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November 08, 2004
How Target does it
Target marketing executive Michael Francis:
"We have a baker's dozen buzz markets. If we can convert guests [Target's term for customers] into evangelists, the credibility factor is significant. Someone else telling the Target story has far more impact than my running another consumer ad."
Yeah, Michael!
But with all of those evangelists -- and Target has plenty of them -- you still spent $442 million on consumer advertising last year. Why? Do we need to get you into a 12-step program for advertising addiction?
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At least the work Target produces and runs is first-rate. It would be a total waste, otherwise.
At least the work Target produces and runs is first-rate. It would be a total waste, otherwise.
That Target produces good advertising content is beside the point, especially when ubiquitours retailer Starbucks or online aggregator/retailer Amazon can grow at double-digit rates without a $442 million ad budget.
Not to say that Target is getting the biggest bang for its (many many) advertising bucks, but I think that all of this fits together.
I think that with some companies, and some products a completely word-of-mouth approach can work.
While I don't agree with the amount of money spent on advertising vs. community/evangelist ideas, I think that it does play a part. Advertising (at least in theory) should be providing a support role for word-of-mouth.
Problem these days is that the old school thinking is still clashing with new school thinking.
To me, Target's advertising over-promises what's actually delivered.
It seems most Target stores scarcely resemble the hip, fun and happy-people image its advertising promises. It's as if Target advertises what Ikea actually delivers.
Take $300 million from that ad budget and dedicate it toward an improved workforce, store maintenance or a Michael Graves-like overall motif and then the Target store experience might more closely resemble the image the company seeks to create. Those executional improvements will certainly go a lot further to incite word of mouth than a dog with a red eye patch.
target promotes itself with the "expect more pay less" slogan, but that is really about how they treat their team members.
Basically, Target is like Wal*Mart for people who are too coll to go to Wal*Mart. They just hide their abuses of their workers behind their flashy ad campaigns with those bright primary colours, and their hip identity.
www.targetunion.org is where you can see the truth of Target's fast fun & friendly.
Krispy Kreme smells like shit.
The essential part of what Target does is not necesarly that they spend so much and get less. It is that they are breeding a new culture in advertising that has not yet been met by the average company. Why is it that advertising always is about the ALMIGHTY DOLLAR? Their advertising adds an artistic flair to a rather boring industry and if one cannot look beyond the fact that what they deliever is of better style than their competition they should go shop at Wal-Mart.
