Sure, a big proportion of Americans mentioned they might store at Target due to its purpose-based initiatives. Plenty additionally mentioned they might not. Meanwhile, the prosaic, benefit-led messaging of Walmart was profitable each retail day.
Target demonstrates all of the errors and myriad implications of positioning on function. First, there was the inevitable backlash and back-backlash as one socio-cultural group objected to a give attention to one other. Target’s gross sales dropped by greater than 5% within the second quarter of 2023 after conservative hostility over its Pride merchandise. When the corporate scrambled to take away this merchandise, it appeared insincere and confronted a second backlash from the very neighborhood it got down to initially assist.
And all of the whereas Target’s advertising message was misplaced in a complicated, contradictory mist of non-benefit-based, introspective, non-competitive fare. All this function stuff was extremely generic. And most significantly, it was all concerning the firm and its varied stances whereas virtually utterly unaware of the patron and what was in it for them. At the guts of the aim argument was an overstatement of the significance of manufacturers within the lives of Americans who actually didn’t care what their toothpaste model thought of Covid or the place their lipstick stood on inclusivity.
Marketers wanted to humbly get again into their lane and fear once more about advertising stuff. Price. Product. Service. Availability.
To be clear, I assist DEI initiatives. I feel each company should turn into extra environmentally conscious and deal with its employees with larger respect. But the concept that these causes will at all times make an organization cash is laughable. And unimportant.
The function of function is function. We select to do this stuff as a result of we imagine them to be proper. The concept that this righteous path will even at all times earn us extra money is laughably naïve. In truth, it can often value us clients, gross sales, and income. A precept isn’t a precept, Bill Bernbach famously reminded us, till it prices you cash.
We now reside in a post-purpose advertising period. Brands like Target have proven the inherent fallibility of function, whereas Walmart reminds us of the worthwhile validity of old-school, benefit-based model positioning.
Cannes submissions had been notably devoid of a lot of the aim nonsense this 12 months. DEI language has declined 68% in filings from S&P 500 corporations in 2025. Companies are retreating to safer floor. Those nonetheless dedicated to equity and equality are additionally remembering that one of the simplest ways to construct model is to give attention to on a regular basis customer-based advantages.
Target’s incoming CEO has simply introduced three priorities for his enterprise: merchandising authority, visitor expertise, and expertise. It’s a listing notable for what it doesn’t embrace. Perhaps somebody in Minneapolis has lastly picked up a advertising textbook once more.
Mark Ritson will educate the ADWEEK MiniMBA in Marketing in April 2026, a ten-week MBA stage program for senior managers who by no means obtained (or have utterly forgotten) correct advertising coaching. Sign up right here.