Cited: CNN

Walmart knows a good thing when they see it. And the good thing they see right now is the American Idol reality show model and how it can be used to market their brand while finding the next big thing to put on their shelves. Walmart is the king of retailers but that doesn’t mean that they are going to sit on their lofty laurels and wait for business to come to them. Taking a page out of American Idol, the mega-retailer announced plans today to sponsor an online contest on its Web site for any small business that would like to see their product sold on Wallmart shelves. The contest is being dubbed, “Get on the shelf.”

Would-be Walmart suppliers can create a video presentation of their product and enter this video on GetOnTheShelf.com. The viewing public become the ultimate judge by voting on the products that they like best, actually the top three products, all of which will then be sold on walmart.com. The product that finishes first will have the special honor of being sold in Walmart stores across the United States. Industry analysts say the contest being sponsored by Walmart is something of a departure for them with the process of getting your product onto a Walmart shelf normally requiring a much more rigorous process for the small business and then left entirely up to Walmart buyers to decide which make it and which don’t.

News about the Walmart contest has been leaking into the retail market supply chain since the end of 2011 and even though the official announcement has just been made, Walmart says that they already have 60 product submissions.  Product videos must be submitted by February 22. Voting for the top 10 finalists will take place between March 7 and April 4, with the final vote for the winners happening between April 11 and April 24.

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My take:

Sounds like an incredibly smart idea. I bet Walmart gives a huge bonus to whoever in their marketing department dreamed this one up. Well, it is Walmart, so they’ll probably just get a modest bonus but, nonetheless this is a great idea. I’ll be interested to see just how many people actually vote to gauge the popularity of this marketing strategy.

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