Target Doesn't Target Bloggers

Michael Barbaro, of the New York Times, is reporting today on an interesting story involving Target and some bloggers. The story revolves around a marketing campaign Target has undertaken during the winter season.

According to the Times Amy Jussel, founder of the blog ShapingYouth.com, called to complain about an ad the ‘cheap chic’ store was running. The ad depicted a woman making a snow angle on the Target logo, a bullseye appeared to be pointing at the woman’s crotch.

Target’s reply to Jussel was, “Unfortunately we (Target) are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets.”

Target’s justification for not dealing with bloggers is based on, in its words, “to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest,” basically Target doesn’t think anyone that goes to Target stores read blogs.

I can understand Target’s apprehension in targeting bloggers. Working with a small PR staff you really have to hedge your bets and target publications that will get you the most ROI. That being said I have to wonder two things. How small is Target’s PR staff and how many people does it take to answer an inbound request?

If Target is claiming its PR staff is too small I have a solution: Hire more people, your Target. If Target really didn’t want to talk to a blogger, it should have never sent a reply to the initial email. While I don’t suggest this, saying ‘no comment’ is far more dangerous than actually not making a comment.

In the end Target has the right to do what they please, but do any of you out there feel slighted by Target because they feel bloggers don’t matter? Will any of this effect target’s bottom line? Probably not, but it is always interesting to see how companies view their publics.

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