1. The objective with Pulitzer is to attract previous consumers and capture the attention of many new ones. The decision was that they would offer limited edition merchandise for a limited time available for a fraction of its typical price. This was a problem because the second the merchandise was released the website crashed leaving millions of customers disappointed and only a few customers lucky enough to purchase the merchandise.
2. This was a combined strategy it had to be considered because it was a nonprogrammed response, and the decision was time sensitive.
3 They could have tried to figure out a better way to analyze alternatives to what they were doing. They had the same issue in 2011. They would have to analyze this decision. Then make sure the decision is controllable in a way where the social media sites don’t play their disadvantage.
4. No, we didn’t believe that target used the Delphi technique because no form of customer interaction was in play until after the merchandise was released.
5. I would claim that since this is an issue for Target that it could attempt to try and control the amount of merchandise released. This would, in essence, keep the well from poisoning by keeping demand high, and avoid the problems that were caused by the original plan.
6. In theory, they made the right decision, but in practice, it was poorly executed. It was poorly executed because the site crashed and since they only had a limited edition, they should have planned to have enough to satisfy all consumers.
7. We believe that Lily Pulitzer is satisfied by this result since all of her merchandise was sold. In addition, all of the backlash was directed at target leaving her in clear. The error was clearly on targets behalf, due to poor management skills.
8. We would have put it at a 7. They did value the customer; however, they may have been more focused on the financial gain from the new merchandise instead of focusing on benefiting the consumers at all costs. This would have lead to poor product management, which in turn resulted in the catastrophe described in the article.
9. The fact that Target’s website crashed as soon as the Lilly Pulitzer collection launched was a major issue for the corporation. Even though it did not alter the massive success of the line, it was a major disappointment for a majority of customers. I believe that Target’s operational management was successful since the entire inventory of the collection was sold. Unfortunately the
10. Project managers were used to develop and produce the Lilly Pulitzer collection at Target. These managers made it all happen and coordinated every step of the way. The operations and production managers were the ones who implemented and followed through with all of the project managers’ visions. There were also marketing managers involved who advertised the collection to the public.
11. Yes, Lilly Pulitzer entered a licensing contract with Target. Licensing contracts allow others to license your trademark name for use in connection with the goods or services they offer. Lilly Pulitzer licensed her trademark name for a collaboration with Target for the collection.
Summary: Target is a very well known company that has consumers all of the United States. With the new edition of the Pulitzer Collection, Target would have increased in financial revenue. However, the product became more popular than expected, and Target suffered severe backlash from the consumers after their demands were not met. Target should have focused on the consumer demand and always expect the unexpected. A good managerial system anticipates even what is typically unexpected in order to always satisfy the shareholders in any way possible.
