Target Is Rebuilding Brand Distinctiveness Through Curation and Exclusives
Target is trying to make itself feel special again. After several years in which its merchandise assortment, store experience, and cultural relevance came under pressure, the retailer is returning to a familiar but demanding formula: carefully selected products, exclusive brands and collaborations, affordable design, and stores that give shoppers a reason to browse rather than merely collect an online order. The company calls this “merchandising authority”; in practice, it means Target wants shoppers to encounter products they cannot easily find elsewhere at a comparable price.
The strategy is not simply about adding more inventory. Target is explicitly positioning curation as a competitive advantage. Its 2026 corporate strategy says the company does not “chase trends” but chooses “with intention,” curating only what earns a place in its assortment. That language reflects a broader turnaround effort: Target wants to regain a distinct point of view across apparel, home, beauty, wellness, food, and pop culture, while preserving the value proposition that made it a mass-market destination.
Why distinctiveness matters now
For much of the 2000s and early 2010s, Target built a reputation as a retailer where design-led products felt accessible. Its designer collaborations, stylish private-label brands, and visually distinctive stores helped create the informal “Tar-zhay” identity: a discount retailer that could still feel fashionable and discovery-driven.
That advantage weakened as competitors improved their assortments and as consumers gained more ways to discover products through social media, marketplaces, and direct-to-consumer brands. Target also faced operational and reputational setbacks, including inventory and execution problems, alongside a more challenging consumer environment. The company’s new leadership has framed the challenge as restoring sustainable growth after more than three years of missed sales expectations.
Target’s response is therefore not a narrow marketing campaign. It is an attempt to rebuild the underlying reason people choose Target: a differentiated, trend-aware assortment that still feels attainable. In its 2025 annual report, Target says approximately 30 percent of merchandise sales come from owned and exclusive brands. Those brands give the retailer more control over design, pricing, sourcing, storytelling, and product availability than it would have if it relied solely on national brands.
Curation as the core idea
Target’s strategy places curation at the center of merchandising. The company says it aims to create “design-led, trend-right assortments” that combine quality, newness, and value. That means selecting products and brands that reinforce a recognizable Target point of view, rather than filling shelves with a broad but undifferentiated range of goods.
This approach is visible across categories. In beauty, Target’s Fall Beauty Edit included more than 150 new products, 120 of which were exclusive to Target. The company described the collection as a curated seasonal assortment shaped by guest insights, brand partnerships, emerging trends, and industry events. The goal is to make beauty shopping feel more like discovery than routine replenishment.
Food is another major test of the curation strategy. Target has been reshaping grocery departments to emphasize fresh produce, emerging brands, and distinctive food products. Reporting in August 2026 said Target had added roughly 4,600 new food items and more than 60 new brands during the second quarter. The company has also expanded grocery space by more than 20 percent in nearly 150 remodeled stores and by more than 50 percent in 300 new locations.
The food strategy illustrates why curation matters. Grocery is highly competitive, and many staple products are available at multiple retailers. But exclusive or hard-to-find items can create a “treasure hunt” experience, encouraging shoppers to visit stores and spend more time browsing. Target has said some shoppers are willing to pay more to try new products, and reporting cited by industry analysts found food sales growing in dollars and outpacing total company growth.
Exclusives create a reason to visit
Exclusivity is the most visible part of Target’s plan. The retailer is using both owned brands and external partnerships to offer products that cannot be bought elsewhere—or, at minimum, cannot be bought in the same curated context.
Target says it has more than 40 only-at-Target brands, which generate more than $30 billion in annual revenue and represent roughly one-third of annual sales. These include brands across fashion, beauty, home, and other categories. The company’s owned-brand strategy is built around accessible style and design, with internal capabilities in brand management, design, responsible sourcing, product development, merchandising, and marketing.
The company is also reviving high-profile creative partnerships. In June 2026, Target brought back designer Isaac Mizrahi after 17 years, appointing him as its first Creative Director at Large. In that role, Mizrahi is expected to advise internal design teams, mentor emerging talent, and help guide future product concepts through design innovation, trend forecasting, and merchandise strategy.
