Target and Moms, Not a Match Made in Heaven

Target and moms go together like peanutbutter and jelly, don’t they? Well, we always thought so, but I guess Target does not.

I’m sure many of you read my blog post about my disappointment (that’s putting it mildly) that they advertised a Britax carseat for $40 and then canceled all orders after they discovered it was “incorrectly priced.”Not a great way to get in with moms, thank you very much.

They were all excited and when I interjected my note of being wronged by Target, I was pretty much ignored or shut down. That’s OK, I know they were excited about Target, and like the rest, I’m very disappointed to be disappointed in a store I loved so much too.

Sooo, turns out Target summarily dismissed their pitch to create a mom panel with one email.

Now, Target, come onnnn!!! You had a group of enthusiastic moms who wanted to get involved and spread the word about Target. Do you have no idea the value of that these days? Moms are probably your biggest shopper and spreading the word virally online would have been a great way to try to counteract the decline in sales all stores anticipate this year, not to mention setting yourselves further apart from other retailers who are not so savvy or who don’t even have such a dedicated group of moms.

Now, maybe they didn’t have to create a panel, but they could have taken advantage of this group in some way. The email linked above is pretty dismissive and discouraging.

The worst part is Target probably is not monitoring any of this stuff online or on Twitter, so had no idea how much excitement and buzz was going on out there about this group (not to mention the customers disappointed about the carseat). Clearly they are not, or they would jump on this opportunity.

So, now they’ve ticked off moms with the carseat thing and ticked off moms who were their biggest fans.

Target, you just don’t get it. Call me if you want to PR advice on how to smartly use social media, but it might be too late…

Turns out some of the moms still are trying to love Target anyway. I know, I know, it’s hard to walk away from. I guess that’s why Target can get away with this.

Oh, and they did offer me a $25 gift certificate after the carseat incident. What do you think? Should I take it? Am I overreacting to this whole thing? Tweet with #targetmoms or post a comment and let me know.