Advertising Management Assignment: Target Corporation Ad Brief Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Target Corporation's advertising brief, focusing on its marketing strategies within the Australian market. It begins with a background of Target, including its brand, competitors (Walmart and Costco), and buyer analysis, highlighting the company's focus on value-oriented products. The report identifies key advertising issues, such as reaching customers and generating revenue, and sets objectives to increase brand awareness and improve customer perception. It delves into Target's target market, consumer insights, and budget allocation across various media channels, including celebrity advertisements, social media, and print. The creative strategy, media mix, and scheduling are discussed, followed by a justification that supports the advertising decisions. The justification section provides a deeper dive into Target's brand, competitors, buyer analysis, and advertising issues. The report concludes by reinforcing the objectives, target market, and market challenges, offering a detailed overview of Target's advertising approach and challenges, including a comparison with its main competitors in the Australian retail market.

Running head: ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT 1
Advertising Management
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date of Submission

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Target Corporation Ad Brief
Part A
1. Background
1.1. The Brand
Target Corporation Australia (TGT) sells numerous brands, however, some of the most known
brands are in line of clothing, homewares, cosmetics, consumer and fitness electronics, as well as
general electronics.
1.2. Competitors
Some of the most prominent companies that directly compete with Target are WMT (Wal-Mart
Stores) and COST (Costco Wholesale) (Screen Australia, 2014).
1.3. Buyer Analysis
The operations of Target involves digital retailing. The corporation uses numerous channels to
ensure that their goods reach buyers. In general, Target deals mostly with women, but also sell
male and children stuffs. The company harnesses the opportunity associated with the fact that the
Australian consumers do not prefer to go for online retail products even with technological
improvements because they are afraid of counterfeiting (Screen Australia, 2014).
1.4. Advertising
Target is primly positioned on the Australian retail-marketing segment. It therefore, targets
corporate audience, which includes more than 5,450 individuals in the country. The company has
put aside a marketing budget that would ensure that the company attracts more customers while
offering more value-oriented products as well as being geared towards reaching for customers
that are cost-conscious (Sisson, 2013).
2. Advertising Issues
Retail companies, Target included, faces the challenge of reaching for customers that are poorly
motivated by local products. Such a case means that the marketing techniques used by Target
and the rest is ineffective. Since Target Corporation, as a retail company in Australia, uses
ineffective marketing strategies, revenue generation remains stagnated.

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3. Objectives
This advertisement paper intends to:
- To increase the awareness of Target’s brands by 50% by the end of 2019.
- To increase customer’s perception on Target’s brands by 50% come 2020.
4. Target Market
4.1. Target
Target Corporation target shoppers that are fiver years younger than those of Walmart are.
Therefore, the company is able to make a revenue of approximately $12,000 more on every
household. Most shoppers at Target are white with Hispanic background (Swinburn, 2016).
4.2. Consumer Insight
Target wishes to lead Walmart and Costco in customer experience. Apart from that, the company
is also passionate about strategizing how to increase client advocacy and loyalty (Swinburn,
2016).
5. Budget
The table below shows the projected media budget for Target to commence by December 2018.
Walmart Costco Target
Celebrity Advertisements 15,000,000 8,000,000 11,955,000
Television & Radio Ads 0 0 1,823,000
Gifts and Product Promotions 0 0 1,000
Social Media Adverts 0 0 2,522,000
Banners and posters 0 0 576,000
Promotion and social Events 0 0 539,000
Magazines & Newspapers Ads 12000 1,000 165,000
Grand Total 15,012,000 8,001,000 17,581,000
6. Creative Strategy
According to Target, the biggest test is ensuring that the advertisement of its brands involves a
timeless and resonates process with customers (Woolworths, 2014).
6.1. Creative Statement

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The creative statement for Target is “The beginning of Brilliance”. The statement also forms the
basis of the company’s ad campaign.
7. Media Strategy
Target will connect with its customers via social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
However, the products will as well get advertised in magazines, radio stations, and TV stations
(Swinburn, 2016).
7.1. Media Mix with % budget Allocation
Media Percentage %
Celebrity Advertisements 68
Television & Radio Ads 10
Gifts and Product Promotions 0.006
Social Media Adverts 14
Banners and posters 3.3
Promotion and social Events 3.1
Magazines & Newspapers Ads 1.594
Total: $17,581,000
7.2. Media Scheduling
8. Mandatories

