Wal-Mart operates 4,300 stores in nine countries and averages 100 million customers per week. S Wal-Martscomputernetwork,animportantpartofitsproduc- tivity, profitability, and overall success, rivals that of the Pentagon. S Twoofitsprivatelabelbrands-OldRoydog food and Equate vitamins-are the top-selling U.S. brands in their categories. S Wal-Mart boasts the largest fleet of corporate airplanes, the largest training program of any corporation, the biggest and most sophisticated logistics and global supply chain in the world, the largest data warehouse of any corporation, and the largest fleet of trucks of any retailer. S Wal-Mart is now the largest grocery retailer in the world, the largest apparel retailer in the world, and the largest jeweler in the world. These facts, especially when coupled with the companys sales, prof- its, and growth figures, are impressive, but you might still ask whether a company this large and dominant can really have fans. Though some skeptics might believe that emotional bonds are reserved for smaller, less mainstream brands, we found in a series of focus groups con- ducted for the International Mass Retail Association (IMRA), that the answer is a robust yes. Some people told us they visit their local Wal- Mart as many as three times a day to see and talk to friends theyve made in the store. Many customers talked about the excitement they feel when they find a good deal. Many college students told us it was the number-one store they shopped or wished they could shop be- cause it had everything they could possibly want at reasonable prices. But talk is cheap, as they say. Measuring consumers behavior to deter- mine their loyalty to a brand is even more important than their words, and Wal-Marts phenomenal sales can attest to consumers follow- through on their said devotion to the stores. Creating fans for a fledgling company is challenging, but retaining their connection as the company becomes the largest corporation in the world boils down to maintaining total dedication to the cus- tomer, just as KISS did with its fans. Wal-Marts founder, its culture and values, and its locations support the corporate charge of staying close to the customer. Some might chuckle at the small-town roots of Wal-Mart and the fact that it remains headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, but life in this small town is more representative of life in the vast majority of America. Potential disconnections between cus- tomer and company culture are minimized because life in Ben- tonville mirrors more closely the lifestyle of the target Wal-Mart customer than life in New York City. No one represented the Wal- Mart customer better than company founder Sam Walton; he walked, talked, and lived the brand. Analyzing Wal-Marts success strategies is impossible without first talking about Mr. Sam-the