y in 1910. The Dayton Company entered the discount merchandise retail industry in 1962 when it opened its first Target store. The two companies merged and formed Dayton Hudson Corporation in 1969. The company continued to expand by purchasing Mervyn’s in 1978 and Marshall Field’s in 1990. By 1979 Target had become the corporation’s top revenue producer. In the past three years the company has changed significantly. Besides changing its name, it has also attempted to diversify by acquiring two more companies. In 1998 it bought Rivertown Trading Company and The Associated Merchandising Corporation. The acquisition of Rivertown Trading Company showed that the company was willing to try something new by entering the major catalog market. The Associated Merchandising Corporation was already a supplier for many of the companies products, so it was very convenient for it to take over operations. As recently as 1999, the company launched its e-commerce capability with store brand web sites. When the company claimed the Target Corporation name in January this year, it was acknowledging its dependency on the success of its Target stores. The Target stores and the e-commerce focus appear to hold the future of Target Corporation’s Success. The department store and Mervyn’s divisions still play a major role in generating revenue for the company, but the future of those divisions is less predictable.SWOT – Situation AnalysisExternal Industry AnalysisProspects for Volume and Profit – Industry WideTarget Corporation is in the general merchandise retailing industry, sometimes called the discount retailing industry. Its store brands include Target, Dayton’s, Marshall Field’s, Hudson’s and Mervyn's California. Selected information on the stores in the three divisions is given in Exhibit 1 through 4. The acquisition of Rivertown Trading Company marked Target Corporation’s firs...
