Missoni at Target

On Tuesday Target launched their Missoni for Target line of women's clothes, housewares, furniture, and even a bike. Target has collaborated with many high end designers in the past, with success for both Target and the designers. How can these two groups collaborate so successfully without the designers sullying their brand?

Target in each collaboration is an obvious winner, offering designs, styles, and names millions could only dream of ever owning. However, brands like Missoni, Zac Posen, and Rodarte are built upon their exclusivity, the inability of the masses (Target's customer bases) to own and wear them. These upscale brands keep their exclusive image after working with Target by creating a different type of exclusivity--time -- collaboration only lasts a couple months with limited number of each product available. Shoppers have to race to the stores, or go online at 6 am when the lines are launched if they want to be able to buy any of Target's exclusive offerings.

Missoni and the other high end brands maintain the upper class status by temporarily switching their type of exclusivity (from price to time). They avoid the pitfalls of so many other designers going cheap that lose their status. Those other brands sell to many retail chains and have multiple collections each season. Where is the exclusivity in that?

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/business/demand-at-target-for-fashion-line-crashes-web-site.html?WT.mc_id=BU-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M219-ROS-0911-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click