An Adventure with Target

            Target's latest holiday advertisements have been coined with the tagline, Dream Big Save Bigger.  To be honest, I really didn't think a whole lot about their latest tagline.  Sure, it was creative, but nothing to write home about.

            Last week, I had the opportunity to present my group's creative brief on Cuties to Pamplin's Marketing Advisory Board.  It was such an awesome opportunity.  I talked to every member of the board that was in attendance, as well as a few faculty members.  One of the members that stood out to me the most was Mr. Scott Tidey, who is the Senior VP of North American Sales and Marketing for Hamilton Beach Brands.  One of the comments he made on my group's brief was that our SMP did not have an end result to it.  Hamilton Beach works closely with WalMart, and Mr. Tidey told us that he really appreciated that WalMart's tagline, Save Money Live Better had always been one of his favorites because it told you the end result of shopping at WalMart:  Live Better.  I had never looked at it that way, but now that I have heard that, it really stuck with me.

            Back to Target...  Now aware of Mr. Tidey's insights, I have begun to watch advertisements a bit closer to see if their tagline shows that end result.  I think Target is pretty successful in showing their target audience (consumers looking for holiday savings, particularly parents), just what the end result is of shopping at Target for the holiday season.  Target is telling their consumers to look at their shopping list, and have those big dreams, and prepare to save bigger.  Personally, I think Target has done a good job in their holiday advertisements, and I look forward to any more that they release.

An Adventure with "Black Friday"

            The concept of Black Friday has been around for as long as I can remember.  My parents would wake up early (maybe 5:00 AM) to hit up Staples by 6:00 AM for the latest software updates for our computer or next year's tax software.  I experienced my first Black Friday while being employed at Vera Bradley at a local mall, working the 2:00 AM - 10:00 AM shift one year and the 12:00 AM - 8:00 AM shift the next year.  But I never experienced the consumer shopping side of it until last year, when I went out to Target at midnight for a fake Christmas tree for my apartment and some flannel sheets (exciting, I know).  I had such a great time last year, watching all the crazy people fight over TVs and the latest toys, that I was planning on going out again this year.  But maybe not as early as store opening this year...

            Target, WalMart, and other retailers have recently announced that they plan on opening their doors on Thanksgiving day this year, 9:00 PM and 8:00 PM respectively.  To be honest, I find this to be awful.  I find this to be a poor decision on the retailers' part, because eventually, we will find that Thanksgiving is no longer a holiday, but a shopping day.  The employees of these retailers that can not afford to take off work on Thanksgiving, will lose that special time that they had always been allowed with their families.  Instead, they will be spending Thanksgiving evening with crazy consumers, upset that the store has gone out of stock of the latest Blu-Ray player.

            This subject has been talked about quite a bit in the news, with many people upset about it.  I am not sure what the retailers' "problem" was in relation to the addition of these hours.  I am quite confident that they all achieved the sales that they needed to in previous Black Fridays, so why cause so much drama in the public eye over this.  I find it to be a bad PR move on each of their parts.

            I am not saying that these retailers will lose drastic amounts of business over this decision, because I am sure there are plenty of crazy people out there willing to wait in line even earlier than they were previously planning, all to get one item.  But I think that this decision has ignored the idea of giving thanks for what we as people ALREADY have on Thanksgiving, and encouraging people to not be satisfied with what they have and come shop even earlier, maybe eventually forgetting what the holiday is all about.

Another Adventure with Target

            In my last post, I talked about the "Falling for Fall" advertisement that Target is currently airing.  Funny enough, in my Consumer Behavior class, a group presented on another web advertisement that Target is promoting called "Falling for You".  Target is again trying to promote the fall season's clothing in a different way than "Back to School".  As a young adult, you are no longer going back to school, so Target seems to have gotten the idea that they should also try and reach out to the younger crowd.

            The "Falling for You" campaign is a series of short episodes that come out in weekly installments as a romantic comedy genre.  At first glance, they are just short videos, almost like a mini-series.  But what makes them an advertisement, is that they are wearing and using all things sold at Target.  And as you are watching these videos, the items shown pop up in a side bar and link to Target's online store.  It is a pretty cool concept in that it is encouraging people to come back to the site to view the next video the following week, with even more product from Target.  It definitely encourages impulse buying, as well as promoting fall purchases.

            As far as the creative brief for this, I definitely think Target wants to reach a bit older audience than the typical back to school shoppers, but those that are still young adults.  They are also trying to get more shoppers to use their online store, making it much easier to find the products they are drawn to in the episode by directly linking them to the site.

An Adventure with Target

            Over the past few weeks, I have noticed that Target has launched a campaign for fall.  This is one of the first seasonal specific advertisements that I have seen.  Yes, there are the typical shopping "seasons" such as "Back to School", "Spring Cleaning", etc., but rarely do you see an advertisement for a seasonal type of clothing and house goods.  Obviously, I was intrigued.

            I thought that not only was this type of advertisement something that isn't all that common (advertising a season), but it was just a creative commercial in general.  It shows how seamless, simple, and fairly easy the transition from summer to fall can be.  And this specific transition is typically thought to be not all that exciting because it is the end of warm weather, the end of summer break, and the end of family vacations.  Though I am already a lover of fall, this commercial made me love it more.

            Being in creative brief mode, I was curious as to what it might have been to result in this commercial.  Were they looking to not only create interest for fall clothes and house wares, but also the season?  And maybe show that Target can make the fall season fun, not something to dread at the end of the summer. Whatever their creative brief was, I think it succeeded in the idea that I am now more than excited to go shopping at Target for all my fall needs.