Starship Advisors

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Grateful for the opportunity to share my take on Target's holiday price reductions and ongoing price war with Walmart with The Minnesota Star Tribune's Brooks Johnson. "Toopan Bagchi, Managing Director of Twin Cities retail consultancy Starship Advisors, said the cuts are ‘key to Target’s strategy to recapture cost-conscious consumers who drifted away to Walmart and discount retailers like Aldi due to inflation and economic uncertainty.’ ‘Permanent or semi-permanent changes — ‘rollbacks’ in Walmart-speak — are meant to re-establish price leadership or value perception’, Bagchi said.” If you’re a competing retailer or Target supplier, how are you responding??If you need help navigating, drop a comment, message, or email at [email protected]. More importantly, with prices dropping on the LEGO Technic Ford GT, Bluey Fire Truck, and Magic Bullet Personal Blender, what are you throwing in the cart on your next Target run? Read the article for insights from the inimitable Chris Walton and others. #retail #consumergoods #pricing #strategy

Our thoughts on Target's CMO search... What do you see as critical?

Thankful for the opportunity to share my perspective on Target's recent challenges and Walmart's recent gains with Gregory Meyer of the Financial Times, the paper of choice for my Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) classmates! "My immediate reaction was, 'That is bad: they are Target's bullseye,' so to speak," said Toopan Bagchi, a former vice-president at Target who leads Starship Advisors, a retail consultancy. "It's concerning from Target's perspective that Walmart saw an increase in traffic from Target's traditional stronghold of higher-income consumers, because Target's business model relies on those consumers to buy a lot of discretionary, non-food items with higher margins." After 4 quarters of declining sales, what would you do to reignite growth for Target? #retail #consumergoods #strategy https://on.ft.com/3zlqgiK

Authenticity MATTERS! 57% of LGBTQ+ workers say their employer recognizes pride month in some way, but?62% said it’s worse to make a half-hearted pride month effort than do nothing at all... This is incredibly important and timely for brands to understand, especially as it relates to new product launches or marketing tactics centered around Pride in June. Every year, companies are blamed for Pink-washing - the practice of adopting superficial measures to appear supportive of issues while lacking genuine commitment to the cause. Changing your logo is not enough! Commitment to causes, such as Pride and the Queer Community, takes long-term investment and recognition all year long. ? So, take this as a reminder to:? 1. Embrace learning from your LGBTQIA+ friends/co-workers on allyship? 2. Celebrate with the community? 3. Shop local and support Queer-owned business in the MSP area?such as Rora , underDARE, Urban Growler Brewing Company, and many more! #Pride #TwinCitiesPride #Purpose #LGBTQIA+ #June #Consumer #Retail #Strategy

How can we help you capture the private brand opportunity? Or counter it's threat?

Taking a moment to express our gratitude. How can we help?

Congrats, Walmart colleagues and friends on a strong quarter! While it looks and sounds a bit like a certain competitor's brand (Target's Good & Gather), the launch of bettergoods as a premium private brand is a really exciting and necessary move. Private label is still woefully underdeveloped in the US with so much room for innovation and premiumization, limited simply by retailers' imaginations. Costco Wholesale's Kirkland brand and Trader Joe's are obvious examples, but even ALDI USA has a portfolio of chief-driven, award-winning products. Consumer goods companies must double-down on quality, innovation, and value to stay relevant. Separately, it was interesting to note that Walmart will be shutting down its healthcare clinics, with Doug McMillon citing "reimbursement rates and high cost to serve." Perhaps a scale issue, but if Walmart can't make this work, it really underscores how challenging this sector is. Doug's messaging in his video to associates was a masterclass in acknowledging that innovation doesn't always work, while committing to keep learning and experimenting. Like Walmart's launch of $4 generic drugs nearly 20 years ago, Americans struggling with rising healthcare costs need Walmart and others to keep at it and disrupt a system that doesn't work for many. #retail #privatebrands #innovation #consumergoods #strategy #healthcare

#NaturalProductsExpoWest identified 5 emerging trends in CPG! Click through the slides to uncover which brands are out of this world leaders ?? #cpg #naturalproducts #organicproducts #cpgtrends