A Marketing Lesson for QVM?

In August 2011 the struggling K-Mart launched its “1000 Mums” campaign and changed customer perceptions forever. They also saved themselves from the chopping block. You will remember the TV ads – groups of Mums examined products and then tried to guess their prices. The revealing of actual (low) prices brought genuine excited reactions from the Mums and their infectious enthusiasm obviously translated to customers with sales up by 25 million additional products.

K-Mart had already adopted an EDLP (everyday low prices) model but it took this campaign to translate the message effectively and gain the market share they were looking for. Campaigns like this obviously don’t happen by accident and the combination of some intense market research by Forethought Research and the creative input of Belgiovane Williams Mackay (BWM) produced an award winning campaign. 

The big plus was that this achievement was scored during a time of retail downturn. Wesfarmers had seriously considered whether K-Mart should be closed down. It is comforting to know that, given the right research and marketing input, success can be achieved. Now, I wonder if that would work on a certain public retail market?