October 17th, 2007
Target catalog showcases latest home upgrades
NEW YORK — Target continues to flirt with Gotham, placing a 52-page catalog in the April 14 edition of The New York Times. While it doesn’t signal that the retailer will finally fully commit to New York City and open a store in Manhattan, the catalog drop does suggest that Target has set several priorities for its home furnishings operations.
Given the timing and recent developments in the home furnishings sector at retail, Target clearly is determined to aggressively pursue new business.
The catalog, a glossy publication that offers products ranging in price from $1.99 to a $699.99 leather club chair, comes at a time when analysts have stated that Target initiatives, particularly Global Bazaar, have impacted other home furnishings retailers. In a fourth-quarter conference call, Target president Gregg Steinhafel said that the launch of the promotional Global Bazaar collection had led to incremental sales. The company, he said, is confident it can create more opportunistic home initiatives based on the success it had building a management team to run Global Bazaar. “It’s one of the things we do well,” he said.
The Target catalog also broke just as Kmart began to introduce an updated assortment in existing Martha Stewart Everyday categories and got ready to add a new furniture component to the line. The catalog also suggests that Target is positioning itself to better compete with an expanding Ikea, which publishes a sought-after catalog of its own.
As is the case with Ikea, the Target catalog isn’t an alternative to shopping the store as it is a way to bring innovation and breadth of assortment to the attention of consumers. Still, frequent references to product availability on Target.com support the hypothesis that the retailer intends the publication to be a true catalog, particularly for Manhattanites who have to cross a river to reach a Target. The catalog also showcases established home brands, such as Michael Graves Design and Swell, and newer labels such as Fieldcrest, Isaac Mizrahi Home and Simply Shabby Chic, in their best light. Some brands aren’t pictured at all, specifically Martex.
The catalog also demonstrates the range of home furnishing products Target sells today, with the $699 club chair and a $249 dresser from Thomasville’s Renovations division helping to define the top end. It also features a spread dedicated to its new relationship with California Closets.
In a research note, Bernstein Research analyst Emme Kozloff stated that the “catalog raises the bar for discount retail home assortments and mimics department and specialty store design and breadth.”