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With its stock slipping to a two-year low, Wal-Mart held its first media day. Several dozen reporters were invited to hear CEO Leo Scott talk about how Wal-Mart was "good for America." That should do the trick.
The company, which can be very secretive about its competitive advantage, was surprisingly open about how it plans to get its edge back.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the company plans to "improve the shopping experience by offering more fashionable apparel and trendier storage containers." (Who knew storage containers could be trendy in the first place? And how do you make them appear trendier to middle-America? Cover them with rhinestones?)
My favorite snippet from the article followed, however. The Journal reports: "It [Wal-Mart] also vowed to be more offensive in its public relations tactics and to be more aggressive in price cuts.” Of course, Wal-Mart's problem is that its p.r. tactics are a wee bit offensive in the first place.
The problem with holding a media day, as Wal-Mart has learned, is that business journalists--unlike their counterparts who cover politics--won't simply reprint the bromides uttered by the leader. Sometimes, they'll add a small dose of irony.
Posted by dan at 09:00 PM