The Waltons

Jude Hammerle

There are four people with the surname Walton in the top seven of Forbes’s 400 Richest Americans of 2008, each of whom possesses net assets greater than $23 billion.[1] They are the daughter, daughter-in-law and sons of Sam Walton, founder and spirit guide of Wal-Mart.

Mr. Walton was not the first modern entrepreneur to understand that very low prices can create very high demand. That title goes to Frank Winfield Woolworth, creator of the “five and dime” retail concept in 1879, and one of the first purveyors of general merchandise to insist that the public be allowed to handle his goods without the physical and emotional barriers of counters and salespeople. As often happens, Woolworth’s early success inspired two capable imitators: Sebastian Sperling Kresge (1897) and George Dayton (1902). By coincidence, the big-box discount stores that grew out of Woolworth’s, Kresge’s and Dayton’s original five and dimes–Woolco, Kmart and Target–all debuted in 1962, exactly the same year Walton’s first Wal-Mart opened.

Given all that, it’s surprising that there aren’t any Woolworths or Kresges or Daytons in the top seven of the Forbes 400, or anywhere else on the list for that matter.

Sam Walton understood something that precious few billionaires ever will: for billions of people, Normal is a steeply aspirational ideal. The fact that you can afford the money and hours needed to buy and read this book probably makes you many, many, many times better off than the proud people of whom I speak. The Walton fortune was built not of the nickels and dimes that made Woolworth rich, but of the Jacksons and Franklins expended in determined pursuit of millennium-era normalcy.

In our media-driven global village, daily life puts all people in contact with all other people. This raises the bar of normalcy, especially where possessions are concerned. Wal-Mart has thrived because it has made the great trophies of our day accessible to legions of people in sixteen countries–big-ticket goods like televisions, home theater, video and audio media, bicycles, gold and silver, diamonds, appliances, china, toys, sneakers, athletic gear and just about everything else worth showing off. Because we humans do like to show off…even if it’s just that we’re Normal.

The example of Wal-Mart demonstrates that the key perception a brand must manage is the consumer’s view of his/her own self. An adulterated marketer defines its position in relation to other brands: “Always Low Prices.” Statements like this make a brand smaller, because they reduce its bandwidth to a single channel. An identity-savvy marketer improves the consumer’s position in relation to other consumers. For Wal-Mart and all other Normal brands, the bull’s eye for consumer self-perception is “I’m normal too.” Wal-Mart helps its consumers belong, and they love the brand for it. Both the consumer and the brand grow larger. Because it reflects the joy of belonging(s!), Wal-Mart’s smiley face is actually a bigger idea than its price claim. As we continue our journey through the chapters, we will see that Normal and the other three consumer display identities always point the way to the biggest brand stories possible.[2]

This is an excerpt from How Sex Sells: The Real Reasons We Buy (a work in process).

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[1] http://www.forbes.com/2008/09/16/forbes-400-billionaires-lists-400list08_cx_mn_0917richamericans_land.html

[2] For background, see: Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (McGraw-Hill, 1964), Chapter 9, The Written Word.