• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Friday, October 20, 2006 2:06 PM

Sam's Club, which has always advertised more aggressively than its warehouse club rivals Costco and BJ's Wholesale Club, is turning up the heat this holiday season. It is running ads in Oprah's magazine and offering gaudier "dream packages," such as a Cessna Citation Mustang minijet. The strengthened marketing push signals an evolution of Sam's Club, which hired a new ad agency this year (StrawberryFrog) and revamped its branding and logo as part of a bid to gain a greater portion of its customers' spending.

"We obviously want new members," says Executive Vice President of Marketing Mark Goodman, who joined the retailer last year after a stint as vice president of U.S. strategy for McDonald's Corp. "But to be clear, the real opportunity for us is taking our existing members and deepening that experience with them."

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) »