sams clubbrandaudit

Brand Audit Cole Ericson

Amy Hou

Sadie Malone

Randy Rosso

MKTG 3550

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SAM’S CLUB BRAND AUDIT

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................................................... 3

COMPANY BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................................................ 4

CUSTOMER ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5

BRAND INVENTORY ........................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Brand Elements ................................................................................................................................................................................ 6

Current Marketing Programs and Strategies: .................................................................................................................................... 7

Targeting Higher Income Households ........................................................................................................................................... 7

Growing Product Quality and Offerings ......................................................................................................................................... 8

Experience Marketing ................................................................................................................................................................... 8

POPs and PODs .............................................................................................................................................................................. 9

Points of Parity .............................................................................................................................................................................. 9

Points of Difference ....................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Branding Strategies Used ............................................................................................................................................................... 10

Sub-branding .............................................................................................................................................................................. 10

Co-branding ................................................................................................................................................................................ 10

Brand Portfolio Analysis ................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Walmart International .................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Walmart US ................................................................................................................................................................................ 11

Sam’s Club ................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Key Brand Strengths and Weaknesses .......................................................................................................................................... 12

Competitors’ Brand Inventory ......................................................................................................................................................... 12

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Competitor’s Brands ................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Competitor’s Strengths and Weaknesses.................................................................................................................................... 13

BRAND EXPLORATORY ................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Brand Image/Associations .............................................................................................................................................................. 14

Brand Positioning Analysis ............................................................................................................................................................. 14

Key Opportunities and Threats Facing the Brand ........................................................................................................................... 15

Brand Equity Analysis ..................................................................................................................................................................... 16

RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................................................................................................................................... 17

WORKS CITED .................................................................................................................................................................................. 19

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Since 2012, Sam’s Club’s reputation and revenue have been declining. Sam’s CEO, Rosalind Brewer, has been

trying to implement changes to reverse this trend but has failed to make any change in consumer perception. Therefore,

revenue continues to decrease quarter after quarter. Brewer proposed a new plan in December 2015 but it has not been

implemented yet.1

Walmart, who is the parent company of Sam’s Club, also affects the reputation of Sam’s Club. Walmart and Sam’s

Club share a similar target market, which cannibalizes sales from each other. The association with Walmart can

negatively impact Sam’s Club’s reputation, since Walmart is known for having low prices, which are often equated with

low quality as well. Since Sam’s Club should not be associated with low quality, it is recommended that Sam’s Club shifts

their brand perceptions away from Walmart’s.

After analyzing Sam’s Club’s brand elements against the six criteria, the brand proves to be strong. However,

repositioning the brand should help generate more profits. Sam’s current marketing programs focus on improving product

quality and offerings, elevating the target consumer, and enhancing the shopping experience. The CEO has recently

made a statement about ongoing plans to beat competitors through training employees on service skills and having more

of a variety of goods, including organic produce and higher quality items. Although these plans could help Sam’s Club in

gaining a competitive advantage over the competition, these PODs can be easily mimicked by competitors. The ideas to

be implemented from this audit are: to change the logo, alter the slogan, and to shift off of small business owners as the

target market.

1 "Sam's Club - Sam's Club CEO On Costco: 'We Plan To Win'". 2016. Corporate.Samsclub.Com. Accessed April 27 2016. http://corporate.samsclub.com/news-press/videos/youtube/sams-club-ceo-on-costco-we-plan-to-win-4no3rhbobg8.

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COMPANY BACKGROUND

Sam’s West, Inc. is owned and operated under the Walmart name. It is part of the retailer category under the

warehouse club and superstore industry because Sam’s Club sells a variety of products. These products include:

healthcare, auto parts, produce, and banking.2 Beyond just the merchandise, Sam’s offers small business owners loans

and support.

