To rebut arguments that it relies too heavily on part-time workers, the chain said that 74 percent of its employees work full time. To challenge claims that it offers substandard health care benefits, it writes that more than 500,000 Wal-Mart employees receive health care coverage through the company.
Greg Denier, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which is trying to organize Wal-Mart's workers, said the Web site "reveals Wal-Mart for what it is -- a low-wage-paying company that provides inadequate health care and leaves its employees pressing up against the poverty line."
Wal-Mart Stores chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. said his company has been maligned, and it is "time to draw our own line in the sand" on such issues as pay and benefits.
(Beth Hall -- Bloomberg News)
|
|
Denier said Wal-Mart does not point out that the majority of its 1.2 million U.S. employees do not receive company health care coverage. About 14 percent of employees have no coverage. The remainder, Wal-Mart spokesman Jay Allen said, rely on health care coverage from their parents, spouses, or previous jobs if they are retirees.
No single criticism triggered the media blitz, Allen said, but it followed a careful examination of consumer, employee and community leader attitudes about the chain, which were gleaned from focus groups and interviews.
"In some cases, they have misperceptions," he said. "We realize we need to tell our story better."
Allen said Wal-Mart's media campaign will not stop with press interviews and the new Web site. "We will use large and small tactics," he said, such as TV commercials, public speaking and outreach to community groups.
"We want to know what people think of us," he said.
Several retail analysts said they were surprised by the campaign's size and scope. "They have clearly taken it up a notch," said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners LLC, a retail consulting firm. "This is a big, concerted, high-budget PR campaign."
Adam Hanft, chief executive of Hanft Unlimited Inc., a New York branding and marketing firm, called the campaign "pretty heavy handed" and warned that it could backfire. Consumers usually want to hear companies admit they have made mistakes, Hanft said. "Rather than change things and talk about that change, they are saying, 'Look how good we are.' It's very defensive."
