Why do Minnesotans love Target so much? Recently, the Star Tribune reported that despite Target’s losses to Wal-Mart in the rest of the country, it was still holding its own here.
To many Minnesotans, the equation is not “MN-heart-Target.” It’s “MN = Target,” says a University of Minnesota researcher. Carlos Torelli, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School, is fascinated by the Minnesotan “identity.”
“I’ve lived in Illinois and Wisconsin, and this place is definitely different,” he said recently in a chat by phone. “In my son’s and daughter’s school you have grandparents all over the place, and that’s not very common in other states. People come back to this place, and that doesn’t happen anywhere else.”
Torelli, who studies the effectiveness of types of advertising in different cultures, recently decided to test whether Minnesotans would spend more on products from a company they saw as most representative of the Minnesota identity.
“There’s a back-of-the-mind connection between brand image and group image, and when there is agreement among groups about this, then that brand increases in symbolism,” he says. “For example, Coke, Ford, and Starbucks are very symbolic of America. They symbolize independence and being self-directed, and these are things people implicitly know.”
Torelli tested groups of undergraduates born and raised here — having them read a fictional account that the “Minnesota identity” was disappearing, or a neutral report about grasshoppers. “We anticipated that when people feel threatened, they would need to increase their need to communicate to others the meaning of Minnesota.”
Those who read the fictional report opted to pay $40 for a Target-branded poker set, but only $25 for another set. In another study, “threatened” students presented with the opportunity of a one-time payment to carry a backpack sporting a corporate logo agreed to accept a mere $10 from Target, but wanted $15 from Dasani.
I guess the sentiment must run both ways. With its announcement that it’s dusting off its price-matching program, Target is clearly feelin’ Minnesota.
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Tags: Minnesota identity · Target2 Comments
I don’t live in MN but I used to love Target. I still do for some things, but I have major gripes about the plus-size clothing dept. I used to buy a lot of clothes there, but not anymore. My store has the plus-size dept sandwiched between maternity and mens without a definite area of its own – it’s sending me a message that says “you’re so fat we’re not sure if you should wear maternity clothes of men’s clothes and honestly we really don’t care”. There are just a few racks of plus-size clothes, yet more than half of American women are size 14 and up! I also no longer like the styles they offer.
I’ve only been in Target once or twice and I found myself completely depressed.
I stopped going after I saw a lady in an aisle smacking her son (he was about two) on the side of the head. It was so violent and horrible. I wanted to call child protective services but this was before I had a cell phone so I asked a clerk to speak to her. The clerk — who was probably only a teen — got his manager and I left the store. It was just so sad. Maybe it was a coincidence that it happened at Target but I doubt I’ll ever go into that chain again.
I’d rather buy the things I need at goodwill and other used clothing stores, where the prices are better.