​​​​John Foust​

The Challenge: Find a brand extension for the Target chain of stores in order to better reach a new audience and revitalize the stores. 

 

My Role: After finding research to understand the typical target consumer, I then helped build up the target consumer profile. Pulling together ideas on what fit the Target brand image, I worked with my team to see where they were lacking. I constructed a demographic image for the modern male consumer, working with my team to fine tune and accurately portray them in terms of their desires for clothing, their interests, and hteir personality.

 

Target's Missing Audience, The Young Demographic: After compiling data on Target via reports from AdAge and an Online Survey we distributed, we found the typical consumer to fit the following profile:

• Male (39%), Ages 18-34 (38%), typically living within the Southern, Western, and Midwestern regions of the United States.

• More than half of these individuals are employed in a profession.

• To them, Target is one of the only places where they can find appealing prices in addition to a wide selection of quality goods.

• These are smart shoppers who are highly savvy of current trends.

 

Having now considered the needed target, we felt that there was a distinct lack of a masculine side to Target's products. The current consumers were predominantly Middle-Aged females, and there was potential to reach out to this younger male audience. 

 

The Desire for Comfort and Fashion: Further research on the male target found that teenages from the ages of 15 to 24 were spending up to $112 billion per year on fashion products. Of that, 20% went towards "Streetwear". "Streetwear" refers to clothing which reaches out to a hip-hop loving audience and has since become a popular urban trend. Our Survey also noted that these male consumers looked for comfort and style in their clothes. 53% of them indicated that comfort was the top priority in what they wear. The concept of streetwear combined style and comfort into one. From here, the brand extension proposal was for Target to join forces with a popular streetwear brand: Billionaire Boy's Club (abbreviated as BBC). 

 

With BBC's focus on a hip image combined with the knowledge that Target had worked previously with Female-oriented fashion brands, this provided us with the chance to reach out to a previously untapped market. Knowing that the typical price of Streetwear merchandise ranged from $45 to even $700, we considered the risk of a decline in product quality, but also realize the opportunity for BBC to expand their awareness and presence, which had only recently begun to grow globally. Our hopes would be that the line would then catch the attention of young men within Target's most prominent areas, and expand the current audience as a result.