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Brand Failures

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Tired brands 291<br />

98 Kmart<br />

A brand on the brink<br />

One of the United States’ largest chain of discount stores, Kmart filed for<br />

bankruptcy on 22 January 2002. The action came after poor Christmas sales<br />

and the company’s inability to pay its major suppliers.<br />

The bankruptcy filing was viewed by the US business media as the<br />

culmination of a series of mistakes under Kmart’s CEO Chuck Conaway,<br />

who took over in May 2000 and launched a US $2 billion overhaul to clean<br />

up dingy stores and improve the company’s outdated distribution systems.<br />

These distribution flaws had led to many of Kmart’s most publicized ranges<br />

not being found by customers. For instance, when Martha Stewart launched<br />

her ‘Keeping’ line of brand merchandise exclusively for Kmart in June 2000<br />

she had to tell customers: ‘If you’re frustrated, keep looking.’<br />

While facing an uphill battle with distribution, Conaway embarked on a<br />

price war, challenging rival stores Wal-Mart and Target on price. The tactic<br />

failed. Wal-Mart fought back even more aggressively, Target sued, and Kmart<br />

sales remained disappointingly stagnant.<br />

Conaway was also criticized for drastically cutting Kmart’s advertising<br />

spend. Analysts believe he should have used advertising to tell consumers<br />

about the expensive clean-up operation. Kurt Barnard, publisher of Barnard’s<br />

Retail Trend Report said:<br />

I was very apprehensive when Chuck inherited Kmart and its creaky<br />

operations. But he did the right thing by diverting hundreds of millions

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