Introduction – provide a detailed summary of Target Corporation; include the fol

Question

Introduction – provide a detailed summary of Target Corporation; include the following Describe the department and the type of products it sale. The places your client sells the product (i.e., online and in stores) The type of promotion the client currently uses What the marketing strategy will accomplish for the client Analysis of the target market Customers – summarize how consumer behavior is impacted if the 4 P’s are not strategically aligned with each other. Buyer decision process – Discuss the impact this process has on a company and how it impacts the 4 P’s

Explanation / Answer

Target Corporation (TC) is one of the leading discount stores based in the United States. The store has about 3, 41,000 as per the Wikipedia published report. TC is also registered on the NYSE. The products listed on the TC are as per the customer need and requirement. The various departments included in that are Home, Dining & Kitchen, Furniture, Patio and Garden, Electronics, Movies-books-music, video games, Toys, Sports and outdoors,Luggage,School and office supplies,beauty,personal care and health,food and bevarage,household essentials,pets,party supplies, clearance and holiday shop. The stores products are available both in the offline i.e brick and mortar shops and also things can be purchased online.

The 4 P's of marketing are

1. Product

2. Price

3. Place, and

4. Promotion

Under each of the 4 P's it is sub-divided into various sub-segments and in TC care has been taken to ensure that 4P's are strategically aligned to each other.

In case of First P i.e . Product - which is tangible in nature and customers can actually see and feel the product. TC lists in its both online and offline versions a wide variety of products such as shoes, clothing, baby products, home utensils, electronic gadgets and so on in such a way that for a small family or for a large family all the requirements depending on their ages are available at TC. TC is also ensuring continuous product extensions, i.e. new launches in each of its listed segments so as to ensure that whenever the demand of old product subsides due to change in the fashion, they have new products available in the online and offline stores. This ensures that the customers are constants attracted towards TC and it becomes their choice of shopping always.

In case of second P - Price - various sub segments are included such as list price, discounts, allowances, payment and credit terms. In case of TC, the prices of the products are listed on the company website. Also prices are also displayed on all the products that are kept in the offline stores.TC runs an exclusive Red card program under which any person who buys using this card can get 5% discount on the purchases done. The Red card can be in the form of a debit or a credit card and is linked to their bank account directly, facilitating ease of transactions while the person is shopping. It also offers discounts for purchasing on black Friday and top deals under each category are listed separately for easy identification by the customers. For example on 15th November 2017, the store website displays information on Shiny holiday deals which lists products to be purchased for the upcoming Christmas celebrations. Also because of the Red card system, the payment can be done using credit card or debit card thus giving the option of flexible payment system to its customers. The credit card provider, depending on their policies gives the customers sufficient time to pay the funds to the credit card company after the purchase has been made or goods have been consumed.

The third P - Place - refers to the place where a person can buy the product. Sometimes it is also called as distribution channel. TC has two major distribution channels which are the online stores and the offline stores or brick and mortar stores. On the C website, based on the city or zip code and state one can easily search for the brick and mortar stores and can easily drive into these stores for purchasing the product. For example. For zip code 19701 which is for Bear under New Castle County, TC lists about 20 stores. This helps the consumers identify the location of the stores even when they are not in their home city and travelling outside. This location identification would help consumers use their Red Cards at many other stores apart from those where they regularly purchase their products from.

In the case of fourth P - Promotion - it gives an idea as to how the awareness of the products or brands is being done. It has 4 distinct elements which are advertizing, public relations, personal selling and selling promotion. A certain amount of cross over in the four elements often occurs in the companies. In case of TC, they use emails to inform the customers about the new launches. They are using contrast and color on their website so that whenever a customer visits the website, due to the visual appeal, he is focused on the product categories which TC wishes to focus their customer's attention on. Target uses their three major store format types which are (1) Target, (2) Super Target, and (3) Flexible format target, to effectively promote their products. For example in the case of Target format - which is the oldest form of stores, TC ensures that it has products listed there are as per the needs of the neighborhood, while in the case of flexible format store type, TC offers products in various packing so that consumers who are travelling on public transport can easily carry them even during rush hours. TC also offers promotional deals through their subscription programs. They also run blogs on the internet to help customer further understand their offerings. Though personal selling is not much seen in TC as one needs to pick up products on their own, but for specific queries store managers are available to help customers whenever needed.

Thus one can see that 4 P's are strategically linked to one another and these work in tandem with each other to ensure success of TC.

Now if one examines the buyers decision process, it has five major steps which are

2.     Information search

3.     Evaluation of alternatives

4.     Purchase decision

5.     Post purchase behavior

If one sees these carefully it can be observed that TC helps the customer recognize their needs through the various store formats also on their website. They have listed the products according to the occasions which makes it easier for the customer to select the products. Also store search can be done depending on the services TC offers such clinic, optical, pharmacy and so on.

This also enables information search on TC and customers can get first hand information in a very swift way. The customers are also offered alterative brands under each of the product categories. The alternative consumer chooses depends on the consumer buying psychology whether they are price seekers or brand followers. TC displays the products in such a manner that consumer can easily identify alternatives.

For the purchase decision, Red card and cartwheel are offered which makes purchasing easier for them. They also run feedback system to note the post purchase behavior and the store structure or offerings get modified accordingly.

Thus one sees that TC has effectively employed the 4P’s against the consumer buying behavior to arrive a customized model that would suit each and every individual leading to the success of TC stores across the US.

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