Sam’s Club stock is an economic increase, but that is only because it is merged with Walmart revenue.3 Sam’s

makes up a twelve percent of Walmart’s revenue, and the decrease in Sam’s business has made Walmart miss their

target sales goal.4 Sam’s has fallen out of favor with targeted consumers and is therefore losing revenue from their main

consumers compared to other warehouse clubs.5

In addition to losing revenue from the two segments, Sam’s is also competing against two other big companies that

are also in the warehouse club industry: BJ’s and Costco. Costco has had a five percent increase of growth for the past

fiscal year while Sam’s Club has not moved from the previous year.6

2 "Samsclub.Com - Sam's Club". 2016. Samsclub. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.samsclub.com/sams/homepage.jsp. 3 Sozzi, Brian. 2016. "How Costco Is Winning Its Battle Against Wal-Mart's Sam's Club". Thestreet. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.thestreet.com/story/13166984/1/how-costco-is-winning-its-battle-against-wal-marts-sams-club.html. 4 Basu, Eshna. 2016. "The Sorry State Of Sam's Club, And Why Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Can't Give Up On The Warehouse -- The Motley Fool". The Motley Fool. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/25/sams-clubs-sorry-story-and-why-wal-mart-cannot-giv.aspx. 5 Wahba, Phil. 2014. "How Sam’S Club Plans To Push Back Against Costco". Fortune. Accessed April 27 2016. http://fortune.com/2014/11/14/sams-club-costco/. 6 Wahba, Phil. 2015. "Wal-Mart’S Sam’S Club Has A Bunch Of New Services To Woo Business Members". Fortune. Accessed April 27 2016. http://fortune.com/2015/04/22/walmart-samsclub-lendingclub/?iid=sr-link1.

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CUSTOMER ANALYSIS

TRENDS: The target market consumer of Sam’s Club is more

likely to buy unhealthy snacks for low prices than he or she is to

buy nutritious foods at a premium. This segment usually does

not care about quality, but rather quantity and price.7

NEEDS/WANTS: Customers are impatient or have small

windows of time for shopping and browsing.8 Therefore, this

segment needs to be able to purchase variety of goods at

competitive prices in a short amount of time.

MOTIVATIONS: The primary motivation for a consumer to

come to Sam’s Club is to buy low priced products in bulk.

Customers are impartial to having non GMO, organic, grass-fed,

or uncured items. The decrease in demand is due to the

recession causing the target customer to reduce their

discretionary spending.9

BUYING BEHAVIORS: The behavior of the target

segment is usually inactive, busy, and with low shopping

budget. Customers want to find what they need for a low price

and purchase it quickly. If they cannot find what they need, then

they will go to Walmart.7

PERCEPTIONS/ATTITUDES: Sam’s Club is often

perceived to be of lower quality than Costco because Sam’s

Club is owned and operated by Walmart.10

7 Renfrow, Jacqueline. 2016. "Sam's Club Looking For Wealthier Shoppers". Fierceretail. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.fierceretail.com/story/sams-club-looking-wealthier-shoppers/2015-12-15. 8 "Sam's Club - Sam's Club CEO On Costco: 'We Plan To Win'". 9 Wahba, Phil. 2014. 10 Lopez, Patricia. 2015. "Costco Vs. Sam's Club - Which One Should You Join?". ABC13 Houston. Accessed April 27 2016. http://abc13.com/shopping/costco-vs-sams-club---which-one-should-you-join/550482/.

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BRAND INVENTORY

Brand Elements The elements of the brand inventory that have been considered are the brand name, slogan, URL, and

signage/packaging: Sam’s Club, “Savings Made Simple,” www.samsclub.com, the signage, and the packaging.

MEMORABLE

While nothing about the Sam’s Club brand is necessarily attention-getting, it is consistent through the message and creative threads. The slogan is simple and speaks of the brand offering and their association with Walmart aids in building brand awareness. To allow a greater chance of brand recognition and recall, Sam’s Club is the only competitor in the category whose logo does not include the color red as their primary color.

