Options as Limitless as Your Ideas See More Designs Brought to Life Commercial furniture design and craftsmanship is the greenest solution of all. The more you love a piece of furniture, the more likely you are to keep it forever and pass it on to future generations. Kino Lounge wins Pop-up category for Restuarnt & Bar Design award! Stonehill & Taylor partnered with Shelby Williams to provide all of the seating for the Kino Lounge. Durable and able to sustain prolonged use, discover dining solutions for every function and aesthetic. Create a welcoming first impression and improve hotel functionality. Solid, sturdy and durable, our wood chairs offer lasting performance.'The Sketchiest Place I Ever Worked:' More Target Workers Speak Yesterday we told you about Jason Kellner, a former Target manager who says that he was more or less forced to work through his mandatory breaks—and then fired for doing so. This prompted quite a few current and former Target workers to write to us with their own stories of Target employment woe—as every story about Target is wont to do.
A few updated dispatches from within the bullseye, below:Kellner's Not the Only OneThe same thing happened to me yesterday! Think Target is trying to prove some point? Wish I knew how to sue!I was eating lunch, bored, waiting for 30 minutes to drag by and I turned on the computer, checked my schedule, paycheck, anything to be reading something and getting my mind off thinking about eating more food (diet), I click e-mail and blam HR is standing behind me ordering me to turn the computer off - I'm now "working off the clock" and cannot transfer or get a raise for 18 months because I'm on "corrective action" ! Locked InI read the article on Jason Kellner being fired for working off the clock and thought I would share my story. I Last worked at Target as a college student about 9 years ago. I was let go due to a disagreement I had with my manager. Long story kind of short, I was scheduled until 11pm one night. I was done cleaning my section and ready to go to a party. In order to leave, the manager had to walk your section and you had to be told it was ok to clock out.
I was told around 10:50 that I could leave. However, I couldn't go anywhere because they locked us in the store out of fear of an employee ducking out before their section was clean. Normally, this is not that big of a deal. On this particular night though, I had a party to go to and didnt feel like sitting around. I asked my manager to unlock the door and was told that he had to check another section real fast. Whatever, no big deal. about 15 minutes later, I found him and asked him again to unlock the door. He stated he would do so in a minute. At this point there are about 15 people waiting to leave. I hung out with some co-workers for a bit, next thing I know it is 11:30. I had been waiting, clocked out for 40 minutes. Irritated, I got on the intercom and told my manager if i was not lot out in 5 minutes, I would leave through the emergency exit. That got his attention. He hurridly (read: waddled briskly) to the front of the store cussing me out for getting on the intercom and for being impatient.
I cursed back at him, I was let go. Target has a history of not allowing people to work full time and sending them home early if they get close to it. They also don't seem to mind locking you in a store, off the clock. I bet I would have been let out earlier if I tried to clean a section while off the clock though."The Sketchiest Place I Ever Worked"When I worked at a Reno, NV Target during the Summer of 2004 they would have me work 10 hour shifts without paying overtime. would do is schedule me to work from 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. was that you couldn't leave until the work was done. So I would clock in at 4:30 p.m., take a 15 minute break around 6:30 p.m., a 30 minute lunch around 8 p.m. and then work through the night until the work wasEvery night they would lock us in the store until 2 – 3 a.m. inAfter the store closed is when the hell would begin, the managers would get on the P.A. system and yell at us all to hurry forIf you finished cleaning your section at 2 a.m. you had
to go and clean another section. No one was allowed to leave the store until it was ready to open the next morning. There were also a few times where they made us clock out and sit in the office for more than half an hour while waiting for one poor girl to finish folding theThose nights we wouldn't leave until 3:30 a.m. I asked about overtime once and they said that you only got overtime if you worked more than 8 hours in a single day. Since they started us so late in the afternoon we would never work more than 8 hours in a single day because our shifts were being split at midnight.I had a series of sketchy jobs when I was in college, I once worked as a detailer at car dealership where the salesmen would hot box the cars and take ecstasy while playing with power sanders. I also worked at a newspaper where the editor was also a slum lord, and she would assign me stories that slandered the city attorney who was trying to prosecute her for breaking housing laws, and even then Target was
still by far the sketchiest place I've ever worked.Target Is ColdWhen I use to work at Target, they would throw away pounds and pounds and pounds and pounds of food (not even anything that has gone bad). I asked if they could give it to charity and I got written up!Also the discount is 10% (yuck..thanks for saving me 35 cents)And sometimes the working conditions were insane. I'm talking cashiering in front of the entrance doors during the middle of a fucking below 10 degree snowstorm. You weren't allowed to wear a jacket unless it was solid red. (I got written up because mine had black trimming).Thank god I went to college and got a real job.Thanks to everyone who sent in their stories. If you have more, you can always email me.[Photos via intangiblearts/Flickr, mjm/Flickr, thomashawk/Flickr]08.14.2012 / Posted in Articles, Strategy Note: This is the second article in a series on marketing strategy from FrogDog. To begin from the beginning, click here. Evaluating market segments is critical to marketing strategy development.
