Effective in branding itself as the low cost leader, Wal-Mart’s efforts to attract purchases of higher end merchandise have not met expectations according to a leaked report to The New York Times. Brand perceptions take years, if not decades, to craft and the report showcased a disconnect with Wal-Mart’s approach to reach new audiences. A key takeaway is that consumers are looking to the overall values of what the brand represents – not just “lowest cost”.

Special call-outs were made to local firms Target, BestBuy and Kohls on how their differentiating brand strategies have been successful in reaching new consumers.

All was not dire for the Bentonville crowd, they do take a leadership role in what is termed the “zero-time”shopper:

That [Wal-Mart's] environment is conducive to “zero-time” shopping, in which a customer spends just a few seconds thinking about a product, like a new bottle of dishwashing soap. “But people don’t buy electronics, home décor and apparel in zero time,” the report says.

Of course, I have to feature my favorite loyalty program to address zero time shopping. It’s all about the brand perception at the point of purchase while consumers are making the on-shelf decision.

Via The New York Times

Three things Al Gore and I have in common:

1. A shocking disregard for organization and/or filing. (Shanon, are you reading this?)
2. A fondness for computer hardware with images of partially eaten fruit laser-etched into them.
3. Neither of us are running for president.

Photo via Time.

From Slate.com, regarding the USPS’ new “forever stamp” that you can buy today and use whenever you want regardless of what happens to postal rates in the future:

The 20-cent stamp from 1981 would be equivalent to 45 cents in today’s dollars—which makes today’s rate 10 percent cheaper than it was 26 years ago. Should this historical pattern hold, you’d be paying more for today’s forever stamps than you would for any stamp in the future, no matter how high the rate goes.

So how long until postage is free? Had I been paying attention in school, I could answer that.

Via Kottke.

indexed: my favorite website for the next fifteen minutes.

Microsoft’s new Silverlight is getting some high-profile buzz, despite the fact that it’s from Microsoft. Apparently, there’s still some talent in the old girl. I’m thrilled that MS is embracing all the web’s users with Silverlight, not just the ones who haven’t jumped the IE ship yet. I’m also looking forward to this lighting a fire under Adobe’s Flash. While I’m not all that jazzed about using a new plug-in without critical mass market share, this’ll still be fun to watch.

(And yes, Mark beat me to the punch on this by two whole weeks.)

Via TechCrunch here and here.