Bulls Eye: Target Asks Disgruntled Blogger To Be Part Of Its New Plus Size Campaign

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What do you do when you are a huge corporation who has made one too many blunders publicly and pissed off a few too many consumers? Try to win them back and pull out all stop to do so, obviously!

Aside from Target being one of many well-known everyday brands to fall prey to the horrible photoshop curse, they angered many of their loyal female customers earlier this month. They announced a new plus size range from designer Lilly Pulitzer but only made the collection available online. Coz apparently they decided it was too much bother or something to place the garments on a physical rack in stores where human beings still frequent.

Needless to say it left many people scratching their heads. One woman who had already put Target on her boycott list was plus size fashion blogger Chastity Garner. She wrote an open letter about how disappointed she was in the lack of range of sizes in their Altazurra collection back in August 2014.

The letter eventually made its way to the powers that be at Target, who then told Refinery 29 they take all their customers feedback seriously and that they were working on improving their selections, including more plus size ranges.

Well lo and behold it seems they have delivered, and made amends to a potentially bad situation in the best way possible.

They enlisted the help of plus size fashion bloggers and influencers to model and star in their new plus size campaign featuring designs from label Ava & Viv. Wanna know who those bloggers were? One of our faves, Gabi Gregg, Nicolette Mason, and none other than the formerly disgruntled Chastity Garner.

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The three women were asked to come and check out the range at Target head quarters and then subsequently each blogger wrote their opinions on their respective blogs for the world to read.

It was the right move, and something author and business expert Gary Vaynerchuk calls paying homage to the “thank you economy”. Target had a situation on their hands where a popular blogger’s negative post about their marketing decisions got a lot of views, and instead of just ignoring it, they took the opportunity to show not only Chastity, but in turn all of their consumers, how much they care what they think.

Bravo!

“Target is synonymous with great design, and with the launch of AVA & VIV, we’re stepping up our fashion game for our Plus-size guests,” said Stacia Andersen, senior vice president, merchandising, apparel and accessories, Target. “From stylish original prints to the attention to detail and fit, this line is meant to impress and we can’t wait to share it with our guests.”

So far they have sizes ranging from 14 to 26 and X to 4X, and prices range from $10 – $79.99.

Check out the behind-the-scenes video of Gabi, Nicolette and Chastity as they model the Ava & Viv collection (Target’s first original collection since 2008 FYI) and share their thoughts on why this campaign is a bullseye for its customers.

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