While there's no Target store in my neighborhood I do know Smith & Hawken as a high end speciality retailer so what a surprize discovering through a New York Times advertising insert this weekend the two companies are partners. A January 2006 Target press release describes the partnership. Casual Living, a Reed Business site reveals the arrangement dates to 2005.
Target's brand differentiation and design partnerships already gained attention from Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge in 2004:
"Target's outside-the-box strategy made it the No. 2 discounter behind you-know-who. "Tar-zhay's" success is examined in this excerpt from the new book Simply Better, from Harvard Business School Press."
"In 2002 the Minneapolis-based Target Corporation leapfrogged Kmart to become the United States's second-biggest discounter behind the $218 billion giant Wal-Mart."
"The first choice would have thwarted future growth, and Wal-Mart was already a low-cost producer, so Target chose the third option and decided to reposition itself as a mass merchandiser of affordable chic goods."
Target's name as an innovator was on my mind having heard from fellow Australian and PRODIGY alum Kirsty Hamilton during a recent New York City visit that Target Australia was distributing a line of clothing by Stella McCartney. (A post to an Adelaide Now blog suggests that launch gained unintended news coverage.)
Regardless, a 5 year TGT stock chart indicates Target's creative partnerships strategy with high end designers and established brands continues to work. And the Kodak Gallery deal today reveals the partnering continues. Evidence for the wisdom of Ranjay Gulati's presentation to the November 4 2004 Network Roundtable on "Realizing the Value of Networks Outside Organizations" through expanded external relationships. I wonder how Target keeps the creativity alive.
~ Jenny Ambrozek