The return of Mizrahi is symbolically important because his earlier Target partnership helped define the retailer’s design-led identity. But it is also practical: exclusive collaborations can generate attention, social-media conversation, and urgency in a way that ordinary assortment expansion cannot. Target’s history includes partnerships with designers and brands such as Diane von Furstenberg, Missoni, Jason Wu, Zac Posen, Lilly Pulitzer, and Altuzarra.
Exclusives are also appearing in newer categories. Target’s beauty business has introduced Target Beauty Studio, launched in more than 600 stores and online in September 2026. The format features more than 1,600 products from 90 prestige, emerging, and global brands, with more than two-thirds of those brands new to Target. The offering includes dedicated beauty advisors, rotating product features, and exclusive Target Circle offers.
Stores as discovery engines
Curation and exclusivity are not only digital merchandising tactics. Target is trying to make physical stores more compelling places to explore. Its 2026 plan includes more than 130 full-store remodels, more than 30 new stores, refreshed floor plans, improved displays, and increased investment in store payroll and training.
The company plans to spend $1 billion in incremental operating investment in 2026 to deliver a more consistent and elevated guest experience. It also expects more than $1 billion in additional capital expenditures, supporting store transformation, supply-chain investment, and technology. These investments matter because curation can fail if products are unavailable, poorly displayed, or difficult to find.
Target’s remodeled SoHo location in New York offers a clear example of the direction. The company began redesigning the store in November 2025 and completed the transformation in October 2026. The two-floor store spans apparel, beauty and wellness, home décor, food and beverage, and toys and collectibles. Target worked with design agency Something Special Studios to create a more design-forward environment, including interactive elements and a photo station.
The SoHo store is intended to function as more than a sales location. Target wants it to be a destination for discovering new brands, a social-media backdrop, and a venue for events. It also serves as a testing ground: the company can observe in real time which trends and products resonate with consumers before applying lessons more broadly.
Digital curation at scale
Target is also trying to preserve its point of view as it expands online. Its third-party marketplace, Target Plus, is being positioned as a curated marketplace rather than an unlimited catalogue. In July 2026, the company said it was adding dozens of new, hand-picked brands to the platform.
Target’s language is notable: it says curation at scale allows the company to grow quickly “without losing what makes Target feel like Target.” The retailer says it selects brands that add something meaningful for guests and reinforce its perspective on style, design, and value.
That is a difficult balance. Marketplaces can broaden selection and introduce new brands, but they can also dilute a retailer’s identity if the assortment becomes inconsistent or generic. Target’s challenge is to expand digital choice while maintaining the editorial judgment that distinguishes its offering from competitors.
The risks
The strategy has clear promise, but it is not guaranteed to succeed. Curation requires strong buying, planning, forecasting, and inventory execution. If Target promotes an exclusive product but cannot keep it in stock, or if a trend-focused assortment misses consumer demand, the company risks disappointing customers and accumulating unsold inventory.
Exclusives also require sustained investment. A one-time collaboration can generate attention, but rebuilding brand distinctiveness depends on consistently offering products that feel fresh, useful, and aligned with Target’s identity. The company must prove that its new approach can produce repeat visits, larger baskets, and stronger loyalty—not merely short-term publicity.
There is also a price-value tension. Target’s identity depends on making design feel accessible, but exclusive products and premium assortments can raise costs. The retailer must ensure that “low-price luxuries” and exclusive collaborations do not drift away from the affordability expectations of its core customers.
What success would look like
If the strategy works, Target will become known again for products shoppers actively seek out: a distinctive beauty assortment, interesting grocery finds, refreshed home and apparel collections, and collaborations that create cultural momentum. The company’s stated 2026 outlook calls for approximately 2 percent net sales growth, including a small increase in comparable sales and more than 1 percent growth from new stores and non-merchandise revenue.
More importantly, success would mean that curation becomes visible in the customer experience. Shoppers would not simply visit Target because it is convenient; they would visit because they expect to find something distinctive, well-designed, and reasonably priced. That is the standard Target has set for itself—and the standard by which its rebuilding effort should be judged.
Sources
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