Mark Weinstein has long admired Target as an iconic brand and for its distinctive place in retail. Now, as Target’s chief marketing and guest experience officer, he’s getting to know the team behind it all. We caught up with Mark to hear what drew him to Target, where he sees the most opportunities, how he approaches leadership, and how a quick Target run can turn into a very full cart.
What excites you about joining Target?
The brand is what attracted me, and the people are why I decided to join. For me, Target’s always been the most iconic brand — a true disruptor in a category that otherwise wants to be commonized. But it really is the people: the team members I met at the stores, the people I met in the recruiting process. It’s the culture of the people, their pride of the past and readiness to embrace the future that is really getting me excited about coming on board.
What’s the biggest opportunity you see for Target?
I think about the opportunity to be even more in culture and conversation by fully connecting all marketing through a consistent brand platform, more fully harnessing the power of loyalty and personalization, and really defining our in-store and digital guest experience of the future. Our purpose in the world is so different than the rest of the industry. How do we make sure the world knows that? There’s a real opportunity here to think about the guest experience from car door opening to car door closing. We have to be good at everything, but where will we be distinctive? Be great? What do we want to be known for?
How do you describe your leadership style?
I believe our team’s job is to be world creators — in our marketing and in our guest experience. We have this incredible ability to create the vocabulary of who we want to be, how we show up as a brand and in advertising, and how we deliver that experience. My job is to create the right environment for the team to do that — to remove the roadblocks and unlock resources, ask the what-ifs, challenge us to more fully imagine the art of the possible and then craft it into existence.
What’s always in your Target cart?
I come for the staples. I’m like, “OK, I just need to go get one carton of eggs.” And by the time I leave, my Target cart looks like it has exploded with life.
