Target Corporation free essay sample

Target Corporation was founded in 1902 by George Dayton in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was originally called â€Å"Dayton Dry Goods Company† and then later became Dayton Company in 1910. By 1962, Dayton Company opened its first discount store in Roseville, Minnesota by the name of â€Å"Target†. By 2000, all Dayton Hudson Corporations changed their name to Target Corporation. It opened three operating divisions including Target, Mervyn’s and the Department Store Division. In 2001, Target’s division generated about 80 percent of retail sales and operating income while Mervyn’s generated only 12 percent and the Department Store Division only generated 9% of sales therefore Target merged their e-commerce team and direct merchandising unit into one organization creating Target Corporation opening 74 new stores within the same year. Target’s operating strategy is built on providing great value to their consumers. They distinguish themselves from the competition by differentiating their inventory from other competing retail stores such as Wal-Mart and K-Mart. We will write a custom essay sample on Target Corporation or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They are also known as being environmentally responsible. Target’s Corporation Associated Merchandising Corp. is a global sourcing organization that is involved with other souring companies to source goods to other parent companies. Target has developed a very unique store personality since its inception to ensure that it is core targeted market is reached. Targets store image is designed to reach its â€Å"target† market that is understood to be a step above its competitors of Wal-Mart and Kmart. The typical target customer is 44 years old with an average household income of $54,000 per year with 80% being female and over half being college graduates. Target reaches this core market through a strategic and well analyzed store development and retail site selection process. The Target real estate department identifies potential markets for new stores through an extensive search of analyzing population growth, existing stores performance, competition, demographics, and market potential. Target actively seeks the local communities input to ensure new stores are sensitive to local market needs and concerns. Once these market conditions have been met and local communities are on board Target will then construct one of the two possible Target prototype stores, The General Merchandise Store or The super Target. Target strives to open the stores at precise times being either March, July, or October as to ensure maximum exposure as construction on new stores ranges 9-12 months and store openings are planned well beyond 12 months in the future. The General Merchandise Store maintains a mixture of everyday needs including, electronics, household products, limited assortment of non-perishable and perishable food in addition to seasonal items. These stores on average employ 150-250 persons with a planned square footage of 128,000 square feet. The Super Target as the name implies is designed and constructed on a larger and grander scale and is located in large population areas with upscale demographics. The typical Super Target Store provides all the offerings of The General Merchandise Store with the added accompaniments of a full grocery store including fresh organic produce, deli, and bakery. These stores employ on average 200-300 persons and are constructed to be between 180,000 and 190,000 square feet. Target will locate these stores in suburban and urban markets with the urban market stores being single level raised elevation stores. In addition to these new store designs and openings Target breeds its store image and personality in several other ways to maintain its strong and affluent customer base. These objectives are also reached through store remodels, rebuilds, relocations, and in some cases store closings to preserve the brand name. Target is committed to its loyal customers and extensively reinvests in older store remodels to maintain the expected â€Å"store image† Target customers’ desire. Target Real Estate department analyses store sales volume, age of store, new store opportunities, and times since last update when considering a store for its remodel program. In some instances Target will do a complete rebuild of a store when factors allow. Target on average owns 85% of its buildings and land which enables Target in some situations to rebuild the store on the same site while the existing store remains in operation. In all of these situations Target will always to a simultaneous opening in conjunction with a store closing, the older store will close that fternoon with the new/remodeled store opening in the morning. This seamless transition ensures there are not any lapses in employee’s employment as well as customer’s ability to shop. With all of the in-depth site analysis, store analysis, demographic study, traffic count consideration, and local community reach-out that is placed in every new Target store selection, remodel, rebuild or store closing it is very easy to understand how Target has developed a â€Å"cult† like following based somewhat solely on its store image and personality. When a Target store, the bricks and mortar, and contrasted with its counterparts Wal-Mart and Kmart the Target hope is there is simply no comparison. In order to establish a business, Target Corp. had to first start with their marketing mix which includes their products, prices, place, and promotion also known as the four P’s. Their products and services consists of a wide variety including women’s, men’s and children’s fashion, baby equipment, home accessories, furniture, electronics, toys, fitness equipment, bath and bedding, baby and wedding registry, photo, pharmacy, optical and much more. They offer discount prices and clearance items in order to help consumer’s wallets while still offering quality products. (â€Å"Expect More, Pay Less†) Target Corp. has 26 regional distribution centers, 5 import warehouses and stores located in 47 states. They ship all their items directly to consumers from the Target. com Distribution Center. Their promotion strategies consists of newspapers, television commercials, internet and direct mailing lists and Channel Red, an in store network. Target Corporation has a unique market segmentation that makes consumers different from one another. Target Corp. as median age of forty-six years of age which is the youngest among other retailers. They target young customers with higher incomes than their competitors. The median household income of Target consumers is $55,000 and they typically live in suburban areas. About thirty-eight percent of consumers have children at home which is also more than any another competing discount store. Eighty to ninety percent of Target’s consumers are female and forty-three percent have completed college. Although Target’s main consumers are women (93%), they still target men by establishing an automotive, hardware and sporting good departments. Target’s positioning (or market) strategy is centered on a â€Å"cheap chic strategy†. Instead of competition for the lowest price to their everyday competitors, Target wanted to build an attractive clientele and venue. They have attracted a much younger and better educated clientele therefore their consumers are known as â€Å"guests† instead of being known as your everyday â€Å"customer. † Because of their upscale discount prices and products and their concept of associating style and quality, Target created their cheap but chic strategy; setting them apart from competitors. In order to offer quality products, Target uses several marketing tactics in order to keep existing consumers and establish new ones. Television, newspapers, magazines, brochures and testimonials from existing consumers help Target increase their client base and differentiate them from the competition. Another strategy Target Corp. uses in order to lure in younger audiences (both new and existing and typically ages 13-21) is established by running thirty second commercials featuring current celebrities.

