Part of the mystique of the Craftsman brand was that the hand tools were proudly Made in the USA. But in recent years, Craftsman, like many tool brands, started manufacturing many of their products in China while continuing to run advertising that would lead customers to believe all the tools were still domestically produced.
Since 1927, Craftsman has built its brand on a credibility and reliability that was brought to life in its now legendary lifetime guarantee: if a hand tool breaks, just bring it back to the store for an immediate replacement. The problem? Made in the USA Craftsman brand loyalists are disappointed with what they feel is a violation of the brand promise. They simply do not want to replace their broken USA manufactured tool with one from China because they suffer from the not unfounded fear that the quality will be substandard to what they expect with the Craftsman name. They also resent the fact that the prices haven’t dropped to reflect international sourcing.
This is a great example of a brand promise becoming diluted and true brand loyalists rejecting the change. Yes the Brand Manager, Product Managers and Merchants at Sears should own this brand but they must never forget that the promise, which began 86 years ago, is bigger than them and owned by generations of believers. Betray your believers and destroy the brand.
Several people were so upset by the change that they started petitions on www.change.org asking Sears to stop producing the tools overseas. As of today, one petition has over 4,000 signatures.