Target Consumer Habits

It all started in 2002 when two colleagues from the marketing department of Target, America’s second-largest discount store retailer, approached Andrew Pole, a data and human interactions fanatic and statistician. Pole knew how to analyze and interpret any data that spurted out from his technological devices. The marketers asked him, “If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didn’t want us to know, can you do that?” (Duhigg). Marketers always wanted to own the shopping habits of new parents because they were retailers’ holy grail. Amongst Pole’s list of tasks, his most important one was to identify unique moments in consumers’ lives when their shopping habits are flexible and with the use of the right advertisement,
those consumers would begin new shopping habits. At these certain moments in life, shopping habits, usually hard to notice and change, become predictable and flexible to retailers. For example, when someone gets married, they are likely to try a new type of coffee or when a couple gets a divorce, they are more likely to start buying a different brand of beer. At these moments in life, the consumers are “vulnerable.” A correctly timed advertisement could change someone’s shopping habits for years. And among life events, none are more important that the arrival of a baby. The new parents are overwhelmed and frustrated and their habits are more flexible at this time than any other. If marketers can identify these pregnant shoppers, companies can earn millions. Marketers knew that if they caught these moms now, they would have them for years. To solve this dilemma, two issues arise – one of which is a societal issue – an invasion of privacy.
For decades now, Target has been collecting data from its customers. Target assigns each customer a unique Guest ID number, which keeps tabs on what they buy. If they used a coupon, mailed in a refund, or called the customer service line, everything is recorded in association with the ID number. Also linked to the number is the customer’s age, ethnicity, address, family size, estimated family income, marital status, moving history, credit card company, and websites visited (Duhigg). But to solve the marketers’ question, Pole had to go beyond that. From his computer, Pole started by looking at Target’s baby shower registry. He looked at how shopping habits changed as a woman approached her due date (this information was disclosed to the public) (Lubin). After running many tests, he noticed a pattern. Women bought more unscented lotions, bulked up on vitamins like calcium and zinc, and bought soap ad cotton balls. When someone started buying large amounts of unscented soap and extra big bags of cotton balls, it signals that their due date is nearing. As Pole’s computer analyzed the data, he identified 25 products that when combined, gave him a “pregnancy prediction score” and more important, he could estimate her due date within a small window (Duhigg). This allowed Target to send timed coupons to specific stages of the buyer’s pregnancy. This was how Target knew you were pregnancy even though you did not tell
them.
The second issue to arise is an ethical problem, deception. Target wants to keep its consumers from realizing that Target knows they are pregnant. If they send consumers catalogs that say. “Congratulations on your baby!” even though they never told them they were pregnant; consumers would be uncomfortable. This issue was highlighted when a man from Minneapolis came into Target and demanded to see the manger. He had a catalog fisted in his hand, one that was sent to his daughter. “My daughter got this in the mail! She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?” he asked angrily. The manger apologized confused, and then called a few weeks later to apologize again. This time however, the father said, “I had a talk with my daughter. It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August,” (Wagstaff). Because of this incident, Target changed their advertisements centered around the questions, how could they get their advisement into expectant others hands without making it appear they were spying on them? How do you take advantage of someone’s habits without letting them know you’re studying their lives? Thus, Target started mixing in ads for random things that they knew pregnant ladies would never buy, to make their catalogs seem less catered. They found out that as long as Target hid the fact that they knew everything, the consumer took the bait. Target took steps to keep consumers from realizing the truth and mislead them into thinking that they did not know anything, you are pregnant.
Target’s revenues skyrocketed from 2002 – 2010, the period to which Pole was hired, from $44 billion to $67 billion. Target’s president, Gregg Steinhafel boasted to a room of investors that the company had “heighted focus on items and categories that appeal to specific guest segments such as mom and baby.” Little did they know, Target is invading its customers’ privacy while protecting its own secrecy.