(source – Wikimedia)

We love stories like this.

Of course, we don’t mean we love the stress and compromise of personal information that millions of customers have had to endure in the wake of the massive security breach at Target last year. What we do love, however, is tracking how a company charts the way out of such debacles and attempts to restore consumer confidence in its brand.

An interesting article about this very process appears in AdAge this morning.

Target’s CMO Navigates Marketing Post-Security Breach

How fascinating and challenging it must be to build marketing campaigns designed to drive business while also being sensitive to customers still feeling burned by having their credit card information stolen. Assuming it didn’t actually happen to you, imagine how you would feel if you had been one of those compromised – what would seeing a new Target ad encouraging you to sign up for the Target store credit card make you feel?

Last year, Target spent $631 million to promote its brand. These campaigns take time to craft and time to execute. Yet consumer sentiment can be measured in real time and can be a tricky, fluctuating issue. How does a company long-term plan, allocate marketing dollars, and appropriately position itself while still rebuilding customer relationships on a daily basis?

We’ll see how consumers respond to these new campaigns as they roll out.