
Sears to close 150 stores, sell Craftsman brand for $900m - ilamont
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/01/05/sears-close-stores-sell-craftsman-brand-for/Gb5SBVY7C66MAdPyl8TkGI/story.html
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mindcrime
I'm no expert, but selling off the Craftsman brand strikes me as a bit of a
dodgy decision. I would argue that the Craftsman brand is one of the most
valuable things Sears owns, and one of a small number of very valuable brands
they have. Selling that feels to me like "eating your seed corn".

Granted, they say they'll still sell the Craftsman brand, but this still seems
very short-sighted (along with selling, or trying to sell, the Kenmore and
Diehard brands).

Closing stores makes sense, as less purchasing is done at meatspace retail
stores. But I'd think you would want to double down on your strong brands, not
get rid of them.

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pasbesoin
A few years ago, I was out of town and needed a wrench to pull my car battery
to get at a burnt out headlight ("grr"..., by the way).

I stopped at a local Sears store -- first time in a long time. I found that
"Craftsman" was now being applied to essentially multiple lines of product.
Top tier "Craftsman" wrenches were still made in the U.S.A. and appeared to
have good quality. But there were... IIRC, two "lesser", yet "Craftsman"
marked lines. At least one of these was marked Made in China and had the
typical hallmarks of inexpensive Chinese manufacture. Nor did the
non-U.S.-made tools carry the legendary Craftsman guarantee/warranty.

This past year, I was in an Ace hardware store and noticed on sale a
"Craftsman" auto-battery-powered tire pump. "Wait, I'm in... an Ace?", I
thought to myself.

It's become apparent to me (my vaguely informed opinion) that Sears has
been... well, maybe "diluting" has too specific and different a meaning, in
the context of trademarks. But, they've been de facto weakening the
"Craftsman" trademark and reputation at least in recent years.

OT, but another Sears "brand" story. I heard by chance encounter this past
year from some retired out former Sears managers, that recent sales incentive
changes at Sears have actually dis-incentive-ised (?) their salespeople from
moving Sears appliances (the Kenmore brand, that has in general long had a
strong reputation for good quality/value metrics). Essentially, the
commissions on other brands (Samsung, LG, whomever) have been set higher. The
Sears salesperson earns more by selling you one of these, instead.

From what I heard from them, this was part of a reorganization that made
internal units in Sears competitive with each other rather than cooperative.
Essentially, these different elements within Sears were set against each
other, to quit significant destructive effect with respect to the organization
as a whole.

~~~
mindcrime
_But, they 've been de facto weakening the "Craftsman" trademark and
reputation at least in recent years._

Yeah, that's a good point. I'd forgotten about it, since I haven't been in a
Sears store in a while. Interestingly enough though, for the past, oh, say, 20
years or so, I'd say the _only_ reason I've ever gone in a Sears store was to
buy Craftsman tools.

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Fricken
It's kind of like watching a beloved elder recede into the fog of Alzheimer's.
The retail market has changed so much over the past quarter century, and every
step of the way their response has been too little, too late.

