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Target Still Loves Corrugated

Retail giant Target, Minneapolis, doesn’t plan to expand its used of corrugated displays at its 1502 stores, says David Plante, senior manager, In-Store Marketing. But don’t for a minute think it still doesn’t love corrugated packaging. Why? In a word, sustainability. It recognizes the many advantages corrugated provides and will continue to be a fan.

Plante was a keynote speaker at the In-Store Marketing Expo, held last week in Chicago. He discussed how the company maximizes the strategic integration of guest shopping needs with brand and merchant business needs. He told his audience of about 450 packaging end users and marketers that the $60 billion (in sales) company treasures its brand values, which include:

•Differentiation
•Newness
•Affordable Design
•Innovative Solutions
•Responsibility
•Quality
•Low Price (Not the lowest, but price competitiveness).

Target realizes that when customers visit its stores they see only half of what exists. So it has no choice but to continually evolve its in-store experience. It is doing that by creating more consistency at its stores and not trying to stand for everything.

“We want to deliver on our expect more, pay less promise,” he says. “We need your partnership to do that.”

Plante stressed that great packaging is a critical part of Target’s in-store experience, pointing out that every brand has some control over it. The company gets the fundamentals that bring customers into its stores. But it has to work on the rest of the experience, which centers on keeping customers in its stores longer and making certain they come back.

“Instead of independent insights, think collaborative genius,” he says. “Don’t design and offer us what you have come up with, but collaborate. Pause, learn and evolve with us. We’re building on what works, eliminating what doesn’t.”

Target recognizes that its typical shopper, a 41-year-old mother with two kids, often turns to packaging to make a decision while walking up and down a store’s aisles. He then showed slides of a few packaging examples that would cause that mom to choose one product over another. One of them was an Every Man Jack shaving product in a white box with just a strip of color on the top. It was standing next to cans of Old Spice shaving products. Another example was a Microsoft software box with one of its top edges at an angle. It would be just enough for a shopper to look twice at that container. A third was a crest toothpaste carton that was vertical versus the typical horizontal package.

Target never stops asking questions, including:

•How do we deliver a more universal message?
•How do we deliver more complete solutions?
•What engages and inspires our customers?

And, most importantly and fundamentally, what’s next?

“We will continue to evolve,” says Plante. “When we elevate the category, we all win.”OBM

Callout: “We want to deliver on our expect more, pay less promise.”—D. Plante, Target