Walmart Gears Up for Baby Miracles

Walmart enlisted a trio of partners to aid its springtime fundraising campaign for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals as it seeks to milk more profit from the highly emotional baby category.Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble returned for the second year, while Nestle’s Gerber bowed out to make room for Abbott Nutrition's PediaSure. From May 4 through June 4, purchases of PediaSure products triggered 15-cent donations (up to $70,000) while purchases of J&J’s Johnson’s Baby, Aveeno Baby, Desitin, Infant Tylenol and Infant Motrin triggered $1 donations (up to $200,000). Procter & Gamble pledged a $200,000 donation in June.The pledges are still detailed on a seasonal microsite within walmart.com that also delivers a video (see below) of one Walmart employee's experience with CMN Hospitals. A May 17 Facebook update also carried the video (which Walmart first uploaded to its YouTube channel last spring). In stores, brands such as Johnson’s Baby provided custom displays.From May 4 through June 14, Walmart also collected shopper donations through the long-running “Miracle Balloon” effort. Checkout signs at Walmart and sister chain Sam’s Club encouraged donations at the register. Additionally, the retailer’s exclusive White Cloud facial tissues (manufactured by Kruger Products) staged a supporting video contest enlisting public voting via social media to award three CMN hospitals $30,000 each.The retailer decked out the baby department in a “Gear up for Baby” signage package under the "Every Little Step" platform it introduced in recent years to unify marketing and merchandising activity for the category. The CMN Hospitals cause effort moved under that umbrella last year. The retailer is increasingly leveraging the platform as it continues to roll out improvements to in-store baby departments. Various enhancements spotted in some stores include:wooden flooringa unified, themed in-line headerout-of-the-box stroller, car seat and crib merchandisingenhanced navigational signagewhat appears to be a category management system from GerberOn walmart.com, an Every Little Step content hub promises advice for new parents in conjunction with a “one-stop baby shop.”

P2PI MEMBERS

JOIN P2PI

You May Also Like

J&J Campaign at Walmart Supports Tree Planting

Report: Retail Media Ad Spend on Amazon Jumped 31% in 2023