Target's lowered costs boost sales

[View Online]( ) Target's lowered costs boost sales Everyone's feeling the pinch with inflation — we wrote last week about parents struggling with the cost of back-to-school supplies as we head into the new school year. But one company is taking the radical approach of lowering costs to get people back in stores, and it seems to be working. Target announced last week that they had "slashed prices on 5,000 frequently bought items to attract customers." Not only did this reportedly boost sales, it also brought a lot of rosy coverage to the brand after a difficult couple of years. There were hundreds of articles written about this initiative, and interestingly a lot of the engagement occurred with local news outlets, once again emphasizing the power of local reporting for people's day-to-day experiences. The [most engaged with article]( was from ABC 12. While the headline was positive for Target, other brands were pulled into the conversation in a negative way, offered as a counterexample to what Target has done. The likes of McDonald's and Starbucks were mentioned in the same news stories as brands that have struggled with sales in the wake of rising prices. Lowe's and Jack Daniels become latest brands to scale back DEI policies The list of brands scaling back their DEI initiatives keeps growing, with Lowe's and Jack Daniels most recently making headlines for their latest moves. This comes after brands like Harley-Davidson and John Deere walked back their DEI commitments amid attacks from conservative activists on social media, led by Robby Starbuck. After reaching out to Lowe's about its policies, Starbuck [posted to X]( on Monday and announced that Lowe's would no longer be participating in the corporate equality index run by the Human Right's Council. He plans to [continue his campaign]( and reveal a new company in the coming days. All of this attention has meant that corporate executives are stepping up their comms efforts to prepare for politically motivated attacks, as [reported by Axios]( last week, and brands are weighing the impact of choosing to scale back (or not scale back) their DEI efforts, as both can have a potential effect on their reputation if not communicated properly. NEWSWHIP FOR CROWDTANGLE USERS Learn how NewsWhip can help replicate the work you’re doing in CrowdTangle [Learn more]( STAY AHEAD OF ISSUES WITH THE FORESIGHT FRAMEWORK We highlight the first two components of the Foresight Framework: level setting and benchmarking [Read blog]( WEBINAR: THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MONITORING Join us to learn about how journalists and newsrooms can continue their social monitoring after the shut down of CrowdTangle [Register]( BRINGING REDDIT CONTENT TO YOUR NEWSROOM How newsrooms can leverage the often untapped resources of Reddit's communities [Read blog]( [Facebook (1).png]( [X (1).png]( [Linkedin (1).png]( Copyright (C) 2024 NewsWhip. All rights reserved. You're receiving this email because you opted in for the NewsWhip blog newsletter and updates. Our mailing address is: NewsWhip 42 Pearse Street Dublin, D02 YX88 Ireland Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [unsubscribe]( )