MEANINGFUL The Sam’s Club brand elements are trying to communicate a meaning of both descriptive and persuasive content. When considering the slogan, Sam’s Club is conveying both “general information about the function of the product of service” as well as “specific information about particular attributes and benefits of the brand.”11 The “Savings” part of the slogan speaks to the function of the brand. This function satisfies the needs of the target market. The “Made Simple” part speaks to the attributes and positioning of the brand suggesting a key point of difference.

Another meaningful feature the brand are the sustainable initiatives of the brand summarized by their secondary slogan: “Simple Steps to Saving Green.”12 This secondary slogan conveys a message of saving money and the environment promoting their brand salience and image.

11 Keller, Kevin Lane. Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity. 4th Edition. New Jersey, 2013. 119. 12 2016. Samsclub. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.samsclub.com/sams/pagedetails/content.jsp?pageName=sustainability-symbol.

http://www.samsclub.com/

http://www.samsclub.com/

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LIKABLE While the brand elements would not be considered fun or interesting, they are aesthetically pleasing as can be seen in Appendix A. However, the overall impression of these elements is more formal than casual, which may impact the likability for some consumers. The name and slogan use a verbal imagery which creates familiarity and simplifies the message.

TRANSFERABLE The Sam’s Club brand is highly transferable as it focuses on selling in many product categories and services. Because the name is fairly unspecific in terms of a product category or service, Sam’s Club has the flexibility to move into new product categories and add line or category extensions.

ADAPTABLE The Sam’s Club brand is adaptable to change based on consumer values as it moves into the future because the brand elements are flexible and simple. Because Sam’s Club’s brand elements do not include characters or jingles and because they use unspecific category names, few changes would be necessary to maintain modernity and relevance.

PROTECTABLE The “Sam’s Club” name and elements are protected in both a legal and competitive sense because they are trade-marked and service-marked.

Current Marketing Programs and Strategies:

Targeting Higher Income Households

Sam’s Club has announced13 a change of direction through the following marketing strategies:

● Increasing the target median household of approximately $80,000 to $100,000.14 ● Plan to open eight to ten new clubs in 2016 in wealthier locations to begin reaching these consumers.14 ● Creating an in-store experience around these more affluent consumers through omni-channel marketing and

training associates to be highly knowledgeable of products and “high member service related.”13

13 Trefis Team. "How Walmart Is Revamping Sam's Club To Take On Competition?". 2016. Forbes.Com. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/03/01/how-walmart-is-revamping-sams-club-to-take-on-competition/#67fc73703e9b. 14 "Sam's Club - Sam's Club CEO On Costco: 'We Plan To Win'".

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Growing Product Quality and Offerings

While targeting a more affluent consumer, Sam’s has identified the need to improve their serviceability and product

quality, particularly in the produce and food categories,.15 The club has begun to implement the following strategies to

improve opinions of perceived quality:

● Focus merchandising on products and services that satisfy the new target’s wants and needs15 ● Elevate merchandise offerings and assortment by focusing on the most needed segments and eliminating

categories that no longer pertain to the target market.13 ● Offering more private label brands to increase perceived reliability and durability16 ● Hiring regional buyers to focus building local and organic options that will meet the wealthier consumer's

expectations, cater better to regional tastes, and strengthen relationships of organic and healthy suppliers.15

Experience Marketing

As a way to strengthen the consumer’s unique experience and perception of the brand while gaining more control over

the consumer contacts, Sam’s has adopted a new experiential approach for their marketing program, which includes:

● Sense Marketing: Sam’s Club has implemented changes to the layout to strengthen the atmospherics.17 ● Act Marketing: Sam’s Club is beginning to expand their e-commerce capabilities to better accommodate the

various consumer lifestyles and broaden opportunities for interaction. They recently launched a “Club Pick-Up” service for placing orders online, which comes with an app for customers to create shopping lists that they can later re-order automatically17

