The Two Companies in Late 2015
Walmart. Doug McMillon has been CEO since February 2014, succeeding Mike Duke. The company generated approximately $485 billion in revenue in fiscal 2015 and operates approximately 11,500 stores globally. Walmart is the largest private employer in the United States with approximately 1.5 million U.S. workers. The company has been working through sustained labor cost pressure, e-commerce expansion, and continued reputation management under EVP for Corporate Affairs Dan Bartlett.
Target. Brian Cornell has been CEO since August 2014, succeeding Gregg Steinhafel who departed in the wake of the 2013 data breach. The company operates approximately 1,800 stores in the United States and generates approximately $72 billion in annual revenue. Target has been working through the recovery from the data breach, the failed Canadian expansion (closed earlier this year at substantial cost), and the broader strategic repositioning under Cornell.
Walmart's PR Doctrine
Walmart operates one of the most sophisticated corporate communications operations in modern American retail. Six structural elements distinguish the operation.
Sustained executive sponsorship. EVP for Corporate Affairs Dan Bartlett has been running the function since July 2013. Bartlett's tenure has produced sustained discipline across corporate communications, government affairs, sustainability, and broader corporate affairs work.
Disclosure architecture. Walmart has built sustained disclosure cadence around sustainability reporting, supplier metrics, wage events, and broader corporate affairs issues. The disclosure architecture produces credibility that competitors operating on episodic communications cannot match.
The wage event template. Walmart's February 2015 announcement that starting U.S. hourly wages would increase to $9 became the first major McMillon-era wage event. The structured announcement — CEO-level sponsorship, specific dollar figures, named affected population, adjacent benefit fold (training, education programs) — became the template for subsequent labor communications.
Sustainability commitments. The sustained sustainability work that Lee Scott initiated in 2005 continues under McMillon. The supplier sustainability scorecards, the broader environmental commitments, and the related disclosure produce sustained positive press coverage.
Crisis discipline. Walmart's communications function has been managing multiple ongoing reputation events — the Mexico FCPA investigation (still developing toward eventual settlement), continued labor criticism, broader competitive pressure from Amazon. The crisis communications discipline has been holding.
Agency relationships. Walmart's PR agency roster includes Edelman as the primary corporate communications partner, with Mercury Public Affairs and several other agencies supporting specific government affairs and public-affairs work.
Target's PR Doctrine
Target operates a distinctly different communications model focused substantially on consumer brand work rather than corporate affairs.
Consumer brand emphasis. Target's communications work has historically emphasized consumer brand positioning, designer collaborations, owned-brand launches, and broader cultural relevance. The "Expect More. Pay Less." positioning continues to anchor the broader brand narrative.
Designer collaborations. Target's sustained designer collaboration program — including high-profile partnerships with Lilly Pulitzer, Missoni, and dozens of other designers across recent years — produces sustained positive press coverage and cultural relevance that mass-market discount retailers historically have not generated.
Owned-brand authority. Cat & Jack, Threshold, Up & Up, and other owned brands have been generating substantial revenue and produce sustained press coverage. The owned-brand strategy produces differentiated positioning that the broader competitive set cannot match.
The data breach recovery. Target's December 2013 data breach affected approximately 40 million credit and debit cards. The communications response — Gregg Steinhafel's eventual departure, the sustained customer communications, the leadership reset under Brian Cornell — became one of the more-studied data breach communications cases of recent years.
The Canada exit. Target's January 2015 announcement of the Canadian market exit, after $7 billion in losses and an aggressive expansion strategy that failed to produce sustainable returns, was one of the more substantial corporate retreat communications events of recent years. The handling of the Canada exit communications has been one of the more substantive operational tests of Cornell's leadership.
Agency relationships. Target's PR work has historically been led by an internal team supplemented by specialty agencies for specific campaigns and crisis communications work.
Where the Two Companies' Approaches Diverge
Five structural differences distinguish the two operations.
Corporate affairs depth. Walmart operates substantially deeper corporate affairs infrastructure — government affairs, sustainability disclosure, supplier programs, labor communications — than Target. The depth reflects Walmart's larger operational scale and broader political exposure.
Consumer brand emphasis. Target emphasizes consumer brand work — designer collaborations, owned-brand launches, broader cultural relevance — more substantially than Walmart. The emphasis produces stronger consumer affection but weaker corporate affairs sophistication.
Labor communications. Walmart's labor communications operate as structured corporate affairs events with executive sponsors and named numerical commitments. Target's labor communications have been less structured and operate primarily through internal channels.
Crisis management. Walmart manages crisis communications through sustained disclosure architecture. Target manages crisis communications through more episodic response. The Target data breach response demonstrated both the strengths and limitations of the more episodic approach.
Political engagement. Walmart engages substantially with public policy work across multiple categories. Target operates more limited public policy engagement.
What's Working for Each Company
Walmart strengths. The sustained corporate affairs discipline, the wage event template, the sustainability program, and the broader disclosure architecture together produce one of the most operationally credible corporate communications operations in modern American retail.
Target strengths. The consumer brand work, the designer collaborations, the owned-brand portfolio, and the broader cultural relevance produce one of the most-affected consumer brand positions in modern American retail. The "Tar-zhay" cultural framing represents brand authority that pure low-price positioning could not produce.
What's Not Working for Each Company
Walmart challenges. Continued labor criticism, the broader Amazon competitive pressure, and the slower e-commerce growth than competitors are real structural challenges. The labor narrative remains contested despite the wage and benefit work. The Mexico FCPA investigation continues to produce reputation pressure.
Target challenges. The 2013 data breach continues to affect customer trust. The Canada exit represents one of the largest corporate retreat events of recent years. The broader e-commerce capability lags Walmart and substantially trails Amazon. The competitive position is structurally weaker than it was five years ago.
What the Broader Retail PR Category Should Take from This
Five operating considerations for retail communications teams.
Sustained executive sponsorship matters. Walmart's Dan Bartlett tenure produces sustained discipline that more rapid executive turnover would not generate. Retail communications teams should consider executive continuity as a structural competitive asset.
Multi-doctrine approaches have structural risks. Target's strong consumer brand work combined with weaker corporate affairs sophistication has produced both substantial brand strengths and substantial vulnerabilities. The data breach response and the Canada exit communications both reflected limitations in corporate affairs infrastructure.
Wage and labor communications are becoming structural. Walmart's wage event template demonstrates that wage communications can operate as corporate affairs events with sustained reference value. The template is becoming a reference case for other major employers.
E-commerce competitive pressure shapes the broader category. Amazon's continued growth produces sustained competitive pressure across the broader retail category. Both Walmart and Target face structural strategic questions about their broader competitive positioning.
Crisis communications discipline pays returns across years. The sustained disclosure architecture that Walmart has built produces credibility during crisis events that more episodic communications operations cannot match. Retail communications teams should invest in sustained architecture rather than relying on episodic response.
The Bottom Line
Walmart and Target are operating two of the most-studied corporate communications and public relations operations in modern American retail. Walmart emphasizes corporate affairs depth and sustained disclosure architecture. Target emphasizes consumer brand work and cultural relevance. Both companies are working through substantial strategic transitions as 2015 closes. The broader retail PR category continues to learn from how both companies operate.
