By George Anderson
The retail fashion business is largely about creating buzz and, when it comes to getting people talking, few, if any, do a better job than Target.
According to a USA Today report, special marketing events, such as Target's temporary or "pop-up" store on a boat docked in New York City or its summer store in the Hamptons last year, have helped the cheap chic retailer generate millions of dollars in free publicity.
Target is looking to keep the buzz going and this year has planned an event that gives a completely new meaning to the term vertical marketing.
On July 27, the company will stage a live runway fashion show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York. While runway shows in Manhattan are only slightly less common than hot dog vendors and pigeons, Target's show has a difference. Models will be showing off the fall season's fashions walking down the side of the building.
None of the models, as far as RetailWire has been able to ascertain, have been bitten by radioactive spiders resulting in them acquiring superhuman powers.
The runway models, normal humans in every respect aside from their freakish good looks and their training in acrobatics, will make their way down and back up nine stories of the building suspended on harnesses.
For Target's vice president of marketing communications John Remington, this event, as those in the past, is a demonstration of the promise made by the company's brand -- "Expect More. Pay Less."
"Things like the vertical fashion show and our advertising are the 'expect more' piece of it," Mr. Remington told USA Today. "The expect more side of it has made it OK for anyone to come into Target."
Aside from the free publicity it generates, Mr. Remington said the company hopes "the vertical fashion show will get people to say, 'They've done it again' ," Remington says. "It's surprising, fun, and it fits with our brand."
Moderator's Comment: What do you think Target will accomplish with its vertical fashion show? Do events such as this as well as the company's in-store and online store execution reinforce the brand's promise that consumers should expect more from Target while paying less for goods than they would elsewhere? - George Anderson - Moderator