Kmart launches Silver Label in Martha Stewart Everyday: first-ever toy catalog key to aggressive holiday marketing

Discount Store News, Oct 6, 1997 by James Mammarella

NEW YORK -- Kmart has aligned key marketing and merchandising efforts for the fall and holiday months, launching the Martha Stewart Everyday Silver Label in bed and bath and its first-ever toy catalog.

Essential marketing events began with an MSE Silver Label all-cotton TV spot on Sept. 21 followed by the MSE Silver Label direct mail catalog on Oct. 1 which went to 18 million homes. Other key marketing dates include:

* MSE white sale TV spot, Oct. 5;

* Kmart circular. MSE 4-page lead-in, Oct. 5;

* Kmart toy catalog, prior to Nov. 1;

* Holiday Penny & Rosie TV spot, Nov. 16.

Kmart will deliver its first-ever toy catalog to take full advantage of the lucrative fourth quarter holidays and challenge its rivals Toys "R" Us and Wal-Mart. The circular-sized 48-page, all-color piece will be mailed directly to 30 million households near its top 975 stores.

The catalog coupons will represent over $1,000 of instant savings, an incentive level that matches the amount offered in last year's Toys "R" Us holiday catalog.

The Kmart catalog will feature toys representative of its entire assortment, including video and computer games. The catalog promotion will kick off Toy Mania events, and will be used to complement the regular schedule of toy promotions in Kmart's Sunday circulars.

Kmart will also likely bolster its holiday promotions with a storewide incentive, especially after the rousing success of its 1996 effort. Last year's day-after-Thanksgiving launch featured a Dalmatians gift bag giveaway.

Meanwhile, Kmart is rolling out the second wave of its exclusive Martha Stewart Everyday collection with minimum fanfare and consumer exposure.

Addressing a crowd of vendors, media representatives and analysts at Manhattan's Astor Place Kmart on Sept. 24, chairman, president and ceo Floyd Hall joined Martha Stewart, Warren Flick, president U.S. Kmart stores, and numerous top Kmart executives to celebrate the launch of the second wave of MSE.

Hall said the Martha Stewart Everyday line, which debuted last March, will have delivered $450 million in home textiles sales by yearend. He projected that MSE will do $1 billion during 1998, which he said would make it "the No. 1 brand in home textiles in the world."

The MSE Blue Label (Kmarts "good" line) and White Label (the "better" line) in bed and bath have provided double-digit gains to Kmart's soft home department, beating plan, he said.

The rollout extends MSE to window curtains and soft kitchen, takes bedding into fleece throws, blankets, mattress pads and pillows, and adds the "best" quality Silver Label all-cotton line in the form of 230-thread-count sateen sheets and pillow cases, 200-thread-count bedding, flannel sheets, quilted and jacquard comforters, matelasse coverlets and shams, and a 14-color bath program featuring Egyptian cotton. Over 30 vendor partners now produce the MSE collection.

Flick said MSE will account for 50% of Kmart's soft home volume by spring 1998, and 70% by fall 1998. Of Kmart's 2,122 locations, 1,250 will feature store-in-store MSE shops by early 1998.

To add seasonal interest over the next few months, harvest and Christmas themes will flow into soft tabletop as endcap presentations in addition to the core patterns, said Steve Ryman, divisional vp soft home and MSE brand director.

Ryman and Don Keeble, executive vp store operations, told DSN that the next big push for MSE would come in the gardening area. Shoppers could see a few tools or garden decor items by spring 1998, but the assortment will really flower in spring 1999. Kitchen hard lines like cookware and serveware on are the back burner for now.

Meanwhile, Kmart senior vp, gmm home and consumables Andy Giancamilli is charged with supporting the MSE customer service component by delivering on-the-job training to Kmart store clerks garbed in MSE aprons and dubbed "Martha managers." They will provide answers to shoppers' basic questions about product attributes, and assist with the ordering process at the in-store MSE catalog kiosk.

To a great degree, however, the products and packaging speak for themselves. Flick said customers have been buying complete coordinate ensembles in both bath and bed.

Stewart commented that shoppers' enthusiastic purchases of the lighter colors in the 180-thread-count Blue Label program, along with rapid acceptance of the mix-and-match elements of the White LabeL proves the mass market is ready for seeing and buying collections as a whole.

She predicted that educating the consumer on the home decor reasons for more frequent changes of bedding styles will activate faster merchandise turns at retail for Kmart.

Sharon Patrick, president of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia said the early results have validated the demand in the mass market for domestics and home decor to be "instant, easy [and] affordable." Emphasizing the opportunity for the 100% cotton Silver Label line, she said that all-cotton products made up 23% of all retail domestics volume in 1995, growing to 27% in 1996.

Kmart will learn how fast discount store shoppers will embrace the more fashionable Silver Label goods, with prices that range up to $34.99 for queen size open-stock sateen sheets ($39.99 king), $25.99 for queen size 200-thread-count sheets ($35.99 king), $18.99 for a pair of queen size pillowcases ($21.99 king), and $89.99 for full or queen size puff quilt comforters ($99.99 king).