In an effort to appeal to the rural folk, Sears Canada is featuring ‘new country’ singer Michelle Wright on the cover of its ’97 Fall & Winter catalogue.

‘What better way to look more relevant?’ asks Garry Smith, the department store chain’s vice-president of catalogue marketing, adding the Sears catalogue core customer is a new country fan.

This is the first time in the department store chain’s 44-year history that a celebrity has graced the cover of the catalogue without endorsing a personal clothing line, says Smith, who adds that he expects the effort to generate some excitement. ‘It’s going to stay on the coffee table.’

According to Smith, while the three million or so English Canadians who receive the book are into new country, the 1.2 million French Sears catalogue shoppers wouldn’t know Wright from wrong. So, the French version of the catalogue features Quebec chanteuse Julie Masse on the cover.

Wright and Masse also model the Sears key casual brand, Nevada, inside the catalogue, though Smith is quick to point out that the spreads are not endorsements.

The collaboration with the singers includes a bonus three-song cd for customers who buy $100 worth of Sears merchandise from the catalogue. Further, inside the cd case is an offer for additional Sears Club points on another $100 purchase, which Smith says is an ideal bounce-back marketing program.

Although the company won’t reveal figures, it appears that a good chunk of the company’s business comes from these rural customers ­ it has 1,700 catalogue stores across the country, along with catalogue counters at its 110 department stores.

Making the decision to use a celebrity is revealing, according to Augustin Manchon, director of consumer business at Braxton Associates, a division of Deloitte Touche Consulting Group in Toronto, because it makes a ‘quality statement’ that signifies to the consumer that a company is healthy. This is particularly important when Sears is pitting itself against the long-suffering Eaton’s. (Smith says the catalogue was planned before news of Eaton’s’ financial difficulties was made public.)

Perhaps most revealing, says Manchon, is the celebrity Sears has chosen.

‘It’s not a light decision,’ he says, adding that, over the last few years, Sears has become more sophisticated in knowing and targeting its audience. He points to the company’s flyers, which have moved away from the generic ‘sweater on a model’ style to a more clarified positioning, and the company’s tv buying strategy. Commercials were traditionally placed only in primetime but are now spread throughout the broadcast day to target different groups.