Right On Target

Target’s hybrid image as an upscale discount chain dates to its birth–and that image fueled the runaway success that made it the country’s second-largest discounter. But as the recession turned fashionistas into frugalistas, the retailer had to find a way of convincing customers to resist the pull of Wal-Mart’s rock-bottom prices. In the end, Target avoided a full-blown identity crisis and looked back to its roots, forcing it to rely on a competitive weapon it had all along: the ability to think for itself. Here’s how the ingenious marketer that defined cheap chic redefined what that means in a shabby economy. When times get tough, the tough just get tougher. And if Bullseye, the Target Company’s value-fetching bull terrier mascot, could talk, he’d tell you how his master, CEO Gregg W. Steinhafel, and his staff quietly went to work in the midst of an economic calamity and did what Target’s leaders have always done best: They made good things happen. If you’ve never heard of Steinhafel, you’re not alone. Unlike its Bentonville, Arkansas, nemesis, Target likes to keep a low profile, a reflection, perhaps, of the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based retailer’s proud Midwestern reserve. New Word City, publishers of digital originals, contributes 10 percent of its profits to literacy causes.