Wal-Mart Catches Up with Hannah Montana

Wal-Mart struck potential licensing gold last week by unveiling exclusive merchandise from Walt Disney's red-hot property, Hannah Montana.Promoting itself as "Hannah Montana Headquarters," Wal-Mart rolled out more than 140 SKUs featuring the namesake character of the Disney Channel series, which stars Miley Cyrus as a high school student and secret pop star. Produced through a deal with Disney Consumer Products, products include sportswear, sleepwear, shoes, accessories, room decor, board and video games, bath products and cosmetics, as well as cakes in the bakery and frames in the vision center. The merchandising program will run through holiday 2008, according to a Wal-Mart spokesperson. Anchoring the line is apparel that targets "tweens looking for on-trend casual and athletic-inspired styles," according to a Wal-Mart press release. The products will be available in all Wal-Mart stores, with 750 locations setting up "Hannah Montana Shops" of dedicated apparel racks and four-ways in the Ladies' department. Pallets, four-ways and floorstands in Action Alley merchandise toys, bedding, cosmetics and other items; standees and posters in prominent locations communicate the campaign. The line is also being promoted through a heavy rotation of spots on Wal-Mart TV.Wal-Mart devoted an entire Feb. 3 circular to the launch, featuring exclusive merchandise as well as licensed products from other vendors, including Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats. The chain also is offering personalized printing services of Hannah imagery for apparel and accessories. Wildly popular among 6- to 14-year-old girls, the top-rated basic cable series has spawned bestselling CDs and DVDs, a sold-out concert tour and a corresponding feature film, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert 3-D. Wal-Mart's merchandise launch coincided with the Feb. 1 theatrical release of the film, which has a limited one-week run in theaters nationwide.Wal-Mart promotes the film in marketing materials and offers all-access passes for shoppers to download a music video on the Disney Channel web site. The chain is also running in-theater ads before screenings of the film and other titles targeting the same demographic. (Topping the box office, the film earned $29 million in its opening weekend.)Meanwhile, Wal-Mart promoted the Jan. 29 release of a Hannah Montana 2: Non-Stop Dance Party CD and Hannah Montana: One in a Million DVD on store-front security wraps. The chain sells an exclusive version of the CD containing an additional track, and offers a ring tone on a special microsite. In 2007, Wal-Mart leveraged one of Disney Channel's other mega-properties, High School Musical, to anchor its back-to-school campaign. (See Related Articles.)Wal-Mart's latest display strategy nurtures other licensing deals as well. Newly opened stores dedicate islands and fixtures in the toy department to specific vendors, branding the displays with wraps and headers. (See Image at right.) The displays highlight licensed product -- such as High School Musical, Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer and Dreamworks Animation's Transformers -- as well as popular lines like Hasbro's My Little Pony and Littlest Pet Shop. According to the manager of a new store in Romeoville, IL, the displays will be replaced or updated every season, in line with trends and theatrical releases. Meanwhile, stores continue to grant ample placement to toy brands. New SKUs from Hasbro's Littlest Pet Shop, for instance, are merchandised on endcaps and pallets in Action Alley.Elsewhere, Wal-Mart has sharpened its sustainability expectations for suppliers. The chain enacted its "Packaging Scorecard" (see Related Articles) on Feb. 1 to rate more than 97,000 items from 6,371 vendors. The company recently touted a sustainability effort by General Mills, which reduced packaging for Hamburger Helper by changing the shape of its noodles.In other corporate activity, Wal-Mart:restructured its apparel business by closing the product development and sourcing divisions and relocating the brand merchandising division to fashion-focused New York City. (The company's apparel-buying unit will remain at corporate headquarters.) &nbspis reportedly planning a 15,000-square-foot convenience store prototype in Arizona in response to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. (See Related Articles.)&nbspsigned franchising agreements with Dallas-based Campero USA and Tulsa, OK-based Beautiful Brands International to open branches of Pollo Campero and Camille's Sidewalk Cafe, respectively, in select stores. Both restaurants will begin to roll out in 2008. Wal-Mart plans to open 200 Camille's locations in five to 10 years. &nbspdiscontinued its online movie download service from Hewlett-Packard after less than one year of operation. The chain has already announced a replacement service, which uses its own distribution channel.Wal-Mart, Bentonville, AR, operates 2,453 supercenters, 979 discount stores, 128 Neighborhood Markets and 586 Sam's Clubs nationwide (as of January 2008). Last month, the company appointed Jack Sinclair as executive vice president of grocery merchandise. Sinclair formerly handled grocery retailing for Britain's Safeway plc and Tesco Stores Ltd.

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