Welcome (back) to PostFunnel’s weekly brand analysis, where we rate a significant brand’s basic CRM practices according to the 7 CRM commandments we compiled – and that every brand must obey these days.
Right now, Pets at Home and Lowe’s are leading the pack. Today, we’ll find out if the brand that offers great savings on clothing, shoes, toys, home décor, appliances, and electronics for the whole family, will make it to the top of our list.
So, are discounts enough to wipe the other brands out? Let’s find out, Kohl’s!
1. Be Transparent 7/10
According to the Motley Fool, Kohl’s recently cut its corporate positions by approximately 15%. The job cuts include both the elimination of vacant roles and layoffs.
“Today, as a result of the ongoing pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business, the company took the difficult but necessary step to reduce our corporate workforce by approximately 15%,” said Jen Johnson, Kohl’s Senior Vice President of Communications in a statement.
Kohl’s is clearly being honest and open about the losses it has incurred due to the pandemic, which affected its difficult decisions and actions here.
“We put a great deal of thought into this decision and have offered a competitive severance package and outplacement services to help all affected associates as they transition to their next step,” Johnson added in the statement.
So that gains them points here. But, beyond pictures of employees in masks – when we visited the company’s site, nothing about the experience it provides made us feel like there are “people” behind all these banners. The site was too “sterile” in that regard.
2. Incentives and Perks 10/10
Is there such a thing as too many discounts? Probably not! Kohl’s is surely putting a smile on their customers’ faces with multiple-day sales, stackable coupons, cash offers, reward clubs, and so many other deals.
In fact, Kohl’s HP is jam-packed with incentives and perks on offer:
Their rewards page portrays perfect CRM practices for properly caring for and nurturing customer relationships.
And we couldn’t help but notice the “Personalized perks to help you earn rewards even faster,” and the “Get 15% off when you sign up for emails” links on their website.
Oh, and don’t forget, the Kohl’s cash loyalty program that’s available – here’s how it works if you’re interested. If we could give Kohl’s an 11/10 on this commandment, we would!
3. Be Relevant 9/10
Kohl’s offers customers the ability to shop for face masks for the entire family – with cool colors, shades, sizes – some include sports teams, and others are simply pretty:
Moreover, the following message (that shows empathy and support during these tough times) appears on the brand’s Facebook page:
“We reward the everyday. Every. Single. Day. We’re also committed to safe shopping for you & your family with new safety measures in stores and when you buy online and pick up with contactless drive up.”
In addition, Kohl’s offers fast and free store pickups, limited contact drive-up options, and other contactless payment alternatives. Clearly, the brand is taking extra safety measures to combat the virus and make it easy and safe for customers to shop with them.
Top that off fall offers and pictures of employees in masks, and you got yourself an overall very relevant feel all around.
They don’t get a perfect score because we did not see any special bundles of offers that would make life indoors easier.
4. Be Helpful 5/10
Apparently, sometimes being helpful can go horribly wrong and have the complete opposite, unwanted effect.
Kohl’s recently announced its collaboration with a Black-owned business to show its support for social justice and racial equality, following this summer’s BLM movement protests.
On Facebook, they wrote:
“We’ve partnered with Cream City Print Lounge, a Milwaukee-area Black-owned business, to create a line of tees for the whole family to support racial equality. Mark your calendars for 9/21 to shop the line in select stores and at Kohls.com. With this launch, Kohl’s is proud to donate $100,000 to The National Urban League, which strengthens economic empowerment, equity, and civil rights.”
This caused outrage among many of its customers who viewed the partnership in creating a new line of BLM shirts and clothing as a “trend.”
Others said the brand is simply supporting this cause because it’s timely and currently “in style.”
Also, many criticized the choice of graphics on the shirts, such as the BLM raised fist, saying it actually signifies rioting and protests – not social equality and justice.
Therefore, instead of getting into politics, perhaps Kohl’s should have been “helpful” in other ways – giving back to a local organization, volunteering at a charity, or donating funds.
Or, just be more authentic. Consumers see through it if it’s not.
5. Realtime Personalization 6/10
Retargeting efforts were used by the brand as we saw ads on our Facebook News Feed after adding items to our cart and viewing shoes on their website:
However, points were deducted here as no upselling and cross-selling efforts were implemented whatsoever.
6. Master UX 5/10
Our overall experience with the brand was fair.
The search bar at the top of the company’s HP is easy to access and helpful:
When adding items to our cart, editing and removing them was easy. We also found the real customer ratings and reviews helpful:
However, we did feel overwhelmed with the number of popups/banners on the site – which do feature promotions that we appreciate – but perhaps could have been done so in a more organized and subtle way.
Also, we feel that the HP itself is far too long, which made us lose focus as to what we came there to look for.
7. Leverage Social Media 7/10
As usual, we checked the brand’s Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.
All in all, we found they use their social channels to promote their products and, of course, hand out discounts.
On Facebook, the brand posts all types of content in high frequency (every day). They also offer some seasonal content, such as this Halloween video:
On Instagram, the brand boasts 1.5 million followers. They offer the same type of content, as featured on Facebook.
We were happy to see Kohl’s using the Instastory feature as other brands that we analyzed don’t seem to be taking hold of it just yet.
Finally, on Twitter, the brand actively tweets all sorts of content for its customers/fans – promotions, events, and mental health support for these difficult times.
Basic stuff.
**
Overall, Kohl’s is getting a 49/70 here (70%), placing them at the bottom half of our growing table, right with Walgreens and Tommy Hilfiger.
Sorting their site’s experience and realtime personalization should be a top priority.
Here are the full rankings of all the brands we analyzed to date:
- Pets at Home 91%
- Lowe’s 90%
- Petco 90%
- Target 87%
- Uniqlo 86%
- West Elm 81%
- Best Buy 78%
- Etsy 76%
- The Body Shop 74%
- Gymshark 73%
- Tommy Hilfiger 70%
- Walgreens 70%
- Kohl’s 70%
- Fiverr 67%
- Next 63%
- Patagonia 61%
- Burberry 60%
- COS 57%
We publish a new analysis every week, so watch this space for more brand analyses coming your way!