This week Sears Canada kicked off its new brand positioning, “Make Every Day a Great Day” with its holiday campaign “The Gift.”
Calvin McDonald, CEO, Sears Canada, tells MiC the new positioning aims to appeal to parents, or as he calls them “great-makers” aged 35 to 45 through a TV, radio, print and experiential campaign with media from Vizeum and creative by Unitas.
“We started looking at the new brand positioning by digging into what Sears Canada sells,” he says. “The reality is that Sears Canada sells more wants than needs, and that emotional connection of happiness and what the products bring to the customers is the human emotion that the new positioning is focused on. We want to make sure we really tapped into the happiness of what our products deliver and what they are looking for when they buy them.”
That new positioning starts this Sunday with a TV spot that features family moments submitted largely from Sears Canada associates (with some popular viral videos mixed in) and plays on the emotional ties around the holidays, airing on holiday programming and movies targeting families.
“You aren’t using a lawn mower to cut grass, you are creating soccer fields,” says McDonald. “Your toaster isn’t toasting bread, it’s making a great breakfast. A cake maker is bringing together a party celebration. Because we are playing on happiness we can use emotion and humour.”
The campaign also includes a national radio buy that relies on humour to count down the retailer’s “60 Days of Gifting” and also leads up to its National Great Day where Sears Canada will surprise Canadians by granting their wishes for 24 hours on a date to be announced closer to December.
Events will play a larger role in the media plan for Sears Canada moving into 2013, says McDonald, noting that its flyers will evolve into more of promotional tools for in-store happenings such as a “Jeans You Can Breathe In” event, or one urging consumers to come in and “Make Your House a Home.”
McDonald says the focus on emotion in the new positioning helps to build out the differentiating points of Sears Canada against competitors like Walmart Canada and the incoming Target.
“Sears Canada views the way it differentiates as being on price, quality and service,” he says. “A lot of the other players like Walmart and Target play primarily on price as their main differentiator. We are very competitive on price but we aren’t going to just base on that.”
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