https://www.wsj.com/articles/sears-stopped-buying-national-tv-ads-in-critical-holiday-season-1514721602
16 replies (most recent on top)
Guessing chain wide we did 150Mil
Sears had a great after-Christmas ad, complete with a catchy jingle, about thirty years ago...almost everything you wanted, but didn't get for Christmas, is on sale now at Sears!
Those were the days my friends, we thought they'd never end
Anybody remember back in the 90s when NBC would air Home Alone every year on Thanksgiving night, and it was sponsored by Sears? And during every commercial break, every single commercial on there would be a Sears commercial? I don't mean a lot of commercials, I mean every last one.
I still can't watch Home Alone to this day without hearing "come see the softer side of Sears" playing over and over again in my head.
Ads would have just left us with more abandoned carts of merchandise from customers who didn't want to put up with waiting in line for an hour in the two or three register lines we ever had open at most.
@1qyn I think advertisements would of helped a lot. Having the proper advertisements and making them appealing. Atleast in my store the 2 best supposed months ended like this:
November down 25 percent TP 20 percent to LY
December down 17 percent TP 9.5 percent to LY
Obviously investing in ads is ment to make money in the long run. You have to spend money to make money. I will say a prime example I saw a Target commercial and saw this nice toy to buy for someone. I would of never considered Target, but the ad awared me of something and ended up buying it from Target.
This honestly shows you Eddie isnt interesting in what so ever to invest in the actual company. Hell the supposed "Holiday Blowout" signs were meant for November and we ended up recycling and using them in mid December (note it was embrasing a customer calling me out when I was putting them "this are expired" I go "sighs I know they are" just so sad). We are now in the "Red Tag Event" we dont even have all the signs still missing a lot.
Ads or no ads we were packed, also, we did have the wishbook!
well they need to sell 80M dollars of merchandise to pay for the ads. We will see if same store sales suffered
In the article it explains that there were executives that warned Eddie against cutting TV ads. As inept as Sears corporate leadership is, they at least understood how crucial it was to advertise. In this scenario, Eddie played out as the real fool.
Analysts place Sears' core customers in the 50-65+ age bracket, a group that consequently is more receptive to TV advertising than online, a channel that Eddie wanted to rely upon, pretty much on a sole basis, despite his own leadership warning against it.
I saw a great ad for a Craftsman tool set but the end of the ad said the toolset could be found at ACE Hardware. What a shame.
That advertising stuff will never catch on.
Why they wouldn’t want to showcase their exquisite LAURA Scott brand... the people that do wear that brand need to see commercials so they remember
I honestly did not even realize sears and Kmart had no adds. That's how irrelevant they have become.
Nope. I lucked out and was off on Thanksgiving so I got to watch the parades... saw commercials most of the big stores, many also struggling, but none for Sears. And never saw a single holiday one since. Shame. How do they expect people to show up at all if they decide not to remind them that they exist?
Of course they didn't do any TV ads this year. What do they have to offer to shoppers?! NOTHING!!!
Sears is definitely done but the reason is most likely due to the fact that TV ads are significantly more expensive during holidays. Someone up top didn't feel like the potential profits outweighed the extra costs.
If that doesn't SCREAM Sears is toast I don't know what would !!!