By dividing the market into segments, businesses can better position products and services to target their specific customers’ needs and desires. Better targeting customers means better returns on marketing investment. Who wouldn’t want that? Thing is, market segmentation sounds easier than it is. Let’s look at some of the ways companies can evaluate their markets: An automobile company may segment its market by buyers who are looking to purchase a vehicle for transportation, luxury and prestige, safety, or high-performance—or some combination of these factors. For example, the Toyota RAV4 may be an attractive option for buyers looking to purchase a sports utility vehicle with strong safety ratings at a lower price point; whereas the Toyota Land Cruiser offers a similar high-performance option with luxury and prestige. For segments to be practical, they should be evaluated against the following criteria: After establishing market segments, companies should evaluate each one and decide the best way to market.
This means determining how many and which segments to target. Smart companies don’t attempt to market everything to everyone. Trying to do so is not an efficient use of time or money—and it’s not effective. Defined market segments help companies define their target audiences. To define target audiences, companies should evaluate their skills and expertise and also understand the key features and benefits of their products or services. Who has a need for these benefits? Who currently uses the company’s products and services? A company that sells to other companies will need to focus on the best businesses to target—and will need to understand who within these businesses is likely to be a buyer or a purchase influencer. Companies that sell to individual consumers need to understand the profiles of their ideal buyers—and, especially in the case of large purchases, their buyers’ influencers. Also, in developing targets, companies should consider who their competition targets.
There may be a niche market still untargeted or a way to attract similar customers in slightly different ways. Large retail corporations are great examples of segmenting and targeting audiences. Let’s look at Gap, which evaluates its markets by demographic (gender and income) and psychographic (activities and interests) traits. Each of Gap’s brands targets a different audience: Let’s look at another example. American Express has segmented its market by brand loyalty and income and targets a higher-spending clientele who can regularly pay their monthly AmEx bills in full. It markets specialty cards to target specific key audiences that have key benefits tailored to each group: Keep in mind that companies may have multiple target audiences in each market segment. For example, Staples, the large retailer of office supplies and products, serves individual shoppers and business clientele. Staples must therefore focus on doing and saying something different but complementary for each audience, as individual shoppers have different needs than corporations.
Toward this end, the company has created two e-commerce sites for the two audiences. Each site has tailored messaging, but none of the messaging on one site contradicts what’s said on the other site. (More on crafting messages for target audiences in our next article in this series. Sign up to get it!) An example of market segmentation and audience targeting in a corporation that markets to other corporations is American Surgical Assistants. American Surgical Assistants provides surgical assistants for hospitals, surgeons, and health care facilities. Each audience has a different reason for needing certified and specialized surgical assistants. C-suite executives are concerned primarily with costs, while surgeons place greater importance on efficiency and specialized skills sets that complement their own abilities. The company markets to each audience differently by tailoring its messaging to each target audience’s specific need. Yep, market segmentation and audience targeting are more complicated then they seem at the outset, and they’re critical for a successful marketing plan.