Target believes it is
really onto something with its new package redesign for some of its private
label items in health and personal care. The retailer has ditched its well-known
bull's-eye and replaced it with a color arrow on a white background that
says "up & up" (the brand's name) on packaging.
"We believe that it will stand out on the shelf, and it is so distinctive that we'll get new guests that will want to try it that maybe didn't even notice the Target brand before," Kathee Tesija, executive vice president of merchandising for Target, told Reuters.
Ms. Tesija said the new look and brand name has been in the works for about a year-and-a-half. Items began rolling out in March and now number about 730. The chain will have renamed private label items available across 40 product categories by the fall.
While Target does so much that is right when it comes to branding and, undoubtedly, did quite a bit of testing before taking the big step of retiring the bull's-eye logo for this new brand, we simply do not get it. Perhaps as a longtime Target shopper, we do not get it because we are not the aforementioned "new guest" they are looking to grab.
When we first encountered the arrow on a Target store shelf while looking for baby wipes several weeks back we mistook the arrow symbol for a backward-facing K (the package was turned upside down). Why on earth, we wondered, would Target want to move away from one of the most recognizable logos in U.S. retailing with plenty of brand equity behind it for something completely different? As we said before, we just don't get it.
Discussion Questions: What do you see as the pros and cons of Target moving away from the bull's-eye logo to the new arrow design on its up & up brand? Does the chain need to do anything to communicate with its customers who are "thrown" by the new look?