Hello,
Welcome to the October edition of the Shop Talk Newsletter.
Have you ever been excited to see a store or restaurant based on the buzz and their great marketing, only to get there and be disappointed? No matter how good your marketing, you can't be successful if you build expectations your store can't meet.
This newsletter talks about one store that, though successful and many may disagree, has left us feeling this way.
We do recognize their amazing and creative marketing, however once we enter the store, feel the excitement they create is lost. Let us know your thoughts on this topic!
Happy Halloween!
OFF TARGET
Retail Concepts loves taking a contrarian viewpoint, especially when we think we are right and the whole world is wrong and time will prove so. Everybody loves Target and why not? Their numbers are good (according to Retail Forward in September 2005 they outperformed every store listed in the Discount Category) and their advertising is outstanding. Their creative marketing tactics such as the recent vertical fashion show* in Manhattan and buying all the ads in a complete issue of New Yorker Magazine** are not only wonderful attention getting and buzz creating ideas, they generate tons of wonderful, free, news copy and support Target’s well crafted, “edgy” image. They have done an exceptional and admirable job of creating just the desired “perception” in the marketplace. Not only do consumers “believe”, all the pundits (except one) do as well. Retail authorities are tripping over themselves to get articles published praising the great job Target is doing.
So, what’s the problem? Well, as we see it, when you are presenting yourself as an alternative to mainstream department stores (which by definition is what discount stores are) and your competitors are Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, etc. it is really easy to create the perception that Target is more “with it.” Through their advertising they give the perception that they have a sense of humor, understand current fashion and connect better with educated, “hip”, upscale shoppers. Shoppers who are “time scarce’ and confused by a marketplace that provides them with tons of store options but fewer and fewer interesting product options are very susceptible and vulnerable to well done image related marketing programs such as Target’s.
Where Target has screwed up and what will ultimately (in our humble opinion) catch up with them is The Store!!! Retail Concepts is itself victimized...we visit a Target 3-4 times a year and become convinced between visits that it is us. Did we miss something? Go to the wrong store? The wrong time? Finally this Tuesday, after a visit to the Woburn, MA store, we faced the truth and admitted that the store consistently falls short of expectations and that the Target of the media bears no resemblance at all to the one customers shop.
It is a store without “edge”, it is a store that is humorless, it is a store that shows no sign of innovation and creativity. It is a store that does not understand the necessary relationship between marketing and merchandising and how the two should be partnered in a great store. The small percentage of the store that is Mizrahi and Graves and the other exclusives exist almost as loss leaders or “bait and switch” items in less reputable stores. The bulk of the goods are generic and presented without energy, pride and explanation of merit. Prices are good and bulk purchases are present as well as indifferent and hard to find employees. So what makes this store any better than Wal-Mart? Nothing much in reality. How long can they live on perception,especially now that the truth is out? (Starting here.)
What should Target do? The solution is easy...turn the marketing gurus loose on the store, partner them with the merchants and create a store that is a Target “marketing venue,” one that has the sense of humor, the innovative, creative and PR creating events (in store), and has the Target “edge” that we see in advertising all over the store. Create a store that takes some merchandise risks and that is truly trendy and one that has the guts to edit out much of the generic junk. That is a store that would truly be on Target and one that would have an attractive future as well as a strong present. It would be a store where perception actually would meet reality.
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*Vertical Fashion Show
JULY 14, 2005 -- A group of 15 acrobats strutted nine stories down the side of a New York office tower as part of a vertical fashion show staged by Minneapolis-based Target Corp. on June 27, reports USA Today. The performers wore clothes from Target's fall line, while 50 additional non-acrobats modeled Target's Mossimo, Liz Lange, Isaac Mizrahi and Xhilaration brands on a runway on the ground. The stunt was performed to further Target's brand promise, "Expect More. Pay Less," John Remington, vice president of marketing communications, told USA Today. "We're hoping the vertical fashion show will get people to say, 'They've done it again,'" he said. "It's surprising, fun and fits with our brand." www.ddimagazine.com
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**New Yorker Advertising
The August 22, 2005 issue of the New Yorker had only one advertiser, Target. The retail giant bought every ad in the issue. They then filled the spaces with images that they had created by world-renowned illustrators. Each incorporated the Target bulls-eye somehow. The idea was that the art could have been in the magazine based solely on artistic merit.
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