By: (AP) Wal-Mart Stores Inc., stung by a lackluster start to the holiday shopping season, said Thursday it is launching a new advertising campaign to remind its customers of its low prices.
The world's largest retailer is starting the price-focused ad blitz Friday in newspapers, television, and radio, said spokeswoman Mona Williams, and feature two dozen key items, mainly toys and electronics, on which the company is cutting prices. "That's what people are buying," she said.
The company has customarily shunned ads printed on newspaper pages themselves, but Williams said the company is buying what's known as run-of-press ads to help get the company message out.
Wal-Mart reported growth of a mere 0.7 percent for November in stores open at least a year and said its day after Thanksgiving sales were not up to expectation.
On Thursday, the company advised that its same-store sales growth would be between 1 percent and 3 percent for December, but it left unchanged its fourth-quarter guidance of 2 percent to 4 percent growth.
Williams would not say how much the company is spending on the new advertising. She said Wal-Mart is financing the ad buys from its existing advertising budget.
"This is money that is already in the budget, but for more generic holiday advertising ... showing the store experience," Williams said. "We have now diverted that money for item-pricing advertising."
She said the company decided that emphasizing individual item prices "is a better way to deliver our price leadership message."
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