Better Homes & Gardens, meet Walmart

It seems that BH&G has climbed aboard the over sized Walmart bandwagon. I know many of you have very strong feelings (many justifiably so) about the retail mega-giant and it's policies here and abroad. I personally do not answer the "attention Walmart shoppers" call to arms (I'm a Target addict) but I am curious to know more about this seemingly odd pairing. Walmart has purchased the Hearst publications (BH&G's parent co) 30 Days of Home Magazine which it will use to promote it's new line of home furnishings, so the segue into branded furnishings seems a natural progression for the two. I just wonder how this partnership will affect the BH&G's brand. Even Martha Stewart couldn't make a profit on the sale of her products at K-Mart but raked in a mint due to the solid nature of her contract.


The tag line in their ads in House Beautiful is:
"Make my bedroom look like a picture in a magazine and not lose sleep over the price."


I must say that judging from the very few products that I could find on the Walmart website there is no clear brand signature to these items. I put together the combinations shown here - there is no cross product marketing that I could see. It seems to be a jumble of the same product style and quality that you would already find at Walmart and does not seem to have a strong brand image or increased quality that you would expect from a BH&G product.


I will have to take a closer look at how it is displayed in the store but I think they may have missed the boat on creating a "collection". Perhaps they should have taken some lessons from Martha Stewart - at least you could immediately tell which products were hers at Kmart.

Let me know if what you think about these products if you take a trip to the Big W anytime soon.....