Martha Stewart stalwart in home

Discount Store News, June 23, 1997

Kmart is betting the store on Martha Stewart. While the contest is just underway, it looks like a pretty good wager.

Kmart needed to revitalize its domestics departments and at the same time give consumers more reasons to shop Kmart rather than Wal-Mart, Target or other competitors. Kmart needed to think big. Even now, in its earliest stages, the Martha Stewart Everyday program is plenty big.

Steve Ryman, divisional vp for soft home, realized the potential scale of Martha Stewart Everyday on March 10, one week after the advertising hit for the MSE introduction. "The entire line blew way past our forecasts, in all regions of the country without exception," he told DSN.

MSE suppliers are poised to send new waves of line extensions and new categories of goods onto Kmart floors for the fall 1997 season.

MSE now makes up nearly 20% of Kmart's domestics skus, ramping up to 30% by Oct. 1, and close to 50% by yearend. All Kmart stores have the MSE merchandise; 1,322 stores will feature the full MSE fixture and signage presentation by yearend. Ryman said MSE will ultimately top out, by the end of 1998, at about 70% of the domestics mix.

As it gets bigger, the MSE program also gets better. The "best" level of quality, MSE Silver Label, ships in August for September sets. Kmart merchants are encouraged by the strength of "better" White Label bedding sales, which were six times the forecast. Unexpectedly, sell-throughs of White Label are pacing those of "good" Blue Label bedding.

The balance of the assortment across most categories will be national brands and Kmart's opening price point label Basic Editions.

Ryman said this segmentation is "simple and understandable" to the shopper, who this spring voted in notable strength for the light pastel plaids in open stock MSE White Label 60% cotton bedding, and for lilac hues in sheet sets.

The Silver Label line, to be boosted by October advertising, features two lines of all-cotton goods, one in an extra-soft 200-thread-count fabrication and the other a 230-thread-count sateen. Outer bedding is provided in woven jacquards, puff quilts and matelasse. "These are alternatives the consumer can't find anywhere else at comparable prices," Ryman said.

MSE bedding choices will also expand with a complete line of all-cotton flannel sheets in 16 styles, mostly woven patterns, designed by Martha Stewart Living and imported from Portugal and Spain. Kmart will add more colors to the MSE blanket/throw program in Velux, cotton and fleece fabrications. New styles in pillows and pads round out the mix.

In bath, Egyptian cotton towels in 16 colors will supplement the current MSE mix, with matching all-cotton tufted rugs. Bath accessories--shower curtains, ceramic and plastic counter-top goods, and hampers--will show up this fall in the top 400 Kmart units, rolling out to the entire chain for spring 1998.

An introduction of MSE into soft window treatments will be limited to a few skus of tab top curtains this fall. Ryman said spring 1998 will see a swelling of the MSE program to at least half the total soft window aisle.

Martha Stewart returns in strength to Kmart's kitchen assortment with this fall's unveiling of a complete tabletop planogram, supplied by Town & Country and supplemented by Audrey, which Ryman said includes some unique fabrications. He asserted, "This will set the mass merchant table-top world on its head."

The presentation, up to 20 ft. in the largest stores, will feature a mix of vinyl and fabric tablecloths, runners, seat pads, placemats, napkins, napkin rings--and even outsized "lapkins." Ryman noted that like all the MSE merchandise, this program is "inspired by Martha's home textiles, designed that way, but priced competitively."

By the time the new programs fill the shelves this fall, Kmart will be preparing its second edition of a new special order MSE in-store catalog. Unveiled at the end of June, the first edition, a 42-page hard-bound domestics catalog, was shipped to all stores ready to unpack and display in a custom-built end stand. Rather than a giveaway idea-generator such as the handsomely produced 28-page MSE Colors paint brochure, this catalog stays attached to the display.

The theory behind the domestics catalog has evolved.

"It was meant originally for the stores that can't carry more than, say, 10 of 16 colors or for when a store was out of stock," Ryman said. Armed with the catalog, a toll-free number and a tablet of order forms, the shopper could supplement her in-store purchase by ordering directly from the catalog.

"We will take it a step further," Ryman told DSN. The catalog will include items available only through the Kmart/MSE fulfillment center, such as custom window treatments. Ryman said the potential exists to take the catalog beyond a convenience to a think-big catalyst.

"In the future, we could feature room-size rugs, hard and soft window treatments, even showcase whole bedrooms down to the wallpapers and lampshades," Ryman said.

Beyond the flood of MSE domestics and the dovetailing MSE Colors paint department, Kmart has the potential to round out its total home categories by a more spirited approach to RTA furniture and housewares.