• On Saturday, Target revealed four new, private-label brands that will hit stores this fall.
  • Apparel and home furnishings will be the big-box retailer’s core area of focus over the next 18 months.
  • Target is launching exclusive nameplates A New Day, Goodfellow & Co., JoyLab and Project 62.

Everyone was saying Target needed to make a move, and on Saturday the big-box retailer actually did.

Target has finally revealed where it’s been investing quietly in reinventing itself — in two key categories: Apparel and home goods. Accordingly, Target will launch four new brands: A New Day, Goodfellow & Co., JoyLab and Project 62, all of which are expected to hit stores later this fall.

The Wall Street Journal first reported this news.

Earlier this year, Target had already made it clear that it planned to roll out 12 additional, private-label brands in the coming months. The first, Cloud Island, launched in May and features home decor, bedding and bath items. Target enthusiasts have been waiting in anticipation ever since to learn on which aisle they might find the next, new brand.

In creating more of its own, exclusive nameplates, Target is hoping to see some of the same success it’s had with Cat & Jack children’s clothing. In the months after the label’s launch, the company said spending on kid’s apparel at Target stores increased more than 50 percent.

Now, adult apparel and home furnishings will be the retailer’s core area of focus over the next 18 months.

A New Day is a mix-and-match women’s brand that will take a female “from weekend to work to dinner date, effortlessly,” Target said. Goodfellow & Co. will be a fresher line of men’s clothing, accessories and shoes. In the athleisure space, the retailer has already seen success with its C9 Champion activewear, but anticipates Joy Lab will be more edgier and fashion-forward.

Lastly, Project 62 is being tagged by Target as a “modern home brand” that will feature chic options for shoppers’ everyday lives.

“We knew we’d need to refresh our offerings — and define new ones,” Mark Tritton, Target’s chief merchandising officer, said in a statement.

The Jounral also reported that, in combination with the fall roll out, Target’s men’s and women’s Merona apparel line and its men’s Mossimo offering will be phased out, “having grown too big and homogenized to garner shoppers’ affection,” according to executives who spoke to the publication.

Target is also planning to make other changes to its stores, the Journal added.

For example, with the new brands, Target’s discounts and promotions will become more of a thing of the past, and displays throughout refurbished stores will have more of a “boutique” feel, the Journal reported.

“One new brand on its own isn’t going to change the way guests experience Target, though we definitely believe each of our exclusive brands will leave its mark,” Target CMO Tritton added.

“Big picture, it’s when you take all these new brands, combined with how we’re reimagining stores, continuing to enhance digital and investing in our business … that you start to feel a real difference.”

Source:  CNBC, July 2017