Wal-Mart Shares About Social and Technology

If is fairly rare to see Wal-Mart in such an outspoken mood, but they were at the recent ANA conference regarding their marketing and technology directions.  They believe that people want to share.  In AdAge:

" ... Speaking as a marketer at the Association of National Advertisers convention in Phoenix today, Walmart Chief Marketing Officer Stephen Quinn, took on the role of media vendor, too, unveiling a newly developed "Retail Development Kit" aimed at attracting more spending and participation from the small army of suppliers in the room.

 

"Technology isn't the end, it's a means to an end," he said, "and the end is people want to share." So Walmart is working to redesign every aspect of its consumer marketing and merchandising to be "social by design," he said, such as a recent partnership with Facebook to develop the My Local Walmart app customized to each of the retailer's nearly 3,600 stores -- which he said combines two major initiatives to focus on both community and technology.  It was just one sign of what a difference two years can make ... "