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Part
01
Walmart vs Target: Product Marketing
In recent years, Walmart and Target made efforts to benefit from the natural skincare trend. Listed below are insights and comparisons on how each company markets natural face skincare products.
Walmart
- Walmart has an online shopping category specifically for natural face products that includes facial moisturizers, scrubs, and acne treatments.
- In 2019, Walmart launched an exclusive clean skincare brand called "Earth to Skin." The private-label brand is presented as "luxurious, clean, and simple" with all of its products priced under ten dollars.
- To associated themselves with the "clean beauty movement," Earth to Skin is marketed as cruelty-free and without mineral oil, petrolatum, sulfates, phtalates, parabens, or gluten.
- Walmart.com does not label their products with symbols that further define "clean" or "natural" but offers products that have a 100% natural seal emblem.
- Walmart offers samples of natural face skincare, as well as make-up in their four-times a year beauty subscription box promotion.
Target
- Since 2016, Target has added many new natural skincare brands to their shelves. These products are on-trend and "right priced" in order to position the company as the go-to place for clean, affordable beauty products.
- On the company website, Target has an online shopping list specifically for natural skincare products.
- By 2020, Target has a plan to ban "phthalates, propylparaben, butylparaben, formaldehyde, formaldehyde donors and nonylphenol ethoxylates" from household and everyday products including facial skincare. Included in the same 2020 plan is a goal for complete ingredient transparency.
- Target has a company "standard of clean" which includes products that are formulated without certain skin irritants and toxins such as BHT, oxybenzone and phtlalates. Beauty products that meet this standard are labeled with the green Target Clean symbol both online and in-store.
- Natural face skincare products sold at Target are also identified with other icons including organic, plant-based, biodegradable, non-gmo, non-toxic, and sulfate free.
- Since 2017, Target has made efforts to remodel the beauty section of their stores to have a functional layout that promotes "discovery and inspiration." Target beauty departments are being arranged to have wider aisles that strongly focus on displaying natural and private-label brands.
Similarities and Differences
- Walmart and Target are similar in the way that they both have specific online shopping sections for natural skincare products. The two stores offer several natural brands, including private-labels.
- Both companies have made efforts to draw consumers who are looking for skincare items that are both natural and low-cost.
- Moreover, both companies have at least one specific label for their natural products. However, Target features more labels and sets themselves apart by the creation of their own standard, "Target Clean."
- The companies differ in their store beauty displays. Target made extensive changes to their store beauty department, whereas Walmart has not outlined any changes for beauty in their plan for next-gen stores. Forbes states that Target "is clearly differentiating itself from Walmart as a more elevated, more experiential place to shop for beauty."
- Finally, Target is focusing more on adding additional brands to their inventory, whereas Walmart has created their own clean skincare brand that is only available through Walmart.