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Wal-Mart: Products
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The strategy of working with food makers to tie in organic products with well-known brands represents a departure from the approach many of Wal-Mart's competitors are taking. Safeway, Kroger and SuperValu, which is set to acquire Albertsons, have private label organic lines with names like Nature's Best and O that they sell at prices below those of brand organic products.
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Wal-Mart has ... urged the labels to create exclusive new products that would lower music prices. In a short-lived test, Universal excerpted seven songs from existing albums by acts such as Sum 41 and Ashanti and sold them at Wal-Mart for $7. Few other labels wanted to participate. "They proposed it to a bunch of artists and managers, but everyone was worried that we are sending a message that instead of the sixteen-track album we sold, those nine extra songs were filler," says a label executive.
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Given Wal-Mart's track record on its treatment of its own employees, it is easier to be skeptical of Scott's promises -- cheap, energy-efficient air-conditioners for the people!-- than Bill Gates'. Gates is clearly devoting the rest of his life to spending his accumulated billions to improve the quality of life for the people living on this planet. Whether that can be done via a "bottom-of-the-pyramid" strategy in which businesses sell products such as cheap skin whitener to poor Indians is very much open to question, but Gates' commitment is not. Meanwhile, Scott's speech rings with all the sincerity one would expect from a major public relations campaign.
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Wal-Mart says it wants to democratize organic food, making products affordable for those who are reluctant to pay premiums of 20 percent to 30 percent. At a recent conference, its chief marketing officer, John Fleming, said the company intended to sell organic products for just 10 percent more than their conventional equivalents.
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Horowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council said that in the past, Wal-Mart had successfully reduced diesel use by its trucks and electricity use in its stores. "Now," he said, "they are taking the next step � to look at the energy used to make and operate the products they sell."
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[A] New York Times editorial responded that "if Wal-Mart wants to improve its image, it should focus less on shaping its message and more on changing the way it does business. These damaging news stories are not a product of bad spin, but bad facts. If Wal-Mart wants to do a better job in telling its story, it needs to work on having a better story to tell." [21]
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