Walmart Jon Yanoff New Media & Public Relations, Fall 2013 News Release Strategy Walmart is one of the largest retail store in the world and provides a large amount of press releases to advertise new products being offered at big discounts, new services, and involvement with many charitable type projects. Based on the Walmart press releases and responses to the press releases it looks like there are opposing views for almost every press release. The only time they don’t get negative responses are when they announce something to do with charity or giving to a cause. Looking at some recent press releases and how they were viewed by outsiders really sent different messages from time to time. I picked five press releases from recent months to review. On October 1, 2013 Walmart announced the opening of two large distribution centers to deliver online orders faster and at lower cost. In the press release they mentioned how this will provide many new jobs in Texas and Pennsylvania and increase “access to more than five million products”. They also bragged about $10 billion in sales for the year. However, Zacks Equity Research looked at this very differently. Zacks said Walmart is “battling sluggish sales” and trying to destock inventory. Zacks also stated that Walmart is signaling weaker sales for the rest of the year. On August 26, 2013 Walmart announced they are increasing the hiring of more veterans and that they are the world’s largest private employer. The highlight they are welcoming veterans home and currently have 100,000 veterans. However, Forbes wrote a release bashing Walmart for hiring more temporary workers so they can get out of offering benefits. Forbes also said Walmart is in the process of transitioning 35,000 people from temporary to part time and employment is flat even after opening new stores. On August 2,2013 Walmart announced the U.S. District court ruled in favor of them on a gender discrimination class action. Walmart continued to say they have a strong policy against this for many years and it’s a great place for women to work. They said “ lawsuit was driven by five people and they employ thousands of women.” However, the Huffington Post wrote an article that sex discrimination at Walmart is alive and well according to lawyers that interviewed thousand of female employees. The Huffington Post went on to say that women pay and promotions are also problems at Walmart. And finally Huffington quoted someone saying that although Walmart is more aware of gender discrimination they haven’t solved the problem. On September 18, 2013 Walmart announced they are opening a store in Coats, North Carolina and it will create 30 jobs and easy access to shopping and a pharmacy. Walmart said they are helping save lives in the military and looking forward to working with Coats residents. However, shortly after this press release The Sun Journal printed an article saying how opponents are vowing to continue the fight against the Walmart opening because it will put the local gas stations, grocery story and pharmacy out of business. The local town is trying to pass a law prohibiting a large Walmart from being built there. They have scheduled a public hearing. Walmart told them they are not planning to include a pharmacy but it will include a gas station. It looks like Walmart has a large amount of people that don’t want this store built in the town. On July 22,2013 Walmart announced it was going to give $2.5 million to the Heller School’s Youth Community fund. The center focuses on youth employment through the summer. Walmart goes on to say the Walmart Foundation “is committed to helping people live better through philanthropic efforts”. They also say how they try to help the needs of communities it serves including hunger relief and healthy eating. The Philanthropy News Digest then picked up the story and also announced the donation and the goals of the Heller School. There was no mention of anything negative about Walmart in this article. On July 16, 2013 Walmart announced their Back-to-School Sale and student discounts. They went on to say that they have “Gimmick-free pricing” all season long, online school supplies and a “Teachers Corner” in some locations. They stress they offer low prices and people should trust them to keep the prices low. They also say they keep their pricing low all year with no “bait and switch” tactics the other retailers use. Following this press release ABC News published an article saying Walmart Tops Retailers with Back-to-School shopping. ABC New article also speak about retail stores luring you in to get things you don’t really need but charging more for the basic school supplies. They fully backed Walmart as being the best place to buy school supplies at low costs or to look around until you can find discounts on the items. When looking at all of these press releases I feel Walmart is having more positive power when they make a press release about giving to charity or their pricing. It just looks like they get much more conflict when the make a press release about opening a new store or something to do with anything else. I don’t think I am surprised the charity press releases get good press releases. Honestly, how could someone bash them for giving to any needy kids or helping. They also are doing very well with press releases advertising how good there pricing is and how they will always be good in this area. After reading this I do feel they must be the best In price or many other press releases would bash them. They do have a lot of charity press releases and deals they offer by press release. However, they also have a large amount of press releases about new stores and other stories. I guess they have to give a press release for every store they open but it does get a lot of bad reactions from other press releases. Looking at the list of press releases I did notice they include a large amount of good things they wherever they open a store. I guess they need to keep getting this message out because they also get a lot of people against them wherever they build a new store. Walmart does try to always say how they create jobs, help people and offer very low pricing to everyone. They also always say that they are fair to everyone and don’t use gimmicks. Bibliography "Walmart Corporate - Walmart Announces New Large-Scale Centers Dedicated to Filling Online Orders." Walmart Corporate - News & Views. http://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2013/10/01/walmart-announcesnew-large-scale-centers-dedicated-to-filling-online-orders (accessed October 1, 2013). 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