For as long as I can remember, Target’s creative marketing to women has hit the bullseye. My early years in the business were spent admiring Target’s many One Show ads which made products like waffle irons and aluminum foil objets d’fashion. It’s what spurred the fancy, affected pronunciation or Target to “Tar-zhay”. Target may be second to Wal-Mart in sales, but the company leads with its creativity and design.
The Target aesthetic has been so consistent over the years and has been the gold standard for their marketing decisions, product design (like the pharmacy bottles) and in their revolutionary designer partnerships that have brought aspirational fashion to the masses. According to a Harvard Business School article, “this “cheap-chic” strategy enabled Target to become a major brand and consumer-shopping destination, articulated around two main interrelated branding activities: designer partnerships and clever, creative advertising.” One of my favorite Target campaigns goes beyond, beautiful style and design, to truly make an emotional connection with its female audience. The “Christmas Champ” has ran for three years and truly captures, in a hilarious and memorable way, something very real: a suburban perfectionists relentlessly seeking bounteous bargains. It’s brilliant. I am to bummed to read in Ad Age that Target left their agency in January, an agency that I admire for their creative marketing to women campaigns. I hope the “Christmas Champ” returns next Black Friday. But I know, whatever Target ends up doing, given their track record, it will continue to hit the bullseye.
What are some of your favorite Target ads? And if you want to see more creative marketing to women, check out my first post in my series 20 examples of Marketing to Women that Connects.
