I mentioned Wal-Mart's back-to-school Hub went under when I applauded Busch Gardens for "getting it right." Now that everyone is blogging about it, I figured I would add my voice to the post mortem. This is why I think The Hub flopped:

Not enough rooting interest: You need this — especially since there are bigger more popular social networks where teens are already hanging out with their friends. Teens will rally around their favorite band or even their favorite brand, but Wal-Mart is where a lot of teens secretly buy stuff on the cheap. It doesn't even have to cool factor of Target. And even if it did, there has to be something to commune around. For example an iPod lovers community may be sharing little tricks or hacks or accessories that make their iPods more fun. If finding amazing bargains at Wal-Mart is fun for teens, stuff you would never guess came from Wal-Mart, that's something to root for.

The me-too cornball factor When big corporations try to copy what has organically become popular in youth culture or Internet culture, it can be pretty transparent. The Hub screamed, "Hey kids, if you like MySpace, you'll LOVE the Hub." The photos above is as cheesy as it gets.

The over-brandedness factor Yes, the MySpace brand is all over MySpace, and it's actually becoming some sort of a verb, like "I'm MySpacing right now." But that brand, though the media hype has given it more negative connotations lately, is still about DIY, bands promoting themselves, your friends and…Tom! Wal-Mart is about yellow smiley faces and super duper stores with low prices (and a bunch of other negatives for people who are socially conscious). Having the Wal-Mart colors and branding all over the Hub made it scream, "This is Wal-Mart's attempt at a social networking site!" Some things are better left unbranded.

Playing it too safe. You can't really market parent approval features on a social networking site for teens — social networking for teens is not a parent/child activity — even if some parents insist on making it so.

In some ways, the fact that they pulled the plug after a couple of months, makes the whole thing seem even more like a big gimmick. As anyone who has worked in the online community space knows, real communities take time to evolve, you have to listen to your users (even if it's a small number in the beginning), make feature changes and adjustments according to their collective feedback, etc. If you are going to invest in building a community, it's not a short term campaign.

If I were Wal-Mart and I wanted to really invest in trying to build a lasting teen community, here's how I would do it:

Unbrand Maybe a tiny reiteration of the logo somewhere not very noticeable. Then give it a solid youth-oriented design.

Focus on content and contextual commerce Solicit teen reviews of the latest music, DVDs, games – (write a review, get a free review copy!), let teens add their "favorites" a la Amazon to their profiles and build wish lists. As for fashion, focus on cheap chic — get teens to send in photos/examples of how they made their Wal-Mart bargains look cool (even if they rip them or put patches on them), emphasize you don't have to spend lots of money to look like you spent lots of money. Bring in celebs to participate in some kind of interactive way online – podcast interviews, celeb vlogs, etc. Have them do what you're asking teens to do (put together an outfit, review a movie…)

Add some sort of service/volunteer component Show teens Wal-Mart cares about stuff like global warming or whatever the cause may be. Then create ways for teens to sign up to do something online locally with functionality to talk about it, post photos from a volunteer event, etc.

The problem is that it's a big commitment – what I just described is a separate company, and probably not one of Wal-Marts core business objectives. So I will reiterate my earlier advice, do something more along the line of Macy's ThisIsIt – relatively simple, focused on the product and showing teens how it's trendy and cool, incorporating celebs and offering ways to win stuff. Promote the site in the store and on packaging with the win/giveaway free stuff angle. That's my rant on Wal-Mart. What's yours?

Categorized under: Web, Youth Marketing

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