On October 11, 2018, USA Today published an article explaining the $134 million debt payment that Sears must pay off by Monday. Unfortunately, it looks like Sears is struggling to gather this money and has reportedly been working with advisors to prepare a potential bankruptcy filing as early as next week.

Although this isn’t good news, I wouldn’t necessarily say this is “negative coverage” for the company itself. They haven’t done anything wrong as a company to anger their public – they’re simply being beaten by digital competitors and a failure to invest in stores and e-commerce.

As part of the PR team for Sears, I wouldn’t be going down without a fight. For them to succeed, I think they need to really focus in on a more specific audience. In my opinion, they should be attracting lower/ middle-class families and offering affordable and reliable home appliances. In doing this, they won’t be in direct competition with any higher-end stores. They should be portraying themselves as a dependable, family friendly company through a series of new advertising.

It could also be wise for the CEO to take whatever leftover capital they may have after this debt payment and use it to start from the ground up again. This way it could be a completely new era of Sears with a new image and tighter audience focus. Ultimately, I think they have to become relevant again. They have to make it “cool” to shop at Sears, and they can create this desire within people through advertising and a new approach to social media use.

This really all depends on the financial state Sears will be in after this debt payment. If things are looking bleak for them, I think they should release a final statement thanking their customers for their business and their 120 years of memories. If they do ever come back, they should leave a positive lasting impression in the mind’s of the public.