Target Marketing Strategy Of Walmart

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) is the leading large-format general merchandise and discount retailer in the U.S., challenging Wal-Mart in electronics, toys and apparel while also seeking to differentiate with higher-end fashions and products for an upscale audience. As of the close of their latest fiscal year (FY2011), Target operated approximately 1,760 stores encompassing 233,000 square feet in 49 states and the District of Columbia. The company is divided into the retail and credit card divisions and moves the majority of its products through a highly integrated network of 37 different distribution centers, which include four food distribution centers. Target is one of the most well-entrenched large format retailers in the U.S., has the ability to manage their pricing strategies at a level of accuracy and precision that is comparable to Wal-Mart (Henderson, 2001). Unlike Wal-Mart, Target concentrates on a value-based message that concentrates on quality and price differentiation to sustain their gross margins while Wal-Mart concentrates on supply chain efficiency and a continual reduction of supplier and transaction costs (Krishnamurthi, 2001).

Headquartered in Minneapolis Minnesota, Target Corporation is one of the largest chains of retail stores in United States and Canada (Stone, 1995). Founded in 1902, the chain now has more than 360,000 employees worldwide. The company operates nearly 1925 stores out of which 1795 stores are in the US and 130 stores are in Canada (NASDAQ, 2014). The business prides itself in a diverse portfolio of merchandise that their outlets houses, ranging from dry groceries to electronics, furniture, apparel and much more. Its distribution networks make use of third party vendors, direct shipping as well as distribution centers. It also operates a successful e-store target.com which offers customers a virtual one-stop shop for their needs.

The Target Corporation is a general merchandise retailer that opened up in in 1962 under the parent company of Dayton Corporation. This parent company was renamed the Target Corporation in 2000 and are based out of Minneapolis. There are over 1,800 Target stores throughout the United States which includes Targets and Super Targets. In 2005 Target began expansion in India and in 2011 to Canada however this expansion into Canada did not fare well and all Target Canada stores were closed by 2015. According to Forbes in 2005 they we ranked amongst the highest cash-giving companies in America with 2.1% given and they donate about 5% of its pre-tax operating profit. In 2010 Target was ranked number 22 by Fortune magazine’s World's Most Admired Companies.

Target Corporation is a retail chain specializing in household goods, clothing, food, and accessories at discounted prices. The retail chain’s history started back in 1902 as Goodfellows and in 1910 as The Dayton Company. Initially, the chain specialized in “furnishings, fabrics and decorations for business and other public institutions” (“Target Corporation,” 2016, p. 5). Eventually, Target went public in 1967 and on to acquire Mervyn’s in the 1970s where they became the seventh largest retailer in the United States. Target operates in the United States, where it is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota and as of January 31, 2015 Target employs over 300,000 people. “The company recorded revenues of $72,618 million in the financial year ended January 2015, the operating profit of the company was $4,535 million, [and] the net profit was $2,449 million” (“Target

One of Targets biggest competitors is Wal-Mart and surprisingly they have a different type of organizational structure. “…our new structure will align three very successful operating divisions – Logistics, Real Estate and Store Operations under a unified leadership team. We will organize into three distinctive geographic business units (GBUs) – Walmart West, Walmart South and Walmart North”("Wal-Mart", 2014). Unlike Target, Wal-Marts stores and distribution centers are broken into three sectors not four. This is very surprising because Wal-Mart has over 4,000 stores in the United States and Target has only 1,797. Even though the mission of these two stores is extremely similar, providing a wide arrangement of quality products at reasonable prices, they are managed very differently.

Recently Target experienced losses in many of their stores across Canada, prompting the CEO to close all of them. This has now left Target dependent solely on the macroeconomic situation within the United States. Target is located in forty-seven different states across the United States with its highest presence in California, Florida, Texas, Minnesota, and Illinois. This can be a concern for Target because it cannot be helped by any international locations if the domestic economy takes a negative turn, resulting in significant drops in production in its

Target Corporation has recognized itself as one of the top retailers in the United States market on the basis of excellent service quality, customer experiences, operational excellence, strong financial position, and a wide array of product offerings. Through its high degree of service orientation at physical outlets and adoption of fair business practices, Target Corporation has become the most distinctive retailer in the eyes of its potential customers. Being one of the top-notch retailers in the United States, Target Corporation has to carefully strategize on its business operations and marketing tactics so as to keep itself in the row of competitive brands of the industry.

