Monday, October 20, 2008

Better Homes & Gardens, meet Walmart


It seems that BH&G has climbed aboard the over sized Walmart bandwagon. I know many of you have very strong feelings (many justifiably so) about the retail mega-giant and it's policies here and abroad. I personally do not answer the "attention Walmart shoppers" call to arms (I'm a Target addict) but I am curious to know more about this seemingly odd pairing. Walmart has purchased the Hearst publications (BH&G's parent co) 30 Days of Home Magazine which it will use to promote it's new line of home furnishings, so the segue into branded furnishings seems a natural progression for the two. I just wonder how this partnership will affect the BH&G's brand. Even Martha Stewart couldn't make a profit on the sale of her products at K-Mart but raked in a mint due to the solid nature of her contract.


The tag line in their ads in House Beautiful is:
"Make my bedroom look like a picture in a magazine and not lose sleep over the price."


I must say that judging from the very few products that I could find on the Walmart website there is no clear brand signature to these items. I put together the combinations shown here - there is no cross product marketing that I could see. It seems to be a jumble of the same product style and quality that you would already find at Walmart and does not seem to have a strong brand image or increased quality that you would expect from a BH&G product.


I will have to take a closer look at how it is displayed in the store but I think they may have missed the boat on creating a "collection". Perhaps they should have taken some lessons from Martha Stewart - at least you could immediately tell which products were hers at Kmart.

Let me know if what you think about these products if you take a trip to the Big W anytime soon.....

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, all I can say is whoever does the set design for those photos does some industrial strength fluffing up. I have never seen anything sold in the discount stores look halfway as good in person. Maybe I'm wrong this time and we'll be surprised. Then again, maybe Charlotte Moss will join the Bed-in-a-Bag contingency.

Anonymous said...

P.S. Love your new banner!

Unknown said...

Thanks Ellen, I am experimenting with the look of my blog by I am so bad at graphic design stuff!!! I need to hire a professional. If Charlotte Moss joins the brigade I'm giving up design!!!!

Anonymous said...

I don't buy or shop Walmart but had to go in when I started seeing the ads on the tube. Same Walmart junk, made in the same overseas factories, same Walmart quality. I was very disappointed to hear that BH&G was working with them and more disappointed to hear Hearst sold them a piece. Their mantra has always been that they want 31% control of all the buying done here and overseas.

Unknown said...

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