UPDATE: You can download the slides in full from these two sites:
http://rapidshare.com/files/20790789/walmart.rar.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IBCTP2LY Down.
UPDATE: Walmart Wins Because We Fumbled
Walmart Sends Us DMCA Takedown Letter For Slideshow
Walmart Confirms Slideshow, Positively Spins “Conscientious Objectors”
We received what appears to be an internal Walmart PowerPoint presentation detailing its plan to break down it customers into three core segments, a strategy that announced last week.
There’s 29 slides in total. We enjoy slide 4. On it, Walmart classifies 14% of “The Shopper Universe” as being “Conscientious Objectors.” We guess these are the people who refuse to shop at Walmart on principle.
These shoppers are defined as being “less loyal” to Walmart.
Slides 11-13 detail the “psychographics” of a price-value shopper. 14% of this group find themelves lonelier than most people. 47% say religion is an important thing in their life.
Slide 16 says that “Brand Aspirationals are behaviorally committed shoppers of Wal-Mart, but less so emotionally.”
Slide 22 says that 22% of Brand Aspirationals say they, “feel like I never have time for the people in my life.”
Kathy, can you hit the lights? Everyone hear me in the back? Ok, great, let’s get started…
If you’re interested in this material, be sure to download it and save it elsewhere, as there’s a pretty good chance someone may want us to take it down.
UPDATE: Images redacted per Wal-Mart’s request.
THE END. Slide 29 of 29. — BEN POPKEN
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“I wonder if the people shopping for “brands they trust” at Walmart realize that doing so will make those very brands less trustworthy…Their products are required to be made with lower quality to keep those “unbeatable prices” Walmart demands.”
Somewhat like factory workers shopping at Walmart, buying products manufactured in China, then complaining when the factory closes and they’re laid off.
Pretty soon, everything in the country will be low quality throw away crap. Thanks Walmart shoppers!
I’d love to see the section on Conscientious Objectors. Guess they didn’t include it b/c rule one of consultants: don’t piss off the client.
@myrall: From the limited data they do include, I’d say they have some problems. For example, they only interviewed people who admitted to shopping at discount stores, yet they weighted the results to reflect the census distribution on age, income, etc. Furthermore, if the in person interviews were computer assisted, that would probably mean they used a mall/store intercept. I’m sure discount store shoppers do not have the same demographics as the general population nor do people who are at a mall and are willing to be stopped for a lengthy interview. I’m guessing that they are probably overweighting high income / education groups. So the “Price Sensitive Affluent Shoppers” probably aren’t that affluent and may be a methodological artifact. I doubt affluents will admit to spending less because they have to stretch their budgets, worry more than average about affordable health care, or both watch PBS and read Popular Mechanics. As someone who does a lot of segmentation analysis, seeing this kind of result would immediately ring my “I’ve got an artifact!” alarm.
KevinQ…usually the bulk items per unit price is insignificantly higher (like a fraction of a penny) and usually lower despite what you want us to beleive.
Some peope are willing to pay 5 extra cents to get one easy to carry/store package than several smaller ones. CAse in point is toilet paper. I get mine at Walmart. The Angel Soft used to be 99 cents for a 4 pack, and 5.99 for a 24 pack.
I would musch rather go once a month to buy my TP, and have one large wrapped package than several smaller ones. And since it is alreayd much cheaper than any other store’s prices, that 5 cents is not a big deal.
I don’t want to come off like I’m pro-walmart – but they are around the corner from me, the checkout lines usually aren’t bad. There is an albertson’s at the other end that I shop at as well. You have to comparison shop – and be an educated consumerist (ding) – as far as being made in China – that is true of a lot of stuff. Where was that computer you’re typing on made? Might of been assembled here, but the parts were damn sure manufactured in the far east – same with your TV, Stereo, and the coffee cup I am drinking out of (just checked the bottom).