In business, three major strategies comprising of cost leadership, differentiation, and focus strategies exist. The focus strategy emphasizes on providing services and products to a specified buyer group or market segment within a given geographic market. The differentiation approach is often defined as provision of services or products that are perceived to be unique in the market place. Wal-Mart emphasizes on the long-term strategy of cost leadership. Through this strategy, the company ensures that it offers customers with quality products at relatively lower prices than other providers in the industry. Through overall cost leadership strategy, Wal-Mart has been offering better quality products at a lower price than any competitor can offer. For the organization to achieve this goal, it has developed long-term supply chain management, which ensures that products are made available to the market at the required time (Enz, 2010).

The development of the Internet and more specifically the business website has seen brand recognition by consumers escalate to never before seen heights. Because of this brand recognition, it has become important for businesses to design their websites to reflect their overall marketing strategies. This is especially important in the retail world. All retail businesses have a similar overall marketing strategy of generating sales and retaining the customer for future sales. Most of the retail giants still greatly rely on the success of their brick and mortar stores to turn a profit. However, internet sales for these brick and mortar stores have increasingly risen over the last few years to compete with the retail stores like Amazon that are strictly internet based businesses. Brick and mortar retail stores, such as Walmart, Target, Kmart, and Nordstrom, have each designed their websites to reflect the overall retail marketing strategy as well as the individual marketing strategies that have made their brick and mortar businesses successful.

Walmart's Segmentation and Target Market Catalina Valenzuela MKT/571 February 16, 2016 Esmail Rahimian Walmart's Segmentation and Target Market Wal-Mart is a chain of retail stores that have existed for over 50 years. The store was created by Sam Walton who established his stores based on the need for best price and value shopping for everyone. The segment for Walmart is that they are discount stores that every can afford. They Wal-Mart stores come in the form of supercenters that sell a mixture of retail items, food items, service centers and specialty items.

As at 2015, Target 's North American distribution infrastructure consists 42 distribution centers totaling 55.5 Million square feet consisting of the following different facility types: regional general merchandised distribution centers, import / redistribution centers, perishables food distribution centers, E-Commerce fulfillment centers and returns processing facilities. Like many retailers, Target sources a significant volume of import merchandise from different countries around the world (approximately 500,000 containers of merchandise produced in countries like China, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and Thailand). The import

The five generic competitive strategies are low-cost provider, broad differentiation, focused low-cost, focused differentiation strategy, and best-cost provider strategy. According to the textbook, “a company’s competitive strategy deals exclusively with the specifics of management’s game plan for competing successfully” (Gamble, 93).

Currently Target Corp operates nearly 2,000 retail stores that are sourced through thousands of vendors, and merchandise finds its way to the stores via 22 regional distribution centers located throughout the United States. Regarding imports, Target's strategy is to route most of the imported merchandise through a small number of import distribution centers on the East & West coasts (mainly Long Beach, CA) and than transfer the goods by truck or rail to the regional distribution centers. In 2001, Target revamped its distribution systems by hiring outside consultants NTE to replace manual operations with electronic inventory and distribution systems. Before the conversion, employees working in supply-chain management relied heavily on manual faxes for much of the sourcing functions completed at the regional distribution centers, which in turn gave employees and managment limited visibility of shipments and order histories. Now a system that links trading parters in a centralized online system is utilized that allows the company to concentrate on orders and their shipments in the early stages of the supply chain. By doing so, the company can take advantage of multiple transportation options, re-route transporation when necessary, correct overruns, and schedule shipments in full trucks. he reduction in costs for supply-chain management have been substantial, allowing Target Corp to continue offering its

Walmart begun to explore the global markets in early 1990s. Its first expansion was in Mexico, where Walmart ran its retail business as joint venture with the largest retailer Cifra S.A. in Mexico. The Walmart’s format proved to be quite successful in Mexico. Followed by year 1994, Walmart entered Canada market by acquisition strategy. In 1996, Walmart penetrate China by opening Sam’s Club and supercenter in Shenzhen, and acquisition of hypermarket chain called Trust-Mart in 2007. Walmart’s implementation of its low price and multi store formats strategy ensure its success in international expansion in these three countries.

To be the world 's largest low cost store that carries all types of merchandise for all possible consumers.