● Customer Experience Management: Sam’s Club uses big data to find patterns in customer behavior to inform redesigns of their experience providers including the spatial environment. This improves customer experience by creating an omni-channel strategy that integrates all of the Club’s customer communication channels.17

15 "Sam's Club Hires Regional Buyers, Sees 'Local' Food As Key In Upscale Shift". 2016. Reuters. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-buying-idUSKCN0W34EE. 16 Wahba, Phil. 2014. 17 Wahba, Phil. 2016. "How Sam’S Club Is Widening Its E-Commerce Lead Over Costco". Fortune. Accessed April 27 2016. http://fortune.com/2016/04/18/sams-club-ecommerce/?iid=sr-link7.

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POPs and PODs

There are three POPs in the Warehouse Clubs & Superstores industry: memberships, low-cost purchasing via

buying in bulk, and a wide range of products and services available. In an attempt to gain a competitive advantage over

their competitors and parent-store, Walmart, Sam’s Club has identified the following PODs:

Points of Parity Points of Difference

MEMBERSHIPS: Every large competitor within this

industry offers a wide range of memberships for both

personal and business use.

DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY AND EXPERIENCE:

Implementing an omni-channel strategy to communicate

and engage consumers at every touchpoint.18

BULK BUYING & LOW PER-UNIT COST:

Customers can purchase more product at a lower cost-per-

unit than at superstores.

BETTER MEMBER SERVICE: Focus on training

associates’ knowledge and service capabilities to improve

customer experience.18

A WIDE RANGE OF CATEGORIES AND

SERVICES: Products include produce, electronics,

health and financial services, auto, fuel, and travel for both

personal and business needs.

MERCHANDISE ASSORTMENT AND

OFFERINGS: Growing and refining the merchandise

offered to better appeal to the elevated consumer18 and

Using big data to inform consumer trends and

expectations.

18 2016. Samsclub.

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Branding Strategies Used

Sub-branding

Sam’s Club’s private label brand, Member’s Mark, functions as a sub-branding strategy, because the brand

remains related to Sam’s Club’s associations and attitudes while being distinguished as a specific brand with a

specific position. Sam’s Club is able to increase profits by using the private label brand because it competes with other

popular store brand names in multiple product categories.

Co-branding

Sam’s Club allows for co-branding within the store via co-brand

exposure, packaging, and signage. The picture to the right depicts

co-branding using the gift card display, where customers can

clearly see the Sam’s Club logo along with all the gift card brands.19

19 2016. Fbnstatic.Com. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.fbnstatic.com/static/managed/img/fb2/markets/sams-club1.jpg.

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Brand Portfolio Analysis

20 "UCCS Kraemer Family Library Login Page". 2016. Advantage.Marketline.Com.Libproxy.Uccs.Edu. Accessed April 27 2016. http://advantage.marketline.com.libproxy.uccs.edu/Product?pid=8046847E-B325-4AF0-BC79-48100850E764.

Walmart International

- Operates retail in 26 countries as supermarkets, supercenters, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, in addition to banks that provide limited financing programs.

- Operates through wholly-owned subsidiaries, majority owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and other controlled subsidiaries internationally.

- Revenues of $136,160 million in 2015, which accounts for approximately 28.2 % of the total revenues for 2015.20

Walmart US

- Operates within all 50 states and Puerto Rico through supercenters, discount stores, neighborhood markets and other small formats.

- Utilizes e-commerce through their website, www.walmart.com.

- Offers branded and private label merchandise across various product categories and services, financial services and related products.

- Revenues of $288,049 million in 2015, which displays a 3.1% increase over the previous year and accounts for 59.7% of total revenues.20

Sam’s Club

- Provides hard goods, some soft goods and selected private-label items under the Member's Mark brand and two proprietary brands (Daily Chef and Simply Right). Sam's Club warehouses offer its merchandise under the following categories: grocery and consumables, fuel, home and apparel, technology, office and entertainment, and health and wellness.”

