Target Practice

Lessons for Sarasota stores from a retail giant (and vice versa).

By Carol Tisch

Can Sarasota’s independent stores benefit from insights into Target’s best practices? Yes, indeed, says Michael Alexin, a keynote speaker at this week’s Sarasota International Design Summit and Target’s vice president of product design and development for stores worldwide. Alexin sat down with me in the Summit’s green room at the Ritz Carlton immediately following his formal presentation and offered up some pointers for local stores.

Michael Alexin

It’s no wonder Target was the title sponsor for the third annual summit produced by Ringling College or Art and Design (this year’s theme was Design + Technology: Social/ Visual/Mobile). Target lives and breathes design; it became a 1,700-store mega chain by providing “design for all.” When Target talks about dedication to good design, they don’t just mean how something looks. Alexin says design that satisfies a need or simplifies consumers’ lives is just as important. It’s about commitment to innovation and continuous improvement.

A brilliant example is the company’s ClearRx system of pharmacy innovations: packaging of prescription medicines in easy-to-read, color-coded bottles that minimize the chance of taking the wrong dose or confusing medications between family members. “Art is for the artist’s sake, but design is for the customer,” Alexin explained. “It took 100 people to do the design of this pill bottle and get it out to 1,700 stores.” The result: Target’s redesigned pill bottle was named the best innovation of 2006 by Time magazine.

Target's redesigned pill bottle.

Alexin, who started with Target in 2002 with a team of seven in the soft goods area, now runs a corporate design team of 300. So what does he say Sarasota’s mom and pop stores can do to survive in this frightening economy? “There is so much retail competition in the marketplace, the one who wins will do so for being unique,” he told Sarasota magazine. “You have to offer something really different, and now more than ever you have to offer value. No matter whether you’re a high end luxury boutique or a discounter, find a way to provide value. Everybody wants a deal today.”

“On the luxury end, the grand prize is the greatest deal the consumer can find,” he continued.

And if I were to think of someone doing that locally, I’d say Sarasota Collection Home Store in the Rosemary District is a great example. Owners Marcus and Pam Anast just announced a new program that will outfit a luxury two-bedroom condo from soup to nuts for $20,000. That includes furniture, window treatments, floors, lighting, all the accessories – all in Pam and Marcus’s great taste, and affordable because they make most of their own designer-style furniture in Peru. I’d like to take Alexin to this store – it’s the epitome of Target’s theory of a design “deal.”

Another local retailer (Company Outfitter – Say it With Stitches) confirms the next retail trend Alexin recommended for small local stores: personalization of products. This Sarasota store tells me sales jumped 30 percent in a down economy because the concept is indeed catching on. Everything Company Outfitter sells can be personalized with monograms, family crests and company logos, and their point of difference is that the merch is all high-end. Yves Delorme towels and robes, Columbia and Gear (the brand sold at Ritz-Carlton stores) apparel – no cheesy iron-on decals for T-shirts here.

“We’re all becoming designers,” Alexin proffered. “The wave of the future for retail and e-tail is personalizing and customizing. A lot of retail is down in our turbulent times: individuality and customization is an opportunity for small stores,” he said. Another way to turn a negative economy into a positive: focus on nesting. Alexin says local stores should do what Target is doing to boost holiday sales – look to macro economics and factor in the turmoil of this election year.

“People are nesting. They want to reconnect with family – to be comfortable, cozy and safe,” he explained. “This holiday season, consumers are spending their discretionary money to make themselves and their families more comfortable.” Alexin said Target’s sleepwear business is doing great. So are cozy lap blankets. That’s just what one of the most successful stores on Sarasota’s Main Street revealed in the October issue of Sarasota magazine. Rebecca Volz of Main Street Traders said the best-selling item in the store are comfy Pine Cone Hill pajamas.

Well, Rebecca, Alexin says gifts from cozy-but-inexpensive lap blankets to pricey 500-thread count sheets will also be big gift items this holiday season. “It’s all about little bits of luxury now. People were proud of luxury in the past decade,” Alexin said, “Now they are looking for guilty pleasures.”

Posted: 11/4/2008 8:38:23 AM | 0 comments

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