Wal-Mart… failing to look beyond market forces

‘You have to feel for the PR pros at Wal-Mart,’ says Tom Murphy at Natterjack PR. He’s been reading this Salon.com article which begins with a list of eleven PR disasters to have befallen the world’s largest retailer, trading as Asda in the UK. Salon’s Liza Featherstone reveals that Wal-Mart is suffering from much more than a bit of bad press. There’s a concerted effort on behalf of a large coalition of well funded and well organised activists ‘determined to change the company’s entire business model’ following its ‘disregard for the public interest in a single-minded pursuit of the bottom line’.

Yet Tom shouldn’t feel too bad for the ‘PR pros at Wal-Mart’. They’re on the cutting edge of the evolution from market orientated business to responsible corporation.

That Wal-Mart’s pursued the bottom line relentlessly is not in doubt. It’s a business that understands what customers want and its marketing demonstrates an ability to understand, exploit and manipulate market forces to deliver profit. What’s missing is an effective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme through which Wal-Mart may demonstrate an understanding of society’s hopes, fears and aspirations.

The real battle for the PR pro is not with activists, but with Wal-Mart’s own embedded culture. It’s a task made all the harder by the undoubted success (on its own terms at least) of the current business model. The role its PR pros should aspire to is that of the enablers who will allow Wal-Mart to engage in a genuine dialogue with all who have a stake in its business (not just shareholders and customers). Key to that will be accepting the impact Wal-Mart has in the social and environmental arenas.

Sadly it’s a battle the PRs are losing. Having failed to take responsibility, Wal-Mart faces regulation. Salon reports that anti-Wal-Mart lobbyists have succeeded in passing legislation to recoup the costs the business imposes on tax payers. The big stick is coming. To survive Wal-Mart must adapt and evolve from a market orientated business to one that looks beyond market forces and embraces the corporate social responsibility agenda.
Contact Stephen Newton

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