Tech Guest Viewpoint: Did Lilly for Target Generate Brand Love?

By Sherrie Mersdorf, director of marketing, NewBrand



When Target announced their collaboration with Lilly Pulitzer last fall, the response was mixed. Many couldn’t wait to get their hands on the Lilly for Target collection, while others felt the collaboration would hurt the Lilly Pulitzer brand. In the end, Target’s website crashed and the collection sold out within the first half-hour in all Target brick-and-mortar stores.



According to Joshua Thomas, Target’s spokesman: “We’re very, very clear about the fact that these do not impact our bottom line. We explore these partnerships because they bring the fun factor to retail. It’s about generating buzz, generating brand love for Target.”

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NewBrand tracked the social buzz around this collaboration from the announcement through the sale weekend with the goal of determining if the collaboration did bring the fun factor to retail and generated brand love for Target. Our take, the collaboration generated a lot of buzz and excitement, until the merchandise went on sale.



When looking at product sentiment across the board, the majority of comments are positive across the board, but when the Lilly for Target collaboration is mentioned, the sentiment score drops 19 percentage points due to the lack of availability.



Despite some of the negativity from those who were unable to purchase items from the Lilly for Target collaboration, I’m sure Target’s program will continue and consumers will buzz about the next collaboration. If Target’s goal is to create brand love with these collaborations, hopefully they learn from some of the issues from this collaboration to improve the customer experience for the next collaboration. I wonder, will their next collaboration be with one of the brands that #LillyforTarget chatterers also love, such as: Tory Burch, Kate Spade, Michael Kors?