Sears 'Reimagines' Itself

Sears is imagining a turnaround with an intregrated spring branding campaign dubbed "Reimagine You." The effort gets a major assist from Hearst Corp.'s magazine division, which provides the campaign with co-branded content and several key marketing vehicles.Running through mid-May, the campaign incorporates products from all categories and consists of P-O-P activity, print ads, TV spots and online components. The "Reimagine You" theme reflects a shift in the chain's recent marketing strategy, which moves away from one-time promotions to establish an emotional bond with consumers, chief marketing officer Richard Gerstein told Brandweek. In stores, pink-and-blue ceiling banners, rack headers and other signs carry the "Reimagine" message in various departments -- interspersed with a large number of yellow-and-black "clearance" signs. (The branding focus also took a secondary role in March 30 circulars, where a buy-one-get-one-free sale on apparel and accessories took center stage.)In the tools department, a sign featuring Hearst's Popular Mechanics logo reads "the garage reimagined," a theme that also appears in TV spots starring the magazine's contributing editor, Joseph Truini.Signs featuring similar connections between departments and Hearst titles are showcased as window displays in some stores and include "the bedroom reimagined" by House Beautiful, "the wardrobe reimagined" by Redbook and "home entertainment reimagined" by O at Home. Hearst's in-house ad agency, Studio H, created a 36-page Reimagine You magazine with three sections -- "Reimagined People," "Reimagined Homes" and "Reimagined Stuff" -- that spotlight Sears products being used by Hearst editors. Seven million copies were polybagged with the April subscriber editions of Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, House Beautiful, Marie Claire, O at Home, Popular Mechanics, Redbook and two other magazines; 400,000 issues will be inserted into four Hearst newspapers; and an additional two million copies will be distributed in Sears stores. Y&R, Sears' Chicago-based creative agency, handles the advertising, which sets aside the chain's "Sears. Where it begins" tagline for the time being to use the "Reimagine" theme. Hearst's Studio H also chips in with an interactive microsite offering tips from "Team Reimagine," which includes magazine editors, ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition host Ty Pennington, and HGTV personality Eric Stromer. (Sears has merchandised an exclusive Ty Pennington home product line since 2005, and launched a Craftsman tool line with Stromer in June 2007.) The microsite links to the Sears website for purchases. The site also promotes a "Sears Home Giveaway" sweepstakes that awards a grand-prize $300,000 for either a mortgage payment or new-home purchase. Shoppers are automatically entered when they use their Sears credit cards. Standees near store entrances also communicate the sweeps, which runs through March 29.Sears also is running digital ads on the websites for the nine magazines distributing the Reimagine publication. The campaign's total budget is between $50 million and $75 million, according to The New York Times.In other current activity, Sears is reaching out to high school students with an application on the Facebook social network site. Designed by Chicago-based WhittmanHart Interactive, the application lets girls share their favorite prom dress styles from Sears with Facebook friends. WhittmanHart also designed an online "Prom Premiere" boutique for the chain.Sears Holdings Corp., Hoffman Estates, IL, operates 2,058 Sears and 1,382 Kmart stores nationwide. Sales at Sears fell 8.5% to $8.0 billion in fourth-quarter 2007 and 4.6% to $27.8 billion for the full fiscal year (ended Feb. 2). Comparable-store sales fell 4.0% in both periods. The retailer this month named Robert Raible vice president, integrated marketing communication. He previously was vp-marketing at Mervyn's. Raible will assume some of the duties of Rebecca Case, the vp-marketing, advertising and creative who this month announced her intention to leave after seven years. Raible will report directly to Gerstein.

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