To many Americans, WalMart is known the devil of corporate America. Their ethics with employee treatment, poor customer service, and horrific working conditions for their overseas employees have put them in the dark side of American corporations. WalMart receives constant criticism with regards to these factors, and they need to change their ways before their customers shift their shopping habits elsewhere. Walmart organized a project plan to give back to their community. This should help them gain some popularity among customers, especially because they have a series of television ads running.
During the month of April, Walmart will be providing food for families in need when customer purchase Walmart brand products. They can also vote online, on facebook, or in the store for communities in need of funding and Walmart will make a monetary donation. They will donate $1 million to the top community for food support. They will also be awarding 20 other communities $50,000 each.
This appears to be an obvious publicity stunt. In companies I see that do work for community such as this, they do not run extensive ad campaigns; companies put out press releases and promotions in the stores. What do you think of Walmart's strategy? Has it changed your perception of Walmart?
I agree that it doesn't seem they are genuinely caring about the issue of food insecurity or healthy communities in general. I think this is the perception they have made for themselves; they haven't worked hard to make customers or employees trust them, so it's hard to believe whole-heartedly in their charity efforts. I've noticed their new commercials about transferring movies (in DVD format) over to simply a digital format so you can view your movies anytime and anywhere from your phone, tablet, computer, etc. but I have yet to see an ad about their efforts to do away with hunger.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting move for the retail giant. They can most certainly afford to be giving back to the communities they enter. As for the right way to be giving back to the community, I don't think it's a bad approach. Really giving anything is a positive move, but I don't think it will change the perception of the public. Wal Mart has done its best to position itself as a giant, sort of tough to relate to, but this giving back will bring a favorable light to the situation at least. I do think this will help slightly though, I don't see any giving back as a bad thing.
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