- Revenues of $58,020 million in 2015,

which displays an increase of 1.5%

over the previous year and accounts

for 12% of total revenues.20

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Key Brand Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

- Accepts a variety of credit cards (not solely Visa like Costco)21

- Associated with Walmart helping Sam’s build its customer

base and expand nationally and globally.22

- Over 600 stores, located in 48 states and 3 countries outside

the U.S.22

- Small businesses are attracted to Sam’s due to the lower

membership fee and overall low prices.23

Weaknesses:

- Only three warehouses are currently outside of the U.S (Brazil,

Mexico and China).22

- Stores heavily located only on one side of the country

Competitors’ Brand Inventory Competitor’s Brands

Name URL Logo / Symbol Slogan

Costco www.costco.com

NA

BJ’s Wholesale www.bjs.com

BJ’s Membership Gives You More

Office Depot www.officedepot.com

Gear Up for Great

21 Luthi, Ben. 2016. "Sam's Club To Start Taking Visa Credit Cards - Nerdwallet". Nerdwallet. Accessed April 27 2016. https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/sams-club-starts-accepting-visa/. 22 Adam. "SAM’S Club SWOT Analysis | Free SWOT Analysis". 2016. Freeswotanalysis.Com. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.freeswotanalysis.com/retailing-swot/225-sams-club-swot-analysis.html. 23 Lopez, Patricia. 2015.

http://www.costco.com/

http://www.bjs.com/

http://www.officedepot.com/

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Each of the competitors’ names are easily recognized, descriptive, transferable across categories and markets,

updatable, and protectable. Much like Sam’s Club, these names are neutral in their likability because they aren’t interesting or

aesthetically pleasing. The URLs for Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club are both easy to remember and first to appear in a Google

and Bing search but Office Depot is hard to find in a search. It appears further down in the search results with a confusing headline of

“OfficeMax - Official Site.” The logos and symbols for each of these brands is less memorable, meaningful, and protectable

because each use the color red making them hard to differentiate. All of the slogans on the other hand, are meaningful,

transferable, and adaptable but none are likable because they are not interesting or verbally creative/appealing.

Competitor’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths Weaknesses

Costco - Efficient operating model, creating low costs in terms of expenses and price positioning

- Various sustainability and environmental efforts

- Steady financial performance and growth over several years

- Limited choice within product categories

- Highly dependent on markets in the US and Canada

BJ’s Wholesale Club

- Differentiated through car rentals, gas stations and additional home services

- Focus on maintaining a savings of 30% under supermarket prices

- Concentrated on the East Coast - Consumer shopping experience is far less developed than competitors

Office Depot - Large and diverse consumer base, including business, individuals, schools, and govt. agencies

- Differentiated through value added services such as print and design services, computer and technology support, and business solutions

- Dependence on concentrated regions within the United States

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BRAND EXPLORATORY

Brand Image/Associations

Sam’s Club is strongly associated with Walmart, which has advantages and disadvantages. Association with

Walmart is an advantage, in that customers perceive Sam’s Club to be cheapest, because the Walmart brand has

established that it offers the lowest prices of any retailer. Association with Walmart is a disadvantage as well, because

the brand is associated with low quality products. This association causes consumers to perceive Sam’s Club as a low

level retailer as well.24

Brand Positioning Analysis The Sam’s Club brand is well established and it is properly perceived as a warehouse club store by consumers.

Because of this perception, customers identify Sam’s Club in the same category as BJ’s and Costco. This perception

empowers customers to have some preliminary expectations due to Sam’s Club’s category membership.

However, Sam’s Club is also perceived to be the same as Walmart. This is due to the fact that for a long time

Sam’s Club targeted the same customer base as Walmart (consumers with $45,000 annual income). The Wall Street

24Durham, Christopher. 2016. "Sam’S Club Looking Upmarket - My Private Brand". My Private Brand. Accessed April 27 2016. http://mypbrand.com/2016/01/25/sams-club-looking-upmarket/.

