Walmart, Publix, Bi-Lo and Aldi

Sahad Khilqa

Term Paper

Date: Dec 5, 2016

TERM PAPER

Introduction

Walmart, Publix, BI-LO and Aldi are the companies that chosen for the term paper. Even though the companies are not related to my field in civil engineering, it has been decided to do an evaluation for them previously in assignment 2.5 from engineering management point of view and particularly from corporate communication efforts point of view. The set of objective criteria developed by the class to use in evaluating these corporate communication efforts is the message, media, branding (logo), social media, Press release, and constituencies.  These companies are merchandising companies and they are retailer and wholesalers. (Fred Phillips, 2013)

1. Message

• Walmart

Walmart sales reach in average over $1billion a day (Phillips, F., & Libby, R., 2011). On Walmart website, Walmart mission statement says “Saving people money so they can live better.” It is synonymous to the company’s slogan, “Save money. Live better.” The reputation of Walmart depends on this statement where its strategy takes place mainly on selling items with low marginal profit. It depends on the amount or the number of the sales to achieve a good net profit. Therefore, the message is clear and direct, and thereby people believe in this message. However, in my opinion, the second part of the statement “Live better” is not clear Walmart wages is low comparing to the other stores especially there are 2.2 million employees working at Walmart and barley they can meet their life expense. (FERGUSON, 2016). Walmart has consistency of the messages

• Publix

Publix was the largest employee-owned grocery chain in the US (https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232363)  in 2015; the retail sales reached $ 32.4 billion. According to Publix website, its mission statement says “premier quality food retailer in the world.” And to achieve this Publix comments

• Passionately focused on customer value,
• Intolerant of waste,
• Dedicated to the dignity, value and employment security of our associates,
• Devoted to the highest standards of stewardship for our stockholders, and
• Involved as responsible citizens in our communities. (http://corporate.publix.com/about-publix/company-overview/mission-statement-guarantee).

The message is clear, and the type of food retailer sold in Publix is good. However, the organic food in Publix has a high price comparing to the regular food and though the message may improve by adding something about health. For example, in my opinion, the message can say “your health desires the premier quality food retailer in the word.” The consistency in the messages is good.

• BI-LO

“BI-LO is a supermarket chain owned by Southeastern Grocers. As of October 2015, the company operates 180 supermarkets under the BI-LO brand in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia” the website wrote. (http://40w.bdcij.press/). BI-LO does not have a clear mission statement or slogan and according to its website on the page about us says “BI-LO LLC, is a subsidiary of Southeastern Grocers, which is the fifth-largest conventional supermarket in the United States based on store count. BI-LO LLC employs more than 15,000 associates who serve customers in 182 grocery stores and 88 in-store pharmacies ...” The message is not clear or direct, and instead, it can be seen that the information is for history facts. https://www.bi-lo.com/about

BI-LO messages are not consistent.  

• Aldi

Aldi’s mission statement explained in its philosophy and according to its website says “Our unique business model enables us to provide the highest quality products at the lowest possible prices...” http://aldiuscareers.com/about-aldi/our-philosophy. The message is clear and direct, and it can be understood as that the store will provide customers with what has been mentioned. This is what do you find when you go to Aldi.  The messages are strongly consistent

1. Media

• Walmart

Almost all the kinds of media that have been used by Walmart such as social media, youtube, Newsletter, and Ads. The Walmart website is very efficient where the push information covers almost all that a customer searches for. The pages can answer quickly to what is in the client's mind. The favorite part of the website is the searching bar where you can type anything to buy it. Also, the pull information is available where you can create an account and contact them via email or phone. Here is Walmart website “ https://www.walmart.com/.”

• Publix

Publix website has the features that the customers need. Also, it has an interesting web page which is the saving page. On this page, a customer can find or save some of his money. Also, the pull information is vast and can provide with types of products in any Publix store. There is a banner on the website that changes like a digital signage with access information. That makes the site dynamic, and the customer would not feel bored if he/she spent a long time in exploring the site. The search bar is not like Walmart site.  It is worth mentioning that Publix uses a different type of digital media and it’s impeded to its website such as Facebook, Youtube.  Also, all the social media sites are connected to the site. Here is the Publix website http://www.publix.com/

• BI-LO

BI-LO web page is very organized. The customer can find at the top left the “Weekly Ad” button to click at first glance when he/she opens the website. The pull information is available, and the banner is automatically changing to show more banner Ads. On the contact page, customers can write their comments and send it to the customer services, so this how someone can interact with services to push information. Same as the other Stores that mentioned above, BI-LO website is impeded with all different type of social media. Press release page is little bit hiding; it has been put on the “Contact us” web page. If I were a person in charge about the website, I would remove it from its current location and put on the main web page “Home.” Instead of having two buttons for “Weekly Ad,” we can change one to make for “Press.”  Here is the website