Alexa Joins Kenmore at Sears

Sears has long been known for its hard goods — appliances and tools, basically. In fact when I was a kid, that’s what my parents went to Sears for. Kenmore appliances and Craftsman tools were where it was at. Hands down.

If anything, at the time, Sears was trying hard to get people to go there for other stuff too. Like clothing and sheets and towels.  “The softer side of Sears” was born! (BTW a very dear friend of mine wrote that now infamous campaign...Bravo!)

As retailers struggle to survive these days, Sears is looking to go back to its roots and there’s still a lot of equity in Kenmore and Craftsman — dare I say more than in Sears itself.

So I took great delight, as a marketer, to see Kenmore partner with Amazon to create Alexa compatible appliances. Alexa will do your laundry now...making Kenmore a voice-enabled and connected part of your smart phone. And presumably also connected to refilling other connected products like Tide via Alexa as well.

Pretty brilliant and perhaps a save for this once very rich brand.

What’s your experience? JIM