion and a high school lightweight in his first bout.