Interestingly enough, I heard of Target for the first time through the Ellen DeGeneres show. While I watched in envy as she gave out expensive merchandise and $500 gift cards from Target during her annual Christmas giveaways segment, I was intrigued by how quickly my preferences for retailers shifted towards them.

According to Eva Liu’s blog post, Target overcame initial hardships to thrive in the Canadian market by offering 3.5% cheaper prices than their rivals Wal-Mart. However, I believe the fundamental reason behind Target’s success in all of its ventures is because they have redefined the role of a modern retailer.

Similar to how Red Bull became more than an energy drink company, Target has transcended the retail industry by coupling a differentiation strategy with the traditional low cost strategy to market their brand. By forming key partnerships with influential celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and major sports organizations like the Minnesota Twins, Target has disrupted their industry, putting significant pressure on rivals to merely follow their pace.

As a result, I believe Target has formed an attractive brand image that has firmly embedded itself into the dominant, millennial customer segment. In my opinion, as long as Target continues to interlink the differentiated marketing strategy with its low cost guarantee strategy, they have no bounds for how far they can shape the modern retailer.

 

References

https://blogs.ubc.ca/evaliu/2014/10/05/the-price-battle-target-vs-walmart/

http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/ballpark/

http://mic.com/articles/9184/target-gay-t-shirts-and-ellen-degeneres-jc-penney-partnership-show-capitalism-comes-with-a-gay-face