Casey Bridge and Gina Malnati

COM377

December 3rd 2019

Meltwater Project : Target

Target is a general merchandise retailer with stores across America. Because 75% of the

U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a target store, Target is a well known and well loved

shop for Americans. Known for their prices, trends, and convenience, Target as a brand is

extremely identifiable, and their marketing team has worked to “re-establish Target as the leader

of chic, affordable style” (​Brand Positioning Strategy and Customer Segmentation Strategy for

Target. (n.d.). Retrieved from ​https://www.keltonglobal.com/studies/target/​). Because the Target

brand has been around for over 100 years, they have to make a conscious effort to keep their

brand fresh and well-liked in the eyes of the public as trends change. By consistently offering

sought after items at affordable prices, Target has become a staple of the American shopping

experience. Using the Meltwater application, we wanted to see what people are saying about

Target, especially during the Holiday shopping season. Using terms such as “trendy”, “Target

Run”, and “Guilty Pleasure” helped us gain insight into

what people are saying about the brand, as well as what

articles are being published about Target.

Using the last 30 days proved to provide a lot of

valuable information about the Target brand, since the

Holiday season is in full swing. ​ ​The Media exposure

Nov 4, 2019 - Dec. 3, 2019, there was a spike in the

beginning of the month around the 40ish mark and there was a rapid decrease from the 4th to the

6th. After this, there was still little to low media exposure and there was a small spike reaching

around the 20 mark in the middle of the month. At the end of the month, there was still little to

no media exposure.​ ​We immediately noticed that a large portion of the results, across both social

and news, was pertaining to finding the best deals at target, or creating a gift guide using targets

products. This immediately told us that target is

a very universally-liked brand, since companies

are using Target products to promote shopping

guides for consumers looking for affordable and

well received gifts. Interestingly enough, Target

is commonly used as a way for beauty/lifestyle

blogs to receive more engagement, which

means it is very popular, and has a large

consumer base. Our observation is supported by

the sentiment data we collected.

As you can see, Target has an overall neutral sentiment, with a good amount of positive

reception. But most importantly, there is next to no negative feedback across social platforms

about Target. People love to express their need for a “Target Run”, which we found in our

research. A “Target Run”

equates to a guilty pleasure

of sorts, which consumers

post online as “relatable”

content. People love to shop at target, and they like to feel as if they are in some sort of

community with a mutual understanding of how great the brand is. Target is just trendy because

of its merchandise, but also because of who shops there, and how much those trendy people love

Target. Even without looking at the sentiment data, it is obvious that ​People. Love. Target.

People love Target almost as much as they love talking about how much they loveTtarget. This

combination creates an extremely positive reputation for the brand.

It is important to examine where the largest source of social media presence regarding

Target is

coming from.

Within the

last year,

Target and

words related

to target have

gotten the

most “buzz”

from most blogs and consumer sites. Looking at who talks the most about Target give sus a

better idea of who Target’s key markets are, and which demographics are the largest and most

loyal consumers. According to the graph, it can be argued that Target has a pretty wide range of

markets, including moms, young adults, and people looking for consumer news. Many of the

articles published about Target were about their upcoming deals, the best ways to shop, their new

online options, and new products coming to stores. Some of the information comes from Target
directly to the consumer, but interestingly enough, a lot of content comes from the blogs above,

who are taking advantage of targets large following and creating Target related content of their

own. This is an example of a post created by the

Target brand itself, which had a large engagement,

proving that people find the brand relatable and

likeable. ​The stigma that target is perceived by the

public is happiness. The venn diagram that

somebody made in regards to Cyber Monday.

Big dates like Black Friday, Cyber Monday,

and the upcoming holidays increase interest and

engagement with Target. This was easy to see using the Meltwater system, and allowed us to dig

deeper into what people are saying about Target, and why it is so successful in the eyes of the

consumer. With such a wide audience, it should also be noted that the “buzz” about the brand

comes mainly from the United States. ​The Heat map remained the same as The United States

was highlighted. This was still interesting however, because that means that Target is mainly an

American-used store/products and time does not

change that.​ Target is a beloved brand with an

incredibly solid reputation and an enormous

amount of loyal consumers. As a brand, they

have to do very little than keep doing what

they’re known for; affordable and trendy

merchandise made accessible to the consumer. If they stay consistent, the blogs and social media
posts will continue to promote themselves, which will keep their consumers coming in and

leaving happy. ​Being able to be curious and answer PR related questions about a brand was

extremely interesting as well as beneficial. It was interesting to see how much and how fast the

perception of a brand or company can change within such a short amount of time. They can go

from being on-top to having something small, or big, happen and then have a completely

different perception to the public. It is more difficult to recover from negative to positive and

more easy to go from positive to negative, which makes it essential that companies PR teams

work well with the brand and listen to what is being said about them and monitor what is being

said so they can change.