How Design Can Help Improve Branding Essay Example

How Design Can Help Improve Branding Essay Example How Design Can Help Improve Branding Essay How Design Can Help Improve Branding Essay Name: Instructor: Course: Date: How Design Can Help Improve Branding Different companies have specific images or phrases that identify with their brand. Graphic designers are involved in the creation of these communication material that consumers use to identify different brands. Graphic designers, though at the bottom of this business chain, can influence the communication their brands make by emphasizing on the integrity of their graphic works. Advertisements and logos designed by graphic designers are supposed to communicate the real value and state of the brand being advertised. Realism has to be brought to product branding because before the customer decides to acquire that branded product, all they relate to is the brand logo or phrase design. Reality branding seeks to engage the company heads in designing the outcome of their brand logo and phrases. Designers must seek the actual truth about the state and reputation of a company before engaging themselves in designing their brand logo, phrases, brochures or advertisements. The real information has to be communicated to the interested parties. If a company is local, for example, designers should not portray them as being regional or global in their advertisements. All information in the adverts should be relevant. Design communication should be honest and communicate in a down-to-earth way. Reality branding designing stipulates that designers allow for criticism in their design process. Designers should question the internal indiscipline of brands and inform the management to correct these before portraying a better image of them. Reality branding should point out the real responsibilities of the brand to its customers. Personalities used in advertising should communicate the â€Å"personality† of these brands to their target market. Social networking advertisement removes the barrier between the individual in the ground and the company at the top. Communication on these networks should also employ reality branding.

General computer knowledge Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

General computer knowledge - Coursework Example Dragging Dragging is an activity of moving icons or images across the display screen mostly by using a mouse button. In tablets, it can be done using touch. It can also be used for moving block of text across the display screen while keeping the mouse button pressed. Defragment Defragmentation is the process of minimizing fragmentation by organizing files into smallest contiguous regions. Defragmentation increases region of free space area by compaction. It tries to compact smaller files together that can be accessed sequentially. Defragmentation also improves accessing files in faster times as read/write operations is faster in defragmented files in comparison to system of fragmented files. Podcast Podcast refers to digital media that includes series of multimedia, PDF, ePub files that can be streamlined to mobile or electronic devices through subscription. Podcast’s etymology is rooted in the traditional word â€Å"broadcast† and â€Å"pod† of the apple product â€Å"iPod†. The process of Podcast applies the software â€Å"podcatcher† to web feed the series of multimedia, PDF, or ePub files from distributor’s servers for downloading any files. ... Digital entertainment industry applies Vodcast mostly for short video clips of 2-9 minutes. Vodcast is also used for marketing, blogs, and in combination with traditional medium. Scam (give examples) Scam in cyber world applies manipulation for gaining access of private information to stealthily deprive money of potential target. Phone scam is one of the recent tricks in which attackers represent themselves as technical support person of branded organization such as Microsoft or other large companies. They apply technical jargons to confuse the person and maliciously install a program bypassing Antivirus of computer to take advantage of personal information or forcing the client to purchase product of particular company. Phishing is another scam that sends mail from branded organization to target unsuspected victim. Phishing Phishing act tries to gain accounting or credit card information masquerading themselves as reliable representative of branded company. Social media, mail, or ot her websites tries to lure public into their trap and takes the person to website with malware. E-mail spoofing is also one of the ways to trap victim by deceiving them using similar looking logos or website of branded organization. Phishing applies social engineering methodologies to exploit technological naive. Urban legend (give examples) Urban legends refer to modern myth that has been created through repetition of false story mostly using the medium of Internet that provides the platform faster broadcast of the story. They increase the believability factor by personalizing the story that it has been happened to one of the friends. "The Infamous Modem Tax", "Craig