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Journal reported that Sam’s is trying to move away from that brand perception and target higher-income markets, similar

to their competitors.25

Another view that consumers have about the brand is that it is small-business friendly. This stems from their many

efforts to cater towards the small-business community, which makes up one-third of their memberships.26 Sam’s is delving

into the small-business market more than ever; however, they are narrowing their target business types.27

Key Opportunities and Threats Facing the Brand

OPPORTUNITIES:

● Introduce new private label brands to target

specific price points28

● Host food tasting events28

● Focus on doing one category well. “Athleisure,” for

example.28

● Ancillary departments focused on a new customer

segment.28

THREATS: ● Sam’s business is heavily influenced by market

economy shits (buying in bulk requires more

spending)28

● Low margins must be made up for in sales volume

and efficient operations.28

● Legal opposition from local businesses.29

● Dependence on few vendors to supply specific

products.28

● Cannibalization from Walmart28

25 Nassauer, Sarah. 2016. "Sam’S Club Aims To Be Less Like Wal-Mart ". WSJ. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-sams-club-shed-its-wal-mart-ways-1439754841. 26 Wahba, Phil. 2015. "Sam’S Club Overhauls Pick-Up Service With Eye On Costco". Fortune. Accessed April 27 2016. http://fortune.com/2015/06/04/sams-club-costco-2/. 27 " Sam’S Club Outlines New Merchandising Strategy, Organizational Changes". 2014. Drugstorenews.Com. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.drugstorenews.com/article/sams-club-outlines-new-merchandising-strategy-organizational-changes. 28 "UCCS Kraemer Family Library Login Page". 2016. Subscriber.Hoovers.Com.Libproxy.Uccs.Edu. Accessed April 27 2016. http://subscriber.hoovers.com.libproxy.uccs.edu/H/industry360/trendsAndOpportunities.html?industryId=1531. 29 Nassauer, Sarah. 2016.

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Brand Equity Analysis

Sam’s Club’s brand equity can be

explained with the Customer-Based Brand

Equity (CBBE) model on the right.303132333435

30 Keller, Kevin Lane. Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity. 80. 31 2016. Coriolisresearch.Com. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.coriolisresearch.com/pdfs/coriolis_understanding_Costco.pdf. 32 LLC, AllStays. 2016. "Sams Club Map | Sams Club Locations". Allstays.Com. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.allstays.com/c/sams-club-locations-map.htm. 33 Wahba, Phil. 2015. "Sam’S Club Overhauls Pick-Up Service With Eye On Costco" 34 Nassauer, Sarah. 2016. 35 "Sam’s Club Outlines New Merchandising Strategy, Organizational Changes". 2014. Drugstorenews.Com.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

As it stands, the Sam’s Club brand attracts mainly low income shoppers and small businesses. Small business

consumers make up a third of Sam’s Club revenue sources making Sam’s vulnerable to their changing habits. Changes in

the economic environment drastically reduce Sam’s Club sales because of how sensitive to the economy small

businesses are. For a strong, long term strategy, Sam’s Club should focus their efforts on diversifying their revenue

sources to include a new target: wealthy grocery shoppers. Currently, Costco is the club that serves the majority of these

customers. If Sam’s club can capture some of these shoppers, they will be better positioned in the marketplace because

they will have taken sales away from their biggest competitor and added those sales to the Sam’s Club bottom line.

To capture and retain these consumers, the logo and slogan need to be re-imaged. Currently, Sam’s Club’s logo

is too similar to the Walmart brand and the current logo’s font appears more B2B than an intended B2C appearance for

the brand. To appeal to a new consumer segment, Sam’s Club should also use a

friendly font. The logo on the right is an example of the redesign. Keeping the dark

blue is important to the brand’s health because Sam’s club has already established

their brand identity with dark blue. The new logo incorporates more of the light

green to call attention to the company’s sustainability efforts. Emphasizing this point

will separate Sam’s Club from the other warehouse clubs.

