A Peek into Target's Corporate Culture

If you have a moment, check out this article I happened across on Target. I am not an avid reader of Fortune Magazine, but I am a fan of Target's Marketing and Branding strategies, so this cover story caught my eye when perusing the greasy, dog-eared magazines at the gym this morning.

It was absolutely worth the read, sweat stains and all. I pulled the nice and shiny e-version for you all here.

The two main reasons this article really resonated with me were its emphasis on two key points that I believe so many businesses have a hard time with:

- first (and last for that matter), its "all about the brand." Which should be clear to anyone who pays attention to Target at all. But so many companies can't keep their focus for more than a year or two at a time. Sure, red is old news, and so is the logo, etc., but you're just throwing away your brand equity by messing with those linchpins of your image once they're established. Revitalize, don't start over.

- second, they hire the right people and they KEEP them. A stunning thought. According to the Fortune article, the EVP of Marketing has not lost a report to a competitor in 16 years. 16 YEARS. That's unheard of. Obviously they're doing something right for their people. Either that or keeping them padlocked to their desks.

They also de-emphasize the egos and personality of their leaders in favor of the company and the brand, and stray away from high profile media coverage. Interesting strategy.

On a side-stepping but loosely related note, Shaun White is in the new issue of Vogue magazine in two spreads paired with supermodel Daria Werbowy. At least this time around they don't seem to have photoshopped out any of the equipment (see cover of recent Men's Journal--yikes).