target up&up

challenge

The scope was huge: almost a thousand products across food, cleaning, paper goods, beauty, personal care, first aid and pharmaceuticals. Pretty much all the things that run out rather than wear out.

Insight

Ethnographic and quantitative research led to the core idea of everyday optimism: giving guest a fresh and individual brand, not an imitator – making a daunting shopping experience simpler by being easy to spot, navigate and select.

Result

An experience guest can become loyal to, not just a keenly–priced product. The impact? 20% revenue growth and a stronger masterbrand. According to BrandWeek, “Target’s nearly 50% jump in brand value could be attributed to the mega retailer’s intense focus on its new, up&up private label line.”

Brand archetecture

A look at the competitive landscape revealed that competitor brand architectures tended to be more unified horizontally than Target’s, with the exception of WalMart. WalMart stretched their "Great Value" brand to include household items (napkins, dish and laundry detergent, cleaning) as well as food. The solution was a simplification of the brand architecture across categories, reducing 150 SKUs down to one brand.

COMPETITIVE

Store visits and an audit of private label category revealed that the strategy of mimicking national brands was a losing proposition. It was undifferentiating, caused confusion among loyal shoppers and limits brand's what consumers will consider in some categories.

defining guest needs

Ethnographic research with customers revealed that consumers felt embarrassed to purchase a private label brand, although the quality and the price was the same as the national brands. They felt changed to navigate products within the isle and wanted to know the product origin of products once it was in their hands.