Have Lands’ End and Sears Finally Gotten it Right? Almost.

I must admit I’ve frequently scrutinized those Lands’ End “ghettos” in Sears stores ever since Sears acquired the pride of Dodgeville, Wis., five and a half years ago. For a few years, Sears tried to sprinkle Lands’ End products amidst its mostly forgettable array of private label and largely undesirable polyester clothing.

But I’m happy to report Sears is getting closer to getting the Lands’ End integration thing right. And when I received a 12-page mini-booklet — not quite a catalog, per se — I was truly blown away. The 63⁄4-inch x 51⁄8 inch outer cover wraps around eight 63⁄4 inch x 4 3⁄4 inch pages and shows two families merrily hauling a Christmas tree through the snow, wearing their cushy Lands’ End gear. It contains the headline “Great gifts warm wishes” on top and the title, “Lands’ End Shop at Sears,” on the bottom.

The cover and inside back cover of the booklet were glued, so the piece mailed as a Standard mail bulk presort letter — far less expensive than the flat (catalog) rate — and was printed on nice-feeling recycled paper. On the inside front cover, customers are invited to get special holiday savings at the Lands’ End shop in Sears. Then on page 3, they’re offered $10 off when spending $50, and $25 off when spending $100 or more. The booklet gave a Dec. 9 deadline. (My wife, a Lands’ End mail order regular, received it at the end of November.)

The coupon page contains two barcodes so customers have to bring the booklet into the stores with them. And into the stores they must go, as the discounts are only good for Lands’ End merchandise bought inside Sears stores. It’s a retail traffic-builder for sure, but the booklet contains that Lands’ End touch and undoubtedly used a Lands’ End list. And that gives it added bonus points in my book.

The rest of the booklet contains sweaters, coats and jackets identified only by product name, number and price. It’s short, sweet and economical. And it’s a heck of a way to get loyal Lands’ End customers, who ordinarily wouldn’t be caught dead in a Sears store, to at least consider crossing that threshold. (My wife did, and when we went to Sears’ Danbury, Conn., store the other day, I couldn’t pull her out of there!)

Package Insert Gift Card
The mail piece wasn’t the only thing Sears did right this holiday season. My mother-in-law, Roberta Harris — who, next to my wife Donna, is my best focus group for multichannel marketing — called the other day to rave about what she received with a Lands’ End package.

Inside the package, in addition to the items she had ordered, was a tiny canvas bag with a key ring attached. It was a item I had noticed at a Lands’ End counter in the Sears store. Inside was a Lands’ End gift card.

The bag, which could fit maybe two golf balls, was white with blue handles, a mini-replica of one of those big canvas bags sold by many marketers. It was accompanied by a miniature catalog similar to the one my wife received. This one, however, measured 31⁄2 inches x 31⁄2 inches. It had the same cover and the “Great gifts warm wishes” header. But instead of “Lands’ End Shop at Sears,” it said “Lands’ End 1-800-800-5800 – Landsend.com.” Many of the tiny booklet’s pages were similar to the mail piece my wife received, except the focus was entirely on the Lands’ End Web site, not the Lands’ End department at Sears stores.

And the gift card wasn’t for Mom. It was a promotion for her to “fill” the gift card with $5 to $500 as a gift, so the recipient could pick from more than 100,000 choices at Landsend.com. The little booklet gave her three quick steps on how to do it:
1. Call the 800 number;
2. Purchase an amount for the gift card; and
3. Place the card in the bag.

There was one other neat touch. The package also contained a folded-up gift box measuring 4 inches x 4 inches to put the gift card in the canvas bag and inside the box. Then you could drop the box under the Christmas tree or near the menorah and, bingo, another little gift.

Lands’ End’s Influence
All this illustrates to me that the multichannel smarts of Lands’ End and its influence on Sears is starting to pay off. As much as the two entities seemed like an odd couple when Sears first acquired Lands’ End, they’re finding effective ways to milk the most out of their respective customers.

The sharp thing here is that both my mother-in-law and my wife are regular Lands’ End customers, but only my mother-in-law is a Sears regular — or at least, she used to be. My wife got the store promo and my mother-in-law got the Web promo.

If you’re a multichannel marketer with retail stores, you can take several ideas from this. First, the catalog, online and retail channels of Sears and Lands’ End are communicating quite well with one another. Although Lands’ End’s Dodgeville catalog operation retains a sizeable degree of autonomy from Sears’ ivory tower in Hoffman Estates, Ill., there appears to be a lot of back-and-forth going on. You’ve certainly heard from enough people before me that breaking down silos between retail and direct divisions only can help a multichannel business.

Second, this whole approach seems to encompass just about every aspect of multichannel marketing, from retail to Web to catalog (albeit mini-catalog) to fulfillment. The Sears/Lands’ End brain trust left no stone unturned.

Third, the company found a way to incorporate the retail-dominated gift card into direct response. And while I’m not privy to the specific results of the venture, I did a little digging to find out that the offer my mother-in-law got was quite a hit among customers as of this writing in the middle of December. I was unable to reach an official Sears or Lands’ End source, so I asked a Lands’ End order taker who told me it’s been very popular.

Clueless After All?
That conversation, however, made me think twice about just how in sync Sears is with Lands’ End. The order taker was quite familiar with the gift card offer, but had no clue about the mini-catalog my wife received for the Lands’ End shops at Sears stores. So I guess those silos still are in place between Hoffman Estates and Dodgeville, but perhaps they’re breaking down somewhat.

Bottom line, according to Mom Harris, was the cute presentation of the gift card. “This is one of the best ideas I’ve seen,” she told me. “It’s the cuteness of the little bag and key chain that made me want to do it.”

By the way, one of the best- (or worst-?) kept secrets is the reason it took Sears so long to finally establish Lands’ End departments in its stores that truly carried out the flavor of Lands’ End. An unnamed source told me that when Sears bought Lands’ End in the spring of 2002, Sears stores recently had undergone a companywide renovation. Renovating the stores all over again to make way for Lands’ End was out of the question at the time. Thus, the end result was the smattering here and there of Lands’ End products that wound up looking like an afterthought on the part of Sears store designers and merchandisers.

Personally, I still think Sears can do more with this valuable brand. I’d clear out all that Sears polyester and only sell Lands’ End clothing, but I gather that’s not in the cards. Still, little by little, Lands’ End departments are taking over and making a far better impression on customers.

As for Sears’ parent, Kmart, that’s a whole other matter. A recent stroll through a Kmart store in Great Barrington, Mass., left me with just four words to describe the Lands’ End offerings there: Oh, what a mess! Lands’ End is a brand that has no business being in Kmart, period.

(Just a little reminder to all readers: After a holiday hiatus, our next edition of Catalog Success’ The Corner View will appear in your e-mailbox on Jan. 11, 2008. Our weekly Idea Factory e-newsletter will come out next Tuesday, Dec. 18, as usual, then go on a two-week hiatus before returning to your inbox on Jan. 8, 2008, with its fresh new brand name, Catalog Success: Tactics & Tips. Until then, enjoy the holiday season.)