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In addition to a logo change, a slogan change should be made to call attention to the company’s sustainability and

environmental efforts. Instead of “Savings Made Simple”, which is too similar to what most other brands claim as their

brand promise, the new slogan can be:

“Green Savings Made Simple”

This new slogan uses the words “Green Savings” as a reference to both saving money and saving the environment. The

words: “Made Simple,” refer to the experience as being convenient and easy. This new slogan doesn’t deviate with the

current slogan in order to maintain brand recognition, but it calls attention to the green efforts that Sam’s Club is

undergoing. With the re-brand, Sam’s Club can secure their market position, attract new customers, and promote

wellbeing. That is “Green Savings Made Simple” that anyone can get behind.

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WORKS CITED 2016. Coriolisresearch.Com. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.coriolisresearch.com/pdfs/coriolis_understanding_Costco.pdf.

2016. Fbnstatic.Com. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.fbnstatic.com/static/managed/img/fb2/markets/sams-club1.jpg.

2016. Samsclub. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.samsclub.com/sams/pagedetails/content.jsp?pageName=sustainability-symbol.

Basu, Eshna. 2016. "The Sorry State Of Sam's Club, And Why Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Can't Give Up On The Warehouse – The Motley

Fool". The Motley Fool. Accessed April 27 2016. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/25/sams-clubs-sorry-

story-and-why-wal-mart-cannot-giv.aspx.

Berman, Jillian. (2014, May 16). Why Costco is Crushing Walmart-Owned Sam’s Club. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.

com/2014/05/16/sams-club-vs-costco_n_5332306.html.

Durham, Christopher. 2016. "Sam’S Club Looking Upmarket - My Private Brand". My Private Brand. Accessed April 27 2016.

http://mypbrand.com/2016/01/25/sams-club-looking-upmarket/.

Keller, Kevin Lane. Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity. 4th Edition. New Jersey, 2013.

LLC, AllStays. 2016. "Sams Club Map | Sams Club Locations". Allstays.Com. Accessed April 27 2016.

http://www.allstays.com/c/sams-club-locations-map.htm.

Lopez, Patricia. 2015. "Costco Vs. Sam's Club - Which One Should You Join?". ABC13 Houston. Accessed April 27 2016.

http://abc13.com/shopping/costco-vs-sams-club---which-one-should-you-join/550482/.

Luthi, Ben. 2016. "Sam's Club To Start Taking Visa Credit Cards - Nerdwallet". Nerdwallet. Accessed April 27 2016.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/sams-club-starts-accepting-visa/.

Nassauer, Sarah. 2016. "Sam’S Club Aims To Be Less Like Wal-Mart ". WSJ. Accessed April 27 2016.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-sams-club-shed-its-wal-mart-ways-1439754841.

Renfrow, Jacqueline. 2016. "Sam's Club Looking For Wealthier Shoppers". Fierceretail. Accessed April 27 2016.

http://www.fierceretail.com/story/sams-club-looking-wealthier-shoppers/2015-12-15.

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"Sam's Club Hires Regional Buyers, Sees 'Local' Food As Key In Upscale Shift". 2016. Reuters. Accessed April 27 2016.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-buying-idUSKCN0W34EE.

"Sam's Club - Sam's Club CEO On Costco: 'We Plan To Win'". 2016. Corporate.Samsclub.Com. Accessed April 27 2016.

http://corporate.samsclub.com/news-press/videos/youtube/sams-club-ceo-on-costco-we-plan-to-win-4no3rhbobg8.

"Sam’s Club Outlines New Merchandising Strategy, Organizational Changes". 2014. Drugstorenews.Com. Accessed April 27 2016.

http://www.drugstorenews.com/article/sams-club-outlines-new-merchandising-strategy-organizational-changes.

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