Essay Sample on Target Offers Mass Discounts: Quality, Image, Price Benefits

Introduction

One of the benefits that Target receives from its approach is that it offers mass discounts across all its merchandise. Through the use of collaborative relationships with high-end designers, the company can provide an exclusive line of products as well as offer huge discounts. As a result, Target offers its customers more significant perceived benefits concerning quality, image, and price when compared to its competitors. For instance, the company's "Room Essentials" are perceived as trendier by college students while "quality and design" are more appealing to older students. The collaborative relationships with the designers ensure that customers are always interested in the company's products. It is for this reason that Target's store brands are usually believed to be better than national brands. Another benefit the company enjoys is the ability to make its brand well known for its reliability as customers will always choose cheap but reliable products. This makes its customers to continuously select to buy from the store brands as national brands are perceived to be more expensive (Permarupan, Mohan, Al-Mamun, & Zainol, 2014). All the efforts used by Target to maintain its store brands have resulted in a significant increase in its revenues and profits.

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Is Target’s Store Brand Strategy Working?

The approach is evidently working. While Target may not achieve sales volume achieved by others like Walmart and Costco, it is clear that Target is ranked among the top brands in the retail industry, as illustrated by the case study. Additionally, it continues to use its image of providing more for less while at the same time it is offering huge discounts across all the products ranging from fashion and style to foods. Each store is a sub-brand of Target's overall brand which is built around offering customers more for less. Therefore, customers can identify with the company's brand no matter which store they buy from creating brand recognition and hence customer loyalty. Recently, Target has reported decreasing revenues and profits compared to competitors. while such revelation may cause doubts about whether the company's strategy is working, the retail industry is very dynamic and there are a lot more factors that determine the success rate of individual organizations. I believe that if Target were not using this strategy, its financial situation would be worse than it is currently.

What Could Target Do in the Future to Further Brands?

One of the strategies that Target could use in the future is by introducing multiple departments within their store brands. Incorporating such an approach to a brand already known for its value for less would increase sales per store by having every item under one roof. Additionally, Target could employ marketing strategies used in other store brands to its food store brand. By maintaining a balance between strategies used across the various store brands, every customer would be able to identify with the overall brand that is Target regardless of the store they purchase from. Furthermore, according to Arce-Urriza & Cebollada (2012), it would be easier to monitor the performance of every store brand under the company and craft new strategies for the failing stores. Finally, the company should focus on delivering more than its customers' expectations by regularly monitoring market trends and modifying their stores accordingly regarding product designs, pricing, and marketing strategies. By doing so, Target maintains the loyalty of its regular customers as well as attract new ones.

What Potential Problems Does Target Face in Continuing Its Focus on Store Brands?

The company's strategy focuses entirely on its store brands. While this strategy is crucial to its bottom line as it attracts and maintains customers, the relationships between the company and the national brands are affected. This could be a problem to target because its store brands rely on designer labels and national brands to supply them with products. If the national brands feel that their value is not of importance to Target, they may fail to maintain their contracts with the company and it would start reporting losses. It is, therefore, important for Target to maintain a balance between the designer label, the national brands, and the store brands (Choi, & Fredj, 2013). Another potential problem for Target is that there is a disparity of strategies among its stores. Arguably, the difference explains why the company's food store brand and other stores. This problem could result in Target failing to attract customers in some of the stores which would affect the profitability of the store as well as Target as a whole (Diallo, CoutelleBrillet, Riviere, & Zielke, 2015)

References

Arce-Urriza, M., & Cebollada, J. (2012). Private labels and national brands across online and offline channels. Management Decision, 50(10), 1772-1789.

Choi, S., & Fredj, K. (2013). Price competition and store competition: Store brands vs. national brand. European Journal of Operational Research, 225(1), 166-178.

Diallo, M. F., CoutelleBrillet, P., Riviere, A., & Zielke, S. (2015). How do price perceptions of different brand types affect shopping value and store loyalty? Psychology & Marketing, 32(12), 1133-1147.

Permarupan, P. Y., Mohan, M., Al-Mamun, A., & Zainol, N. R. B. (2014). Consumer perceived value and buying behavior of store brands. International Business Management, 8(2), 136-141.