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MONEY MONEYLINE SOFTER SIDE OF SEARS Sara Nathan 08/17/1999 USA Today FIRST Page 01B (Copyright 1999)
Spurred by soft sales, Sears will announce today that it is dropping its 6-year-old "softer side of Sears" ad campaign and replacing it with ads that represent the retailer's full range of products. "The old campaign didn't talk about all that Sears does," says Lee Antonio, a Sears spokeswoman. The retailer's apparel sales, which had grown for five consecutive years, began to decline last year. The new ad campaign is expected to begin airing early next month in time for its back-to-school campaign. Analysts regard "the softer side of Sears" ad campaign as one of the most effective of the decade.
DOT COM EFFECT: A Purdue University study showed that the stock
price of companies that changed their names to show their links to
the Internet rose 125% from five days before the switch was
announced to five days after. Over a longer period, the average
price per share of the companies surveyed rose from $2.15 15 days
before the announcement to $5.86 15 days after the change was
publicized. The average volume traded for the period rocketed from
14,124 shares to 66,500. The most striking effect was for
non-Internet companies that said they would shift their focus to the
World Wide Web. Their prices rose 189% in the 30 days surrounding
the name change.
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