The Sears Holdings brand is fading. Sears Holding Corporation is a retail company that operates the Kmart and Sears brands in the United States. The company has been struggling in recent years as the revenues have been falling. The company in February announced that it is going to shut down some of its retail stores.
One way the company can revitalize its brand is through creating new associations. These connections can be formed by seeking partnership with other companies operating the same business. For example, in this case, Sears can form a partnership with retail giants like Walmart. Instead of closing stores, they can allow Walmart to run these stores while keeping their name. These can help to recapture lost customers and attract new consumers. The revenues generated from these stores can then be shared based on the agreement.
The brand re-development team can also do market analysis and identify market and product segments that have been neglected yet they have potential for growth (Baisya 130). Marketing segmentation involves promoting a single product to different markets. Using the sales report, the company can identify high selling products and identify markets where there has been a low supply of such products. Also, Sears Holdings can also examine itself to refresh its old sources of equity. Here it is simply looking back at what made it attractive and figure out what went wrong before going back to old traditions that might help retain old customers.
Brand repositioning can also revitalize a company’s image (Heckler & Till 45). The aim here is to keep up with consumers’ needs. It is a marketing strategy that may introduce new products, prices, and promotions. To be successful, thorough customer engagement should be practiced. With a clear understanding of the customers’ needs and wants, stocking the right products will help cement loyalty of old customers and attract new customers as well. This can also be referred as brand extension, which is the introduction of a new category of product with existing brand name.
Works Cited
Baisya, Rajat K. BRANDING IN A COMPETETIVE MARKET PLACE. New Delhi: SAGE Publications India, 2013.
Heckler, Donna D., Till, Brian D. CREATING BRANDS PEOPLE LOVE. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc, 2009.
