How would you run a promotion to increase top-line, in-store revenue for Target? How would you decide what to promote? How would you run the experiment?

Thats an interesting question.. 

clarifying questions:

• any targets for the revenue? nothing like that. just Increase it...
• any profit margin you want to stick with? 10%
• any particular location? all over us

ok so now lets see what Target's mission is...

To help all families discover the joy of everyday life.

That’s our purpose. Our mission. The promise of surprises, fun, ease and inspiration at every turn, no matter when, where or how you shop. 

so they want to bring a joy in every experience to the customer. it can be monetary, emotional or entertainment. there are three parts in the question, let me go in a linear order. 

so sticking to the mission, lets see how we can do promotions:

• Socila Influencers: Target hauls. great way to get traction from users. 
• Youtube videos: sudden shopping with celebrities in Target stores and sharing their experiences. 
• Limited stock: capping the availability and type to store makes it more precious and boom.
• Invite only sales: conducting invite only sales every month makes the user more powerful and supreme. they would love it. the invites can be decided on number of purchases in previous month or assosciation with the customer. 
• Time bound: selling items only for a day or two, makes it a quest for the customers and increases the foot fall into every store. 
• Sudden sales: conducting momentary sales for who ever is in stores. just a spontaneous 5% discount at the billing counter would make their day. 

What to promote:

it depends a lot on the season, location, community and trends. 

• Seasonal: any one would sell last season's stock for discounted prices, what if we do it different. give disscount on current stock. 
• Location: what location it is in matters a lot. for example, conducting intense promotions on winter wear in arizona would be less fruitful than that in seattle or newyork. 
• community: what kind of people/customers visit the store. is it Indians or Mexicans or is it a  predominantly black neighbourhood. asking the users about what they want would make them included and also powerful. 
• trends: irrespective of all the above three, what people want is what is trending on Tik-Tok. so just follow it. 

How to run them:

• Pilot stores 
• Assosciate feedback
• Invite Influencers to be early adopters
• A/B testing at multiple locations

Metrics:

• Increased Sales
• Foot fall
• number of times customer visiting the store per week
• minimum billing

Summary: 

running a promotion depends heavily on what, who and why. so why would be Target's mission and what and who would be based the location of store. trying out multiple strategies would give the recipe to target marketing at a large scale. 

Is there a reason why we would want to promote 'in-store' revenue particularly? Let's say because people are resorting to online deliveries lately, and we want to justify the physical store presence as well (e.g. cover costs for the store leases, in-store staff wages etc.)

There are several factors i would consider for choosing the items to promote:

1. Physical location of the store- close to a school district, close to offices/residential buildings/in suburban ideas (Example: For school districts, the emphasis might stationary, school items, candies, bars, etc.)

2. Avaiability/frequency of restocking the inventory for the promoted item(s) chosen  (should be able to meet the supply and demand)

3. Any specific need of the hour/season, e.g. need for sanitizers, wipes, masks in pandemic era

4. Past historical sales data, if available (to see which items do customers typically shop in Target)

5. Market competitors- presence of competing stores within say, 20 mile radius for the promoted item(s) with better pricing

I would run promotion for the item selected in the following ways:

1. Target web-site

2. In-store flyers near check-out counters or flyers near the aisles close to the entrance

3. A small board outside the store entrance highlighting the promotions/sales or deals of the week

4. Email/text updates to the target account holders

I would compare the avg. historical weekly sales with the new weeklies post-launch. If all of the below metrics denote success, I will continue the promotions for a complete month while continuously monitoring the metrics and take it from there (either continue or pivot the strategy)

Metrics:

North-star:

%Increase in the overall revenue

Secondary metrics:

%Increase in the overall sale volume

Counter-metrics:

1. Any impact to the online sales

2. balanced supply-demand (promoted items do not go out of stock )

3. Customer satisfaction- no returns or complains on the promoted items