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TGT is regarded as a strong retailing “merchant”. TGT in relation to being strong is able ability
to employ creativity in its advertising endeavors towards ensuring marketing differentiation and
innovation.
According to marketing reports, TGT has performed well under its Cat & Jack kid's brand
having generated a gross profit of over $1.7 billion in a span of two years after its launching. As
a result, the management is confident that launching 12 other brands would be a major boost by
the end of fiscal 2018 (Sisson, 2013).

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Part B
The Justification
1. Background
Target (TGT) has been employing creative tools of advertisement such as banners and social
media tools to boost its brand awareness since its inception. Apart from that, TGT is owned by
Wesfarmers and has been operation for more than 10 years. The company also owns more than
300 stores in the entire country that sells clothing, homewares, cosmetics, consumer and fitness
electronics. With time, the Corporation has been regarded as a strong retail “merchant” because
the provided products are value oriented. Target believes that value beats price thus, offering that
has demonstrated the ability to use creativity as a tool towards ensuring differentiation and
innovation of the sold products. The mission of the corporation is to provide quality goods time
to time. Therefore, the main goal of the corporation is to meet quality standards that the
Australian market audience require. As mentioned before, Target started its operations by
manufacturing clothing, homewares, cosmetics, consumer and fitness electronics. However, the
main lines of production were homewares and clothing. The main feature of the products
provided by then was the quality and discount offers most of which were bought by women. Its
main buyers were and still are women because women go for value against cost. However, the
company started facing stiff competition from superior companies such as WMT (Wal-Mart
Stores) and COST (Costco Wholesale) (Euro Monitors International, 2014).
a. The Brand
As mentioned before, Target Australia is owned by Wesfarmers, operates more than 300 stores
in the entire country, and sells branded clothing, homewares, cosmetics, consumer and fitness
electronics, as well as electronics in general (Elliot, Rundle-Thiele, & Waller, 2014).
b. Competitors
Target, also known as TGT is a discount retailer as mentioned before. Such means that TGT has
its revenue generated by offering priced goods to consumers. Some of the companies that
directly compete with Target are WMT (Wal-Mart Stores) and COST (Costco Wholesale). In as
much as Target clients have high incomes and interests in high spending, particularly on quality

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products, Walmart of offer low prices on goods which lure individuals with low income
compared to Target. Target On the contrary, appeals to individuals with more affluence by
emphasizing on top-quality goods and low-cost designer fashion (Roy Morgan Research, 2013).
Target and Walmart are more of direct competitors though Costco also competes with the two
for customers. However, for Target to ensure future growth, it has to restructure its strategies for
connecting with customers, have large margins that would ensure that investors are provided
with solid profit, as well as be able to benefit from the existing economic conditions. When the
market competition is strong, retailers are motivated to reduce margins and stay competitive in
terms of pricing. However, the strategy of margin reduction may lead to price improvements
while leaving tiny profits for investors (Sanitarium, 2014).
c. Buyer Analysis
Women and children buy most products offered by Target. As mentioned before, women buy
goods and services that are value oriented unlike Walmart or Costco’s that are price oriented. As
a result, the company mostly target children and women as well families with high incomes. In
most Australian homes (63% to be precise), mothers do most purchasing decisions for household
and children products sold by Target. Therefore, the company decided to deal mostly with
women and children stuffs. Since household products are used every day, Target is not urged to
invest a lot in marketing (Sanitarium, 2014).
d. Advertising
Target has been and is still using traditional advertising methods to advertise its brands. Some of
such tools include the use of promotions, ad events, and banners. However, the company has
included digital marketing aspects such as social media tools (in the form of Twitter and
Facebook platforms), radio and TV platforms, as well as magazines and newspapers ensuring
that the company is in a premium position within the Australian retail-marketing segment.
Currently, Target’s marketing outcome focuses on its corporate audience within Australia. Its
advertisement budget is small, value-oriented, and geared towards enticing buyers that are cost-
conscious. Therefore, Target is currently third to Walmart and Costco in advertising and revenue
generation because the techniques employed do not give the company the overall appreciation by
the audience within the local spectrum (Sanitarium, 2014).

