New Creature, Kimberly-Clark Executives Share Secrets of Doing Business with Wal-Mart
MBA students must brand themselves to stand out, speakers say
Last updated Friday, January 9, 2009 7:23 PM CST in Business
By Lana F. Flowers
THE MORNING NEWS
ROGERS -- Christopher Stone Jaber handed Patrick Sbarra of New Creature a business card that said Jaber is "the coolest person in the world."
Jaber, pursing a master's degree in business administration at the University of Arkansas, branded himself, a move Sbarra said is important in a competitive market for both individuals and companies.
"I'm kind of goofy like him," Jaber said of Sbarra.
Sbarra is serious about business but quirky in person. He says he works for IBM -- "In business for myself."
Jaber was one of 35 MBA students who heard Sbarra and Mark Lauderdale, vice president of Wal-Mart sales and consumer development for Kimberly-Clark, speak Friday at the Kimberly-Clark office.
Sbarra, whose New Creature firm designs point of purchase displays for Wal-Mart suppliers, advised students not to "pull a Flintstone."
It's a "New Creaturism" that means the person's feet are moving fast but the car is sitting still. The person might do a lot but not get results.
Sbarra has a background in pharmaceuticals and said the first question those in the medical field ask is, "Where does it hurt and how can I help you?" The tenet is useful in business, too, he said.
Levi's owns "jean mountain," he said, but had not done business with Wal-Mart in the 100+ years Levi's made jeans. That changed in 2004-06, when Levi's sold jeans in Wal-Mart and needed displays.
New Creature, a firm with 25 employees, asked Levi's where the jeans were made. They came from China, to the port of Houston and to a Dallas warehouse.
Sbarra said New Creature agreed to send employees to Dallas to make the Levi's displays. A New Creature competitor wanted Levi's to send the jeans to North Carolina or South Carolina, where the jean maker didn't have any buildings to store its clothing.
New Creature got the account. The competitor in the Carolinas didn't.
"I am not in the display business. I am in the supply chain business," Sbarra said.
Kimberly-Clark is not in the paper goods business, though the company has more than 55,000 employees worldwide making and selling Scott and Viva paper towels, Huggies diapers and Kleenex, Lauderdale said.
Kimberly-Clark is in the consumer relations business, trying to figure out what customers buy and why, Lauderdale said.
The Retail Link system tracks sales data in Walmart stores. Vendors can see how many of an item sold in particular stores. The key is talking to shoppers, doing surveys and focus groups to learn why consumers made those purchases, Lauderdale said.
For example, a person who must park in an apartment carport and climb three flights of stairs might buy a twin pack of paper towels. A person with a large sport utility vehicle and a 4,000-square-foot house might buy the eight-pack, Lauderdale said.
Technology will increase focus group efficiency. Shoppers could look at a virtual Supercenter on a screen at the front of a conference room, move through the store electronically and choose items.
"We could get live data on what the shopper chose and why, what they were saying about it," Lauderdale said.
A retinal scan could show businesses where a shopper looked first on a product or package. Was it the cute baby photo on the diaper pack, the price or the quantity of diapers?
That information will help companies market products to particular groups, Lauderdale said.
The messages hit home with MBA student Jeff Reed, 23. He said he'd like to work in finance or something to do with numbers, perhaps as a stock market analyst or someone who mines Retail Link data.
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