Offering some relief to recession-stricken consumers, Sears Holding Corp. this week announced a buyer protection plan that allows customers to keep their LG, GE or Kenmore appliance in the event of a job loss. Kevin Brown, vp and CMO for Sears Holding’s home appliance division, said the company will test out the offer (running through Aug. 1) on his department first, possibly extending it to other merchandise categories. Brown said the idea stemmed from consumer anxiety over making big-ticket purchases in a recession. Additionally, the retailer this week will kick off a Fourth of July sale, offering up to 37 percent off select appliances. Brown discussed these and other initiatives with Brandweek, and why it's the right time to market to consumers. That conversation is below:
Brandweek: Tell us about this new Fourth of July sale Sears is launching?
Kevin Brown: We’re offering some great deals on 3 or 4 [appliance] pairs. We used digital [to get the word out] about this particular event. We had a presale where we primarily connect with [our best customers] through e-mail. What we made available was a certain amount of inventory in advance. The key thing was, our best customers got advance notice of the sale and they had an easy way to go right from their e-mail to a private landing page that only they could access and see in advance of the general market.
The pre-sale started Sunday (June 29) and ran through yesterday. Today, we’re opening it online to the general public a day in advance, but the four-day sale for Fourth of July runs tomorrow through Monday (July 6).
BW: How is this different from the first time Sears ran the promotion, which was last year?
KB: The main difference revolves around our best customers still getting the advance notice . . . but we’re using our online capability to communicate [the effort] with consumers. That’s different than what we’ve done before. This isn’t the normal Sunday circular [push].
BW: Sears this week announced its “buyer protection” program, which both credits and lets a consumer keep an appliance purchase should unemployment strike. Where did the idea for this originate? (Hyundai, for instance, has its “Assurance” program, which offers to buy back consumers’ cars should they lose their jobs.)
KB: We put it together with our customers in mind. We have a lot of customer panels and research tells us that right now, the consumer is asking for value. If we continue to put these innovative and value offers in front of them, then I think the customer can go ahead and [buy] from us, versus shopping at the other guys.
We’re very excited about Sears’ buyer protection program. It’s the first and only program among any of the nation’s appliance retailers. It really came from listening to our customers, who have been telling us that despite the fact that Sears offers a lowest price guaranteed, despite the fact that we carry all the top brands—LG, Samsung, GE and our No. 1 brand, Kenmore—we still have consumers worrying about their jobs and the economy in general. They’re deferring much-needed appliances and bigger ticket purchases. We’re responding to that and coming up with programs to give the consumer [reasons to buy now]. If something does happen in the future, the program goes ahead and credits their account for the monthly payment and if they’ve not found work by 12 months, it will go ahead and take care of what’s left of the balance and the appliance is theirs to keep.
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