That PowerPoint presentation is kind of creepy…does anyone else get the sense of “Here is demographic profile of our enemy..we must defeat him at all costs!!!”
Granted, I’m sure most major retail chains do this kind of research, but still it makes me wonder if next they’ll be outfitting my shopping cart with a GPS vehicle location system and cameras to see what I buy, and RFID sniffers to see what I have in my wallet.
I like the comparison between Wal-Mart and the dangerous traveling carnival. It’s shopping and a show… especially Saturday night around midnight. Like the night there was a group of kids playing “assassin” with squirt guns in the parking lot, or the guys in the 4X4 playing “whip-a-cart” (where you have your buddy grab a Wal-Mart carraige and he holds on while you see how fast you can get your truck going before he has to let go).
One night around midnight, I was in the express lane, and the guy in front of me had a 12 pack of Coors and an EPT. Wow, talk about life hitting bottom. Or the creepy semi-midget in the shoe department that started talking to me and began ranting because he couldn’t get a decent pair of wingtips, and all the dress shoes must have been designed by some homosexual designer because they had square toes (his actual verbiage wasn’t that polite).
I swear, I couldn’t make stuff like that up.
Why would Wally-World treat it’s customers with any more regard than it does their employees, or the employees of the sweat shops and prison labor factories that they buy from?
Hah! Page 9- “Highly Female: 84%”
The other 16% are NASCAR fans.
For the record, this slideshow sucks. The company looks like they spent 10 minutes making it. I wouldn’t flip a penny.
Back when I was planning to start a health/hospital ratings site I was planning to go anonymous and put the actual hosting on a Dutch server site.
Consumerist should think about that for holding hot potato content (under the guise of it being run by a “friend” of Consumerist). There’s no way I would put hot potatoes on an American webhosting account. Most U.S. hosting companies and registrars roll over like lapdogs for the lawyers.
This stuff is based on a marketing philosophy called Angel and Demon customers and Best Buy has been toying with this for a while. I have some data on it here: http://www.jeremyduffy.com/best-buy-fights-the-devil/
but the parts were damn sure manufactured in the far east –
I think it’s the “WalMart” mentality that created a demand for overseas manufacturing… in school we researched why Snapper lawn mowers are no longer sold at WalMart – WalMart “told” them to start looking for overseas manufacturers… Snapper decided to keep it’s product in the US, and dropped WalMart – so if you support US manufacturing, buy a Snapper lawn mower!
research – fastcompany.com (or google – snapper walmart) The company that said no to WalMart
wal-mart by no means started this trend. kmart put american textile mills out of business well before wal-mart was a household name, electronics went abroad with the advent of radioshack & american car manufacturers have been building lemons in mexico for decades.
the mentality that really needs to be combated is the idea that cheaper is better. years of marketing have ingrained this idea in consumers. we are really becoming a “spend, don’t mend” society.
incidentally, i wonder if “conscientious objector” actually means “understands that we sell crap”.
Do depressed people with migraines shop at WalMart or are people depressed and getting migraines because they shop at WalMart? Enquiring minds want to know.
Also, some of the conclusions made in this presentation don’t match up with the numbers. In particular, take a look at the self-image numbers.
“conscientious objector”: One who can identify cheap plastic crap, manufactured by slave labor, and chooses to buy from a more responsible retailer.
Hello,
I’m an accounting major, but I’m doing a personal study and analysis on the price comparisons of WalMart and their competitors for a management class. Very Interested in the retail industry and always wanting to learn more for many reasons. I fully understand how WalMart has taken control of the industry, and how benefitial its supply chain is. But what I ask is what do all of you think of when you notice the differences of prices of WalMarts products and their competitors? Not the obvious and how huge they are, but somewhat internal thinking and strategies. Demographic aspects? Just wondering what all of you thought about it– after I’ve seen some of you write pretty interesting comments, I figured you would have valuable input. Thank You and you comments will be greatly appreciated.
Ryan