Know Thy Market
Wednesday, 8 August 2007 by Joscelynn TomawI challenge anyone to make it through a business school marketing class without discussing Target’s uncanny knack for putting its finger on the pulse of the moneyed masses with wide aisles, designer merchandise, and meticulous attention to “zoning” (this used to be my job).
Free Exchange highlights an interesting article suggesting this consumer drive towards “affordable luxury” and easy shopping might not be an international craze.
As if to defend its policy of publishing long detailed stories on small offbeat subjects, the Wall Street Journal comes out today with a classic of the genre, about a supermarket chain in India which has found that its customers actively prefer noise and congestion when shopping to clean, quiet browsing. So it has redesigned its stores to make them messier, noisier and more cramped—spending $50,000 in a Bombay store alone to replace long, wide aisles with narrow, crooked ones.
Business has boomed at the company, Pantaloon, now India’s largest retailer. It doesn’t allow haggling, which its customers would probably also enjoy, but it gives them the next best thing: it scatters its produce bins with a few inferior fruits and vegetables so that shoppers can have the satisfaction of picking out the better stuff, and come away with “a sense of victory”.
Maybe it’s the lack of panhandlers and swarming, gawking tourists that unnerves me a bit when I leave the city to shop at suburban malls.
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August 8th, 2007 at 15:55
Ah, zoning. I remember the relentless battle that is HBA (health & beauty aids), with the thousands of small bottles, containers, and packages that had to be meticulously lined up into their designated slots. I spent countless hours (actually, they were counted for the purposes of paying me) cursing whoever laid out the shelf plan, especially when I had to fit two bottles of shampoo side-by-side into a space 6 inches wide when each bottle was 3 1/4 inches wide. It beggered belief that there wasn’t a better way. Now, years later, I see that Target now has those items slotted into spring-loaded separaters, which is a handy thing for keeping everything straight, but makes it impossible, once one has picked up an item to read the label, to place it back on the shelf.
Toys, on the other hand, was a pleasure to zone, since it was a Sisyphusean task. One could straighten every toy, look back at one’s labors from the end of the aisle, and see that the little monsters had promptly scrambled the items in one’s wake. Might as well give up and walk around playing with them, too.
I forget, Josc, were you in softlines or hardlines?
August 8th, 2007 at 18:08
Softlines! Swimsuits and and baby supplies were the worst, hands down.
August 8th, 2007 at 20:46
Dear Zach:
I am one of those who you previously cursed at for “laying out the shelf plan” for the smaller products in Health and Beauty Aids. I will keep your feedback in mind as I help plan the next Planogram…
Thank you for your part in helping Target be Fast, Fun, and Friendly…
Sincerely,
Target HQ Employee
August 9th, 2007 at 16:40
Kristoffer, glad I could help. Here’s another tip: male employees, er, team members refuse to zone the ‘feminine hygeine’ aisle.
August 9th, 2007 at 17:52
Ah Target, its like an upscale Wal-Mart. I always ranked them thus in “redneck” factor, in ascending (more redneck) order: Target