1. Sears stores and the Sears Roebuck catalog were American icons
for decades. Up until the 1980s Sears was the largest retailer in the
United States. Thinking about the four elements of the retail
marketing mix, Product, Place, Price, and Promotion, describe the
strategies Sears used to meet customer needs, and achieve its high
level of success.
a. When Sears first started back in 1886 they were just a measly
little mail-order catalog. Not shortly after their sales
skyrocketed and the seed for success had been planted for
Sears. In a very short time period, by the early to mid-1900s
Sears had become a popular name throughout the nation. Not
much later, in the 60s to the 80s, Sears was the American
staple for retail shopping. As far as why the company
succeeded according to the retail marketing mix would be as
follows
i. Product: Sears truly had anything that someone could
want and they were the first people to do it. So as far as
the products go they were the place to go. From a bag
of chips to a lawn mower Sears had it all.
ii. Place: Now Sears was everywhere. This isn’t an actual
fact, but if you drove in any direction for no more than
30 minutes you’d probably hit a Sears, back in the 80s
that is. Sears was doing so well they knew they had to
put as many stores as possible in as many areas as
possible to be able to be accessible to everyone. As for
place Sears had this element in the bag.
iii. Price: In the height of their business Sears prices were
unmatchable especially with the quality of the brand
you were getting. The two brands that were repeatedly
mentioned were Craftsman tools and Kenmore
appliances which are still to this day very recognizable
brands.
iv. Promotion: Promotion was really unnecessary to them
throughout their career at this time, they were
uncomparable. The only type of promotion they used
was their slogan “Where America shops”.
2. Using the same four elements of the retail marketing mix, discuss
why Sears is no longer meeting customer needs compared to
competitors
a. Product
i. Sears was starting to fail their customers in many ways,
but I do not feel that their array of products was one of
them. They most definitely could’ve done a better job at
marketing them, but they did have everything the
