"Wal-Mart's new strategy goes back to basics: Saving money"
Recent articles about Wal-Mart in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times talk of a change in strategy. Not too long ago Wal-Mart started moving away from the "every day low prices" strategy to selling some higher priced products, but quickly realized after research that it was a bad idea. The research showed, "that its diverse customers — from poor mothers in Arkansas to upper-middle class dads in Connecticut — want the same thing from the chain: low prices."Wal-Mart's strategy of low prices over the years has turned it into an international giant, but moving away from that strategy created a misalignment, because they quickly moved away from what their customers wanted. Wal-Mart's Chief Marketing Officer said they need to proceed "with an eye toward who shops at Wal-Mart's stores, rather than who executives would like to shop at its stores." The only way to bring that alignment back into place is to offer what customers want and that's low prices.
