Larry Kamer, founder of Kamer Consulting Group, has plenty of experience in community relations. Several years ago, he was part of a team helping to introduce Wal-Mart to the
small Northern California town of San Liandro. Wal-Mart was set to take over a strip mall location deserted by Kmart, but the community began grumbling almost instantly about the
threat to mom-and-pop businesses in the area.
We chatted with Kamer about the careful research on community opinion and the straightforward strategies used to convince San Liandro residents that they were "Not Afraid of
Wal-Mart."
PRN: What research did you do to develop your campaign?
LK: We nosed around with the other tenants at the shopping center, including those that viewed Wal-Mart as a competitor, and we found they actually wanted the store to come in.
They believed whatever business they would lose would be offset by the foot traffic generated by Wal-Mart.
PRN: So that was the hook?
LK: It was the genesis for the campaign we dubbed "I'm Not Afraid of Wal-Mart." We knew we had to hit the issue head-on. Wal-Mart had to run a very meaty campaign that
intentionally raised the issue and debunked it. We ran a direct mail campaign and used the names and faces of the merchants: mom herself and pop himself talking about the benefits
of Wal-Mart. We turned a few votes around and convinced the city council.