National retail can still feel local
Target has achieved an iconic place in everyday American life. The consistently familiar red-and-white retail stores where all families can easily find what they’re looking for (and then some) is both a common denominator and an aspirational experience where shoppers can find the ‘joy of everyday life’.
Target asked Gehl to help layer on additional ways to grow authentic engagement with the diversity of local neighbors and neighborhoods it serves, including historically underserved communities of color, non-English speaking and first generation neighborhoods.
Gehl used an ethnographic approach to understand how customers, neighbors, Target store employees and the design and real estate teams all understood — and expressed — community in the stores. The results of this study pointed to a new way of thinking about Target’s design process, store delivery, and everyday operations, bringing together local and national authentically like never before.
