Wal-Mart Sends Warning Letters
Wal-Mart Sends Warning Letters
This article was published on Friday, March 16, 2007 10:11 PM CDT in Business
By Anita French
The Morning News
A law firm representing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sent two warning letters to Wal-Mart Watch of Washington and an Internet site called The Consumerist, demanding they remove from their Web sites copies of an internal document that reveals market research the Bentonville-based retailer carried out on consumers.
A letter dated Thursday was set to The Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, the organization behind Wal-Mart Watch, by Neil P. Kearney, an attorney for Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis in Pennsylvania.
In the letter, Kearney said his firm represented Wal-Mart and that the market research document Wal-Mart Watch posted was copyright-protected.
"Publication of this presentation infringes on Wal-Mart's intellectual property rights. Further, it is clear from the post itself that your organization recognizes the infringing nature of the post," Kearney wrote.
He told Wal-Mart Watch it had until noon Friday to remove the posting.
Nu Wexler, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Watch, said his group complied with the letter's demand.
"It was pulled," he said about the posting.
The document, titled "Wal-Mart Shopper Segmentation," shows the results from a June 2006 study of what Wal-Mart calls a "nationally representative pool of 4,565 male and female shoppers, ages 16 to 75, with access to a Wal-Mart."
In the study, shoppers are broken down into such categories as "price-sensitive affluents, convenience seekers, brand aspirationals, trendy quality seekers and price-value shoppers."
There is also a category called "conscientious objectors," which makes up 14 percent of potential Wal-Mart consumers, as identified by the company.
Wexler opined that this last category may be one reason why Wal-Mart didn't want the documents posted at Web sites, even though some of the information was published by the media last week.
"The fact that their marketing department describes non-Wal-Mart shoppers as conscientious objectors was embarrassing to the company," Wexler said.
Wal-Mart spokesman Dave Tovar told the Associated Press, however, that the term "conscientious objector" meant consumers who base purchases on a company's practices, such as charitable giving or environmental measures.
Tovar said the term was not synonymous with Wal-Mart boycotters.
The Consumerist, which also posted the market research at its Web site, said it had received a warning letter from Kearney on Monday to remove the posting. Editor Ben Popken told The Morning News in an e-mail Friday that his organization had complied.
"The documents were sent to us by an unconfirmed source," he said.
The Consumerist is a blog aimed at informing consumers about various issues, Popken said.
All content © The Morning News. Unauthorized distribution prohibited.
This article was published on Friday, March 16, 2007 10:11 PM CDT in Business
By Anita French
The Morning News
A law firm representing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sent two warning letters to Wal-Mart Watch of Washington and an Internet site called The Consumerist, demanding they remove from their Web sites copies of an internal document that reveals market research the Bentonville-based retailer carried out on consumers.
A letter dated Thursday was set to The Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, the organization behind Wal-Mart Watch, by Neil P. Kearney, an attorney for Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis in Pennsylvania.
In the letter, Kearney said his firm represented Wal-Mart and that the market research document Wal-Mart Watch posted was copyright-protected.
"Publication of this presentation infringes on Wal-Mart's intellectual property rights. Further, it is clear from the post itself that your organization recognizes the infringing nature of the post," Kearney wrote.
He told Wal-Mart Watch it had until noon Friday to remove the posting.
Nu Wexler, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Watch, said his group complied with the letter's demand.
"It was pulled," he said about the posting.
The document, titled "Wal-Mart Shopper Segmentation," shows the results from a June 2006 study of what Wal-Mart calls a "nationally representative pool of 4,565 male and female shoppers, ages 16 to 75, with access to a Wal-Mart."
In the study, shoppers are broken down into such categories as "price-sensitive affluents, convenience seekers, brand aspirationals, trendy quality seekers and price-value shoppers."
There is also a category called "conscientious objectors," which makes up 14 percent of potential Wal-Mart consumers, as identified by the company.
Wexler opined that this last category may be one reason why Wal-Mart didn't want the documents posted at Web sites, even though some of the information was published by the media last week.
"The fact that their marketing department describes non-Wal-Mart shoppers as conscientious objectors was embarrassing to the company," Wexler said.
Wal-Mart spokesman Dave Tovar told the Associated Press, however, that the term "conscientious objector" meant consumers who base purchases on a company's practices, such as charitable giving or environmental measures.
Tovar said the term was not synonymous with Wal-Mart boycotters.
The Consumerist, which also posted the market research at its Web site, said it had received a warning letter from Kearney on Monday to remove the posting. Editor Ben Popken told The Morning News in an e-mail Friday that his organization had complied.
"The documents were sent to us by an unconfirmed source," he said.
The Consumerist is a blog aimed at informing consumers about various issues, Popken said.
All content © The Morning News. Unauthorized distribution prohibited.
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