Can Kmart regain relevance with its millennial-focused store?

Kmart says it wants to bring “a whole lotta awesome” to its new millennial-focused store.

If past is any indication of the future, Kmart should be approaching its gambit with a whole lotta caution, given that older brands have repeatedly tried and flubbed when they reached out to America’s biggest generation.

Kmart’s initial approach doesn’t indicate it might break from that pattern, given that its celebrity ribbon-cutter was retired basketball star Scottie Pippen, whose heyday was in the 1990s. While Pippen has a respectable 787,000 followers on Instagram, it’s far below that of millennial stars such as PewDiePie, the YouTuber with 10 million followers.

Millennials this year surpassed Baby Boomers as the country’s largest living generation. While that makes marketers salivate, millennials aren’t all that easy to reach, partially because they prioritize access -- such as the sharing economy -- rather than ownership, according to Goldman Sachs. Many are also struggling with student loan repayment, which limits their spending habits. More than that, millennials want authenticity, and get turned off when brands appear to pander. 

Kmart’s new millennial-focused store, located in Des Plaines, Illinois, is aiming to woo the generation with a concierge service called Shoparazzi, a beauty bar, and the “Aisle of WOW!”, which is stocked with $1 items. Whether millennials find this authentic remains to be seen, but similar offerings from other older brands haven’t gone over well. 

Banana Republic partnered with the Instagram account Hot Dudes Reading as way to boost authenticity and to show its social mission, but sales declined anyway, as pointed out by Bloomberg News​. Pizza Hut tried to appeal to the generation’s taste buds by rolling out new flavors like honey Sriracha sauce​, but sales still slumped. 

Kmart has its work cut out for itself. Millennials are most likely to recommend Amazon.com, Best Buy and Victoria’s Secret to friends, according to a 2014 YouGov BrandIndex survey. While Amazon.com earned a score of 54.3 in the survey, Kmart was near the bottom, with 4.8.

Whether Kmart has the stamina to stick it out remains to be seen. Its parent company, Sears (SHLD​​), is the midst of a slow-motion financial meltdown. Its second-quarter revenue slumped almost 9 percent, and it posted a loss of $395 million​.

The bad news for Kmart is that even if its one millennial-focused store succeeds, it’s not likely to reverse Sears’ headwinds and its self-inflicted wounds​.