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Target vs. Walmart: Holiday marketing’s stakes feel higher this year

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Target vs. Walmart: Holiday marketing’s stakes feel higher this year

The big-box rivals are competing for price-sensitive shoppers at a moment when they are both trying to shift perceptions of their businesses in a broader sense.

The holidays are typically make-or-break for retailers on the sales front. For Target and Walmart, this season will also test efforts to refine and redefine their respective brand images as they compete for price-sensitive shoppers.

Walmart for the past year and a half has been building out a “Who Knew?” platform designed to shift consumer perceptions, highlighting a more on-trend assortment and better deals than people might expect. The concept comes to life for the holidays with a riff on “The Muppet Christmas Carol” starring Walton Goggins as Ebenezer Scrooge and a cast of Muppets including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.

Target meanwhile is trying to sustain momentum for a turnaround strategy aimed at recapturing its “Tar-zhay” magic — a cheap-but-chic allure that was diluted during the bumpy post-pandemic years, when the brand got bogged down in culture wars backlash and lackluster store presentation. Performance has been on the upswing so far in 2026 following a CEO transition, but the holidays will be the real proving ground for Target, analysts say. Its campaign is anchored on a gifting academy for helping customers find the perfect present for different people in their life, with the institution led by a wise-cracking expert played by D’Arcy Carden.

“For Target, they’re really trying to reassert their difference,” said Taylre Stumpf, a retail consultant at Kantar who specializes in Target and mass channel retailers.


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