home depot integrated marketing campaign plan for imc 610
TRANSCRIPT
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Genifer Snipes
IMC610 October 20, 2014
Your Home, One Project at a Time:
The Home Depot IMC Campaign Plan
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Contents Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 3
The Home Depot Company Background Information .................................................................... 4
Target Audience Profile ................................................................................................................ 11
SWOT Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 14
Marketing Campaign Objectives & Strategies .............................................................................. 15
Creative Strategy Statement ........................................................................................................ 16
Creative Brief ................................................................................................................................ 17
Sample Creative Execution – Online Commercial ........................................................................ 18
Advertising Media Plan ................................................................................................................. 20
Public Relations Plan .................................................................................................................... 22
Direct Marketing & Sales .............................................................................................................. 24
Measurement Tactics ................................................................................................................... 25
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 28
References .................................................................................................................................... 29
Appendix ...................................................................................................................................... 32
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Executive Summary The Home Depot is the best place to go for the products and support that will help our customers make their houses into beautiful homes. The “Your Home, One Project at a Time” IMC campaign will enable us to communicate that fact to promising new audiences.
Company Overview
Founded in Atlanta, Georgia in 1978, The Home Depot is the world’s largest home-‐improvement superstore with store presences in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. In the United States alone, Home Depot employees more than 300,000 people into over 2000 stores, all dedicated to helping Home Depot customers find the products and tools they need to conquer their home improvement and construction projects.
The Home Depot is the market-‐leader among home improvement chains, with a stock price almost double that of its nearest competitor, Lowe’s Home Improvement, and a positive outlook for the current financial year thanks to the rebounding U.S. housing market.
The Home Depot brand is also supported by a robust marketing program that encompasses traditional and digital advertising, direct marketing, sales promotions, and a wide array of content marketing and social media programs.
Marketing Audience Our target audience for the “Your Home, One Project at a Time” campaign is married, well-‐educated women in their mid-‐twenties to early thirties who work full-‐time, and enjoy renovating their homes, working in the garden, and other DIY types of projects in their free time. The projects they work on with their spouses provide a sense of accomplishment and self-‐sufficiency outside of work and are major pastimes for these couples. They are technologically adept, though not early adopters, active on social media, and expect a high level of quality and service from the stores they patronize. “Your Home, One Project at a Time” Campaign Objectives
• Increase preference for Home Depot over competing brands in target market by 30% over 12 months
• Increase amount of per-‐visit sales by target customers by 30% over 12 months The campaign objectives will be achieved through a tightly-‐integrated and program of print and digital media advertising, increased and more creative use of our existing social and other owned media platforms for content marketing and public relations, expansion of our women’s DIY workshop series, increase our brand presence at relevant community events, targeted use of sales promotions and direct marketing appeals. This combination of marketing elements will provide The Home Depot with measurable positive results from our target audience.
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The Home Depot Company Background Information
Overview The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is the world’s largest home-‐improvement superstore with store presences in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. In the United States alone, Home Depot employees more than 300,000 people into over 2000 stores, all dedicated to helping Home Depot customers find the products and tools they need to conquer their home improvement and construction projects. This dedication to the needs of the do-‐it-‐yourselfer is an integral part of Home Depot’s corporate identity and the reason the company exists at all. In 1978, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank opened two massive warehouse stores in Atlanta, Georgia, packed with 25,000 home-‐improvement items designed to make Home Depot the one stop home-‐improvement shop in Atlanta (Home Depot, Inc., n.d.-‐a). Of course, the massive inventory is only part of the Home Depot story. From the beginning, Bernie and Arthur expected customer service to be the real driving force behind creating customer loyalty. Then, as now, Home Depot employees were expected to “go the extra mile” to ensure that people coming to Home Depot for help with a project would go leave not only with the right products, but also with the advice they need to succeed, whether they were installing tiles or buying a new drill (Home Depot, Inc., n.d.-‐a). Today, that commitment to providing and constantly improving customer service is embedded in Home Depot’s core values and mission:
Mission & Values
The Home Depot’s values guide the beliefs and actions of all associates on a