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As mentioned before, the products and services offered by Target are value-oriented and are
geared towards ensuring that clients get quality against high pricing, which more than 58% of
Australian retail products audience do not appreciate (Roy Morgan Research, 2013).
2. Advertising Issues
Target has a huge marketing hurdle and therefore, needs to boost its advertising because:
- It is unable to coax a huge number of clients to go for its products like Costco or Walmart
does.
- It is unable to boost its social currencies in the level of Walmart and Costco’s.
- Only 32% of Australian market audience go for value-oriented goods because of the
stratified incomes of the Australian families.
- It focus on media decentralization rules to get going in the marketing sector making it
unable to fight for the top marketing and advertising spot.
The advertising issues highlighted above affect Target’s operations because it has a tiny
marketing budget and is therefore, unable to reach the entire enticable 32% of value-oriented
customers in Australia. Apart from that, the management of the company and the marketing team
are unable to explain and convince the target audience on what the company offers and how.
Otherwise, already established firms like Walmart and Costco uses advertisements to defend and
reinforce their brands. Also, the two main competitors are running ads and doing so effectively
because they understand that it is the only way that consumers would be aware of their brands.
On being unable to boost its social currencies, Target spends less on advertising compared to its
competitors making its dollars less coveted to Walmart or Costco by the advertising agencies.
Otherwise, Target is unable to market its brands in the same level and playing field as Walmart
or Costco. Apart from that, Australian marketing agencies only go for companies who are willing
to spend on ads as much money as they generate in form of revenue, which Target does not (Roy
Morgan Research, 2017). On focusing on media decentralization rules, the retail industry of
Australia faces issues of poor buyer motivation alignment that Target is yet to be aware of since
it focuses on a small marketing niche. Therefore, with a weak advertising strategy, Target needs
to re-strategize its marketing priorities and fight to achieve the same marketing spot as Walmart
and Costco (Philp, 2015).

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3. Objectives
As mentioned before, the industry faces several marketing and advertising issues. To curb such
problems, this paper is charged with coming up with marketing and advertising strategies that
would lead to:
- Increased awareness of Target’s brands by 50% by 2020.
- Increase customer perception on Target’s brands by 50% come 2020.
4. Target Market
a. Target
Target offers retail products and thus, targets mostly mothers and children as well as few male
adults (most of who are financially well off) (PewResearch Internet Project, 2014). However,
since the products offered are value-oriented, those who are interested in the products sold by
Target have high incomes. On the contrary, Target wishes to coax everyone to buy its products.
Therefore, it is interested in low-to-high income families in the country. Target has realized that
the difference between it and its competitors is the 68% price-oriented customer segment that
would go for price and not value. As a result, Target is interested in the price-oriented segment
and intends to explore it (Langley, 2013). A 57% of Australian families in the Northern parts
would go for pricing as a purchasing factor with 40% going for Value. Otherwise, 3% would go
for household brands and not value or price. In Southern Australia, 12% of families prefer
pricing as a purchasing factor; 60% go for value, and 28% go for household brands (Morejon,
2014).
b. Consumer Insight
Target ventured into the market with several ideas making the process of picking the right choice
tedious. The company then decided to venture into retail services. To entice customers, the
company ensures that the picked idea is effective. The idea that is chosen is most promising and
is taken to the “minimum viable venture” stage. Such means that the idea is rolled out as projects
(Griffiths, 2013, pg. 160). However, preparations associated with pivoting is not mostly
desperation driven but about ensuring that Target do not waste any kind of opportunity. The
company, thus, has a huge role in ensuring that it is well positioned to ensure that their assets are
used. Apart from that, Target would wish to lead the way regarding customer experience. The

