We had the great serendipitous fortune that our assignment corresponded with the opening of the first Target locations in Vancouver. I heard about Target from those who had shopped there in the States and had a positive experience. Once expansion plans were announced and the stores were set to open in Canada, I started to hear more and more about Target. Word of mouth was positive, and Target definitely succeeded in creating a buzz. I found all of their products were very competitively priced and I would likely shop there if the store was more accessible from my location.

I learned to see “cheap” products not as poor quality, but rather as a valuable offering to a certain segment valuing efficiency and utility. Lack of up-scale service and extraneous features was a deliberate strategy to serve a consumer desire for ease and simplicity.

We received a few lessons in project management and video production. It took far longer to shoot a scene than we anticipated. Human error has a funny way of sneaking in and dragging out timelines. It’s not as easy to memorize lines and act on camera as the pros make it look. Even though we weren’t able to shoot the whole video in Target as we had planned, we still managed to bring the store experience to the screen by taking some pictures and adding video footage with creative editing. If you’re curious, you can check out our video at the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09g1B8YddQw