Brand Image

Target seems to be pretty well-liked, if you will, by consumers. If "Target" was a person, it would be a man or woman who somehow managed to be frugal and have a flawless appearance at the same time. Character "Target" would be active in his/her community and do volunteer work and give donations in order to give back. "Target" would be the sweet, innocent, yet modern girl/boy next door who created DaVinci caliber artwork for fun on the weekends.
Target, the company works hard for it's image. In a world ruled by evil villain Wal-Mart (dun dun duuun!) How does Target train the consumer to pull up different mental images and ideas when they hear "Target" then when they hear "Wal-Mart?" Well Target just attacks from all angles. FIrst there are those catchy advertisements with trendy sounding music and an undeniable modern, artistic quality. Then there are the oodles upon oodles of PR campaigns the company uses. A recent campaign, begun in February 2009, represents the brand in a near perfect manner, and makes me feel like if I shop at Target I'm going to get an artsy, trendy, AFFORDABLE, designer piece of clothing. Like this: Basically, Target is partnering with designer Alexander McQueen to launch "Target Designer Collaborations." If that wasn't enough, we learn that McQueen is inspired by music by British rock band The Duke Spirit. I've never heard of them, but by golly, isn't it cool that at Target I can get a designer shirt that was inspired by the music of a rock band? You can see the press release here. Additionally, Target's PR works hard to make us feel that Target understands our fears about money as the economy continues to flounder. Here Target offers a video on how to be "frugilista and fabulous." Those are not words you will ever see created in a Wal-Mart campaign, I promise you that...
I've mentioned this before, but Target makes sure we know the company does good in our world. They really care about things like giving money to the schools in your town and about being "green." In a recent press release, which you can read here Target announces an eco-friendly outdoor living collection.
The only thing more important than the environment is definitely people. Target does a variety of outreach programs. This most definitely promotes the "caring" image. Targets cares about a lot of stuff. The community in general, the people in it, the environment and being green. But Target also cares about your family and it's budget in the state of this economy and is willing to teach you how to be trendy and frugal. When was the last time Wal-Mart attempted to teach you anything? Yeah, that's what I thought.