Word of Mouth

According to Hollie Shaw of Financial Post, Target will not have as great a success as the entry of Walmart in the 1990s. I agree with her in the sense that Target will not dramatically change the retail market, but I believe that it will affect the market share of the major retail stores.

I don’t think that Target will price-match with Walmart on the identical items, nor do I think that they need to. As we have seen in class, from the commercials playing during the golden globe to the artistic advertizement for their new store in Manhattan, Target is trying rebrand itself as a higher-class retail. Their new emphasis on style and trend differentiates them from Walmart who only advertizes itself as a low-price alternative. By simply being a US company, Target has the advantage in the Canadian market for no one knows their brand just yet. Therefore, it will be easier for them to create this new desired “stylish” image as oppose to changing it in the US.

If they successfully place themselves in the consumers’ mind as a more chic and yet still affordable brand, they have a great chance of taking market share away from their competitors such as Zellers, or even private brands such as Joe, clothing brands of Supperstore, who are targeting the same segment.