Target and Walmart

On the surface, retail giants Walmart and Target appear to be very similar. They are both low price, high volume, big box stores that offer one-stop shopping for customers seeking both value and convenience. They even have very similar sounding slogans: Walmart’s “Save Money. Live Better.” and Target’s “Expect More. Pay Less.” But it is from the slight difference in these slogans that we can begin to see the difference in their respective marketing approaches.

The first apparent difference between the two stores is in their market segmentation. Walmart has selected the low and middle income segments to focus on while Target has focused on the middle and upper income segments of the market. Walmart’s first focus is on the low price of their products urging customers to “save money” while Target focuses first on the quality of their products telling their customers to “expect more”. Walmart’s focus on low price, while appealing to wide variety of people, is mostly focused on those customer’s whose main priority is saving money. Target, on the other hand, focuses more on customers who may have a little more money to spend on a slightly higher quality of product. By choosing these different segments to focus on, the stores must also utilize different strategies to convey their message to customers.

The two stores target their customer segments in very specific ways. Walmart targets the lower and middle income segment in their stores by relying heavily on large signs calling out the low price of their products and uses their large aisles to bulk merchandise discounted products. They also feature an entire aisle in their store on specially discounted products. Target, while still calling attention to the price of products, does so in a more understated way. Target stores tend to be cleaner and better organized, offering a more “showroom” type atmosphere in many departments in an attempt to showcase the quality and features of a product rather than...