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company is also passionate about strategizing how to increase client advocacy and loyalty (FAO,
2014).
5. Budget
The table below shows the initial budget for Target.
However, below is the newly projected media budget for Target for FY18/19:
Walmart Costco Target
Celebrity Advertisements 15,000,000 8,000,000 11,955,000
Television & Radio Ads 0 0 1,823,000
Gifts and Product Promotions 0 0 1,000
Social Media Adverts 0 0 2,522,000
Banners and posters 0 0 576,000
Promotion and social Events 0 0 539,000
Magazines & Newspapers Ads 12000 1,000 165,000
Grand Total 15,012,000 8,001,000 17,581,000
Source: Media expenditure for Target based on Sept 2018 Reports
This projected media budget is scheduled for launched in the FY18/19. Celebrity advertising is
given the largest portion of the budget because most Australian households and the population in
general tend to depict the lifestyles of local celebrities, from their household items to their
personal outlook. Using such individuals would therefore, be a boost for the organization. Social
media advertisement is given the second largest potion because more than 87% of Australians
are social media addicts. Therefore, accessing the target audience via social media would be
easy. The third portion of the budget goes to television and radio ads since Target wishes to

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capture the percentage of consumers who are convincible through radios and TVs. Banners and
posters; magazines and newspaper ads; as well as promotion and social events are modern-
traditional tools that were employed earlier on by Target and produced insignificant marketing
outcomes. Such is the reason why they have the lower allocations of fund. Finally yet
importantly, Target does not intend to do much of gift and product promotion advertisements and
thus, allocated to lowest amount of this marketing budget.
6. Creative Strategy
Target will use its advertising to retail buyers that TGT offers better services than the market
leaders, Walmart and Costco. Target will use a structured marketing approach to build the
loyalty of its customers. Support will be that because Target is 3rd in the market, it has to try
harder in every aspect of its line of delivery to beat Walmart and Costco that provide customer
experience that is truly personal. The company will use a tone that is factual and no-nonsense in
the creation of its’ brands’ appeal such as “The beginning of Brilliance” (Jurevicius, 2014). In
this case, the character of Target’s brands is being cheeky, innovative, and being able to disrupt
the status quo (Apostolou, 2014, pg. 21).
a. Creative Statement
Target believes that the biggest test when it comes to owning a good advertising strategy is
ensuring that the process is timeless as well as resonates with customers (Heart Foundation tick,
2014). The creative statement for Target is “The beginning of Brilliance” the statement means
that the company looks forward to providing new, owned brands. The launching of its marketing
objectives in line with the statement ensures the differentiation of the company from its
competitors. The statement also forms the basis of the company’s ad campaign (Gracewood,
2018).
7. Media Strategy
Target has been reaching its customers through promotion events, radios, TV programs and
magazines. However, the company will also employ digital advertising channels like social
media platforms in the form of Facebook and Twitter. On the same note, Target will continue
advertising through magazines, radio stations, and TV stations. Through the named advertising
channels, Target will reach its targeted price-oriented market segment and convince them that

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Target is ready to offer quality goods at subsided prices; and also that Target is “The beginning
of Brilliance” (Claudio, 2015, pg. 115).
a. Media Mix with % budget Allocation
The table below shows the proposed media mix alongside budget allocation in percentage for
FY18/19.
Media Percentage %
Celebrity Advertisements 68
Television & Radio Ads 10
Gifts and Product Promotions 0.006
Social Media Adverts 14
Banners and posters 3.3
Promotion and social Events 3.1
Magazines & Newspapers Ads 1.594
Total: $17,581,000
b. Media Scheduling
The table highlights Target’s proposed media scheduling in a span of 25 days, every month for
FY 18/19.
8. Mandatories

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Target is thinking of gaining its business spot as the best retail company in Australia. The
company also attempts to regain its name as the strongest Australian “merchant” by beating
Walmart and Costco in marketing when it demonstrates its ability to use creativity as a tool of
production and marketing differentiation and innovation (Be Natural, 2014). Currently, the good
news is that retail analysists are enthralled on the performance of Target’s Cat & Jack kid's brand
that has generated a gross profit of over $1.7 billion in a span of two years after its launching.
Therefore, Target’s management intends to add 12 more brands to its ad campaign that has
already shown massive results through the Cat & Jack kid's brand success. The 12 brand are
likely to be launched by December 12 2018. The company also intends to upgrade its website by
adding new stores and online purchasing capabilities (Argyropoulos, 2012).

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