Where America Shops...including me?

I consider myself to be somewhat hip. I lived for years downtown, consider myself at heart to be an artist, and have a drawer full of black turtleneck sweaters. Imagine my dismay when I saw the Sears logo nestled inside the Land’s End catalogue! I had been buying my tees and zippered fleece there for years! They had great funky shoes with rubber soles! They had decent, not ‘old-fogey’ colors! What was Land’s End doing to me? That is where mom took me as a kid for underwear. Good grief.

Evidently, for years, Land’s End has been a sub-brand of Sears…Where America Shops. Me, along with thousands of others were averse to the brand of Sears because we got our school clothes there years ago. Now that we have graduated and are well into our careers, I suppose “we are too cool for school” and have moved along to the J Jills, Chicos, Nordstroms and other famous brands when it comes to women's clothes. Thus, Sears needed to be creative when it came time to lure us back to Sears:

• First, develop a brand that appeals to this audience: Land’s End. It would be:

1. approachable, feature product styled simply like business clothes
2. well photographed
3. athletic in nature
4. well-priced and
5. creatively colored, beyond the humdrum maroon and grey
6. a place where you could find clothes for the busy professional to wear on weekends, or among friends who don’t want to see you in your slippers and sweatpants.
7. staffed with phone-in staff that were professional, efficient, and well prepared. There wasn’t much time to hold on the phone when making your order.

• Second, maintain this customer base for several years under the Land’s End sub-brand name and experience.
  
• Third, let the “cat out of the bag” by slowly showing this customer base that they have been buying Sears product and experience all along. Do this slowly and subtly so it isn’t too much of a shock to we black turtleneck wearers.
  
• Finally, embrace this new audience as Sears customers.
  

Now, that’s how branding works.

Post contributed by Catherine Shaw.