The Sears brand has been dying in the hands of billionaire hedge fund manager Edward Lambert. Here’s why: Lambert has raised prices and slashed marketing budgets and capital spending. Plus Sears has no brand positioning for quite some time, even before the ill-fated merger with K-Mart.
Where does Sears fit among Wal-Mart, Target, Macy”s? Who knows. It’s so sad. Sears at one point was such an American brand icon.
It really is a shame what has happened to Sears. I remember as a kid always seeing Sears commercials on Television. Now between all the prescription ads and the ads for reality TV or cell phone service, I can’t even remember the last Sears ad I saw, and the local store is almost always near empty.
The local K-mart is even worse. It’s a lot closer to my home than the local Walmart or Target but I will go to almost any other store unless I have to go to K-mart (since they are 24 hours). The entire atmosphere in the store is just dreary and nothing like what it used to be. The merger with Sears just meant a few shelves moved and they put refrigerators or washer/dryers there, but nobody ever buys them from there. It’s like they are just there out of protocol.
Anthony
Sears seems to have so many problems these days. I bought a TV there over the holidays, and they had so many system issues that I am surprised they can sell anything. It was so bad that I had to speak to the local GM and tried contacting the corporate people.
It is like they are simply trying to make money without investing anything in infrastructure. The marketing they sent out was all wrong and the products either weren’t in stock, didn’t exist, or couldn’t be purchased in some cases.