According to Crain's Chicago Business, Wal*Mart is poised to take advantage of the current economy and to muscle out even more of its competition in the Chicago market. Over the past year, Wal*Mart has almost doubled it's share of Chicago's $12 billion market, to the detriment of local competitors Dominick's and Jewel-Osco. With stronger capital and distribution chains at its disposal, Walmart is up to the challenge.

What's worse, in previous years, both Dominick's and Jewel-Osco have lost market share to upscale retailers like Whole Foods. Now, with the economy taking a turn in the other direction, they will be feeling competition from the bottom as well as the top.

What are Dominick's and Jewel-Osco to do? Well, Meyer&Wallis happens to be a retail marketing specialist. And in the not-too-distant past, we actually took on Wal*Mart in a similar situation, and won. What? When? How??

A few years ago, we had the Meijer superstores as a client. After years of impressive growth and rising market share, Meijer caught the attention of Wal*Mart, who then opened stores directly adjacent to many Meijer locations, many in the suburban Chicago area. Meijer expected to lose considerable market share to the more established Wal*Mart. In fact, they felt their very existence was in jeopardy.

Meijer’s first instinct was to lower prices, but under the agency’s counsel, knew this was not a sustainable long-term solution. The agency felt the only way to survive would be to attract customers who had rejected Meijer as a shopping destination. Out of our own coffers, we commissioned research to find out who had rejected Meijer and why.

Armed with research findings, we created television, radio and print ads that spoke to and empathized with female rejectors. We appealed to the belief that they were the “CEOs of their households” and offered them a shopping experience that would save them both money and time – two of their greatest concerns.

Due to Wal*Mart’s significant presence, Meijer did indeed lose 9 share points to Wal*Mart. However, we gained 11 share points by winning over previous rejectors.  Bottom line...Meijer actually gained 2 share points despite Wal*Mart opening stores in 40 of Meijer’s measured markets, and they continue to thrive today.

Incidentally, we've also had Dominick's and Jewel-Osco as clients, helping them survive similar challenges within the supermarket world.

When it comes to retail marketing, especially supermarket marketing, no one has more experience, or has engineered more successes on behalf of their clients, than Meyer & Wallis. That's just the truth.

Is your business in the shadow of the Wal*Mart of your industry? We might have a few ideas for you...