Blue Light Grows Dim

Brent Willis, the chief marketing officer in charge of reviving Kmart's “blue light special” in-store discount promotion program, has resigned after a little more than four months on the job. The reason given by the Troy, Mich.-based retailer for the resignation was “personal reasons.” Prior to joining Kmart earlier this year, Willis had been Coca-Cola's division vp in Latin America, where he helped Coke strengthen its market share in Venezuela. Willis was hired to revive Kmart's once-successful blue light program, which had vanished about 10 years ago.

Kmart introduced the in-store program in the 1960s, lighting a blue light in the store wherever a particular on-sale promotion was going on. So successful had it been, and so entwined with the Kmart image, that the retailer used the reference when it began its BlueLight.com web site in 1998.