The Chicago Tribune has an interesting article on Target’s new marketing strategy:
Before the recession, big-box retailer Target was riding high. Its sprawling stores were popping up in seemingly every suburb in America, and its well-designed stores and cheap, chic styles made it appeal both to low-income consumers who might have shopped at Wal-Mart and to upscale shoppers who simply loved the thrill of a deal.
It was the era when it became common for loyal customers to affectionately refer to it as “Tar-zhay,” a tongue-in-cheek French pronunciation that captured how they felt about the brand: It delivered a luxe shopping experience, even though the prices were low. In a presentation to investors this week, Target executives said its core customer at that time was the “Boomer Mom,” someone who “drives a minivan,” “lives in the suburbs” and “wants it all.”
Chief executive Brian Cornell said this week that Target “lost its brand balance” during this time, focusing too much on deals and not enough on the chic styling that made Target stand out from its rivals.
Target’s new chief executive, Brian Cornell, has big plans for revitalizing the troubled company. And one of them is looking beyond the minivan-driving suburban mom to build its base of shoppers — or guests, as they’re known in company lingo.
“Our guest is going to be increasingly a Hispanic shopper,” Cornell said at the investor event.
The baby department is one of four signature categories that Target is looking to emphasize to its customers, and Jones said Hispanic millennial moms served as “the creative muse” for its major new marketing campaign for these goods. And it will launch a Spanish-language ad campaign in March with a spot on the hit CW comedy “Jane the Virgin.” The company says it is a “first for any brand” to do a Spanish-language ad on an English-language network.
SSMark1 says
They are also going to be “target”ing more “urban” people, not just hispanics…what ever that means.
Hispanics are the fastest growing segment. We have already been targeting more spanish speaking people with offers in spanish at work vs. just english.
If you live near heavily populated spanish areas, many specialty stores cater to that fast growing market (grocery, clothing, restaurants) and Target is trying to tap that market, since they are basically maxed out on growing the current base they market toward now, “the soccer moms…”
We know what they really need to do.
If they are going to offer groceries, expand the groceries weekly ad.
I have NO CLUE what is on sale other than a handful of items that is in the weekly ad unless I go to Target .vs other grocery stores.
Jewel/Meijer/etc. send me an ad with MANY more items listed on sale…I will see more deals & shop there for groceries more vs. Target.
Target needs to offer FRESH produce instead of being one of the worst produce departments I can think of. I RARELY buy their meat or bakery items.
They need to offer better clothing/shoe/accesories deals, like we used to see more frequently.
Electonics in brick & mortar is dying. Target needs to fix that like Best Buy has.
Target hasn’t kept up with the ever changing market… They will fix things. They won’t end up like Sears/KMart…
Other things factored in to the recent slow down have all been mention before. You have millions of more American on health insurance plans that were not covered before. You have millions more that had to get their plans modified due to more governement rules & regulations which made them now more expensive. The average household income has dropped 10% since the great recession started. Home values are still low. So, if your current customer base is tapped out, you need to expand to grow or just keep up with tighter budgets & less spending…
-Mark