Christmas in August
On Aug. 18, Sears Holdings announced a Christmas Club card aimed at reducing consumer apprehension this holiday season. Consumers can set aside cash to earn 3%–up to $100–toward purchases at Sears and KMart.
Already, responses are mixed. There are a couple of concerns here:
- Do we have to start the holiday season in August? It's not even chilly in North Dakota.
- There's a gap in the logic. Why would a consumer start a short-term savings account that limits the very access to capital it is designed to combat?
- What does the Christmas Club do to customer perceptions? An August "holiday" promotion might push consumers to ask, "Why now? Is Sears in trouble?"
For Sears, last year's layaway resurrection and this year's Christmas Club evoke times gone by. It’s too early to know for sure, but this looks like misguided tactics. Given consumer anxiety around all things financial, I'm not sure Sears has enough trust in the bank to pull this off.
Authentic customer experiences require alignment between customer perception and brand implementation.
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