What Target Corporation Has Become Essay Example

Dayton cousins named owners and operators. By 1950, upon this switch of ownership, Dayton Company had grown too fifty million dollar company.

The tests was a decade of further expansion of the company, both in terms of profit and nominal locations. Dayton company branched out from Minnesota to Arizona, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, with stores now selling jewelry, books, and several department stores were bought. Due to the many acquisitions of the sass's, Dayton Company became the fourteenth largest retailer in the united States listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Shelton 434). The company became a corporation due to its public offering for stock and large size, and created the Dayton Foundation.

This was a charitable fund in which the company gave five percent of its profit to charitable organizations. To this day, the company still donates five percent back to the community. Dayton Company was able to give back in this way due to its continued expansion. Merman's department stores of California merged with Dayton Company in 1978. The first Target store opened on May 1, 1962, and by 1978, the Target chain became Damson's largest component of revenue, eclipsing the department stores on which the firm had been founded.

While other components of the business, such as the jewelry stores ND department stores offered consumers more sophisticated merchandise, Target catered to the budget-conscious consumer, which made it hugely popular.

After the first Target opened In 1962 and continued to expand and build more stores, the company opened Its first Super Target In 1995 to compete with Wall-Mart and Smart. The early sass's was recessionary in the business cycle, which greatly helped the company

introduced the Target Guest Card, which was the first store credit card in the discount retail industry (Shelton 436).

In 1994, Target executive Robert J. Lurch was named chairman and CEO of Dayton Corporation.

Throughout the sass's, the company consisted of three components. The first component was the Merman's chain, which had three hundred stores in sixteen states. The second component was the array of department stores, which were the higher-end stores that were operated under various names. The third component, and biggest, was Target.

In 2000, the company dropped the Dayton name and became Target Corporation. Under this new title and Larch's great influence, the company introduced its Take Charge of Education Program.

This program was philanthropic in nature, and it was a system in which Target Guest Card elders had the ability to choose any elementary or secondary school in the country, and that school received one percent of the profits of that Guest Card holder's personal spending. Lurch made sure that, in addition to giving back to the community, Target was still one step ahead of competition. This included contemporary, high-quality goods at competitive prices.

This recipe allowed for continued growth of seventy stores per year on average (Craft 687).

The Target Guest Cards were transferred to Target Visa credit cards, and by 2003, six million customers were using Target Visa credit cards (Craft 688). This helped Target as a business due to free advertisement and brand recognition. Also in the sass's, Lurch pushed to divest the Merman's and Marshall Field's department stores, because they were negatively affecting sales. Currently, Marshall Field's is owned by Mac Corporation, and Merman's went bankrupt and is no longer

in business. Target Corporation has produced many effective marketing and advertisement campaigns, focusing on vivid colors and bold products.

One particular marketing campaign was especially significant because it drew in much more attention than originally paid for. On August 22, 2005, Target bought out all the available advertising slots in an issue of the New Yorker magazine. The New Yorker magazine draws in a mostly upper-class, urban crowd, which is to whom Target wanted to appeal. The advertisements themselves were twenty-one different illustrations all by different artists (Soloist 1599).

The advertisement spaces cost over $1 million, which did not include the wages paid to the artists and designers.

Target Corporation wanted to sell an artistic, urban impression of the business so that a sophisticated population who would read the magazine would be more likely to shop at Target. This marketing strategy was very successful because it generated a large buzz in the media. In a New York Times article dated August 12, 2005, vice president and creative director at Target called the ad campaign a "breakthrough".

These free benefits to the initial costly advertisement were significant because they got the word out about the company. Another savvy marketing campaign was Target's Take Charge of Education campaign.

As stated before, the Take Charge of Education program allowed Target Guest Card holders, and later Target Visa credit card owners, to choose an elementary or secondary school of their choice. One percent of their spending on that card would go towards funding for that school. Total spending for television, The company was selling the fact that they were philanthropic and aware of the community outside their business. The Target brand

was associated with giving back to the community, which made consumers feel good about their choice of Target as a retailer.

By 2006, the Take Charge of Education program had donated nearly $1 55 million to more than 108,000 schools (Soloist 1063). Since Dayton Corporation's first public stock offering in 1967, consumers have been able to witness the company grow at impressive rates. Target stock today is at a comparatively high level, with prices for one share of stock ranging from $47. 25 - 65. 80 over the past fifty-two week period (Investor Guide).

Our group would consider right now a good time to invest in Target stock because of both the time of the year and the growth rate of the business.

Since Target is a discount retailer, it caters to families and other consumers on a budget. The fourth quarter of this fiscal year began on October 1, 2012, and discount retailers tend to do more business during the fourth quarter than any of the others, according to Businesslike. This boost in business may be because of Christmas, which helps the company. The holidays bring in extra revenue.

We also determined that now would be a good time to buy Target stock because of the company's expansion into Canada.

Target is aiming to be a $100 Billion company by the year 2017 according to the Target team members who presented at Bryant University this fall. Canada is projected to account for between $6 and 7 Billion of the company's revenue. Target's expansion into Canada is beneficial to the health of the company, which is why we determined that it would be mart and financially beneficial

to invest in Target stock. Although Target has never expanded outside of the United States' borders, their domestic achievements and impressive profits have given them relative confidence in success outside of the United States.

Target will be taking over buildings that were formerly Seller's store locations. Consequently, they will have to overcome the problems that previous companies could not achieve before. Therefore, the American retail company must wisely plan a way to meet foreign needs, while also portraying the true, core values they offer. Similar to other retailing companies, Target's expansion must contemplate the cultural, demographic, economic, and government differences Canada presents.

Although Target is straightening, Wall-Mart and other discount companies are making a high end risk had to strategies as well. However, these large retailing corporations will have to compete against each other as well abroad.

Many of these difficulties will pose as threats to Target's investments. In order for Target to be successful, they must first study the different culture in which they are planning on expanding. Although the most prominent ethnic group n both countries is Caucasian, Canada is populated with 2. 2 times more Asians and 3. Times more Native Americans. These numbers may not show their importance in terms of percentages, but when 125 different stores are spread throughout the country, they will need to stabilize the products in order to meet needs for all ethnic groups.

This statement goes hand in hand with language as well. Just as Caucasian is the most common ethnicity, English is the most common language. Approximately sixty-five percent of Canadians speak the English language compared to an secondary language is much different in these two countries.