Branding Blog

This is Where a Dude Goes to Shop!

Yesterday, I talked about Home Depot going after more female shoppers. Today, Cabela's opened a new store in East Hartford, CT.  Here are a couple of comments from the Courant:

"First time at Cabela's and first time I ever stood in line to get into a store," said 66-year-old Joe Michaud of Newington. He arrived at the store around 7:30 a.m., as did many others.

Arnold Smith chuckled as he talked about his love for the store.

Smith, of Windsor, said he arrived around 6:45 a.m. to see about 150 people on line before him. He was waiting for the store to open ever since the company announced its plans to come to East Hartford.

"It's more or less, like a woman goes to shop. This is where a dude goes to shop," the 60-year-old said. "Everything that you say you're not going to get, you get. It's good. It offers a lot."

What Michaud and Smith don't mention, is that Cabela's also has A LOT of good finds for their female shoppers, from footwear to casual clothing. They do a terrible job of marketing to women. They seem to assume that it's just important to have some merchandise "for the ladies" who are accompanying their husbands.

Meanwhile, their husbands are squealing like schoolgirls and waiting in line for these stores to open!

Customer Satisfaction Month at Fast Company, Part 1

It's Customer Satisfaction Month at Fast Company and they've put up a wealth of news and awards for companies who have been singled out for excellent Customer Service and satisfaction.

Of note around here is that Cabela's has fallen off the list (they were on it last year). It's particularly troubling to me because I live in their headquarters town.

Overheard in Cabela's Restroom

I'm washing my hands this morning after a visit to the restroom at Cabela's. Two guys come in and head to the urinals...here is the part of the conversation I heard:

"...he's an interesting guy...been hunting with Cheney...born and raised in New York...."

Cabela's announces new store

Cabela's has announced plans to build a 3rd Minnesota retail store.

185,000 square feet. Now that's a big bait shop!

Here's the story.

Pimp my Blind

One of the strategies we use for our clients is called business topology mapping. It involves taking a totally unrelated business model and finding a way to apply their tactics in your own business.

Here's an example and a free idea for my friends at Cabela's.  Pimp My Ride is a cool show on MTV right now.  MTV finds some poor kid with a crappy car and sends out rap artist Xzibit to pimp their ride. Basically, they take the junker and turn it into a customized dream car for the owner.  Cabela's could find some poor hunter with a lousy goose pit and award him a total makeover.  Call the show "Pimp my Blind." 

Maybe instead of a rap artist, you could get Ted Nugent to host the show. I can see the pimped out blind:  Satellite TV dish inside of a decoy...plasma TV monitors for each hunter connected both to the football games AND to horizon-scanning cameras to keep a look out for the birds.  Full underground kitchen, the works.

Why let MTV have all the fun?

Cabela's News

Three announcements last week from Cabela's that I didn't have a chance to blog:

First, they announced their plans for their first store in Colorado. It will be along I-70 in the vicinity of Wheatridge and Golden. The concern here is what effect it will have on the Sidney store, where the parking lot is usually filled with Colorado license plates on weekends. It'll be a great move for the company, but will definitely put a hurt on the local store. When I was in local radio here, I tested a plan to bring new traffic into the Sidney store. It worked great. I still have the PowerPoint. Maybe a little retail pain will get some attention. There's no doubt they'll have to do some things differently in Sidney once the Colorado store opens. Of course, the easiest thing is to just shrug and pretend there's nothing to be done about it and start reducing payroll. Everyone in town hopes they'll at least make an effort to re-strategize this store. Notwithstanding the payroll, it's a major contributor of local half-cent sales tax revenue.

Second, their 3rd quarter earnings report was released. They're making more money, but were disappointed by a 3% decline in same-store sales. You can listen to the conference call on www.cabelas.com.

Thirdly, they'll be putting together another public offering, but this time all of the selling shares will be offered by existing shareholders. Read about it here.

Cabela's Planning to Build Mega-Store in East Rutherford, New Jersey

SIDNEY, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 5, 2004--Cabela's Incorporated (NYSE: CAB), Cabela's, the World's Foremost Outfitter of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear, announced today that it is in negotiations to build one of its world-famous retail stores at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, N.J. The 175,000-square-foot store could open in August, 2007, with construction scheduled to begin in August, 2006.
Cabela's Site

Slate: "Cabela's Fellas?"

There's a super story on Slate today about Bush and Cheney making campaign stops at Cabela's stores. (previous stories: one, two) Michelle Leder interviewed company spokesman Joe Arterburn to figure out what the connection was and decided to coin a term that might correspond with the NASCAR dads. I'm not too sure about "Cabela's Fellas" but hey, I didn't write the story.

I like Arterburn's comments regarding equal time for Kerry and Edwards:

"We welcome any visit by Sen. Kerry or Sen. Edwards," says Arterburn. "It's part of our civic duty." But neither Kerry nor Edwards has managed to swing by a Cabela's—although both men describe themselves as avid hunters and supporters of the Second Amendment. Arterburn says the company was approached by the Kerry campaign to do an event at the Wheeling store, but he didn't believe it involved a visit by either Kerry or Edwards. So far, though, nothing has been scheduled. "We're going to be fair and balanced," says Arterburn.

Bush Wins the Cabela's Election - Why a hunting store is the president's favorite campaign stop. By Michelle?Leder

When will Cabela's jump into the fray in Colorado?

I missed this one last month in the Denver Post. With Gander Mountain, Bass Pro and Sportsman's Warehouse in the market, it's certainly just a matter of time. Of course the concern locally is what the impact will be on the Sidney store's traffic if all of those "greenies" don't have to drive over here.

Last February, a story was published in Golden with rumors of Cabela's being the anchor of a new development on Coors-owned land in Wheat Ridge along I-70.

The Denver area could soon be a battleground for big-box outdoor retailers as the largest sellers of all things hunting and fishing muscle into town. One new entrant into the market, Bloomington, Minn.-based Gander Mountain, in October will open a 91,000-square-foot store at 14000 E. Jewell Ave. in Aurora. The store, in a vacant Home Base warehouse, will be Gander Mountain's first Colorado location. Gander Mountain's move follows a similar one by Springfield, Mo.-based Bass Pro Shops, which plans to open a 130,000- square-foot store at the Stapleton redevelopment in 2005. And Cabela's - the so-called big daddy of them all - also has the metro area in its sights. "We are interested in Denver. It's a very good area for us," said Joe Arterburn, a spokesman for Sidney, Neb.-based Cabela's. While he acknowledged Cabela's interest in opening a metro-area store, he said the company doesn't have any plans it's ready to discuss. DenverPost.com - BUSINESS

Texas Hatters and Cabela's

An alert BrandingBlog reader told me about a feature on NPR affiliate KUT last week. The Austin station interviewed the owners of Texas Hatters, a famous custom-hat company located just across the interstate from Cabela's future Buda site. While the story rambled on for a couple of minutes about the history of the little hat-maker and the famous heads their product adorns, it eventually turned into a whine-fest about roads getting widened and how they'll have to build a new store at the back of their lot to make room for all the Cabela's traffic. (and at their own expense!)

HELLO?! How is this an insurmountable problem? You will soon have destination traffic beyond your wildest dreams and you're complaining to NPR?

Of course, the reporter took the first shot by calling Cabela's a "symbol of mass production". That's a new one.

Listen for yourself if you want.

KUT: Texas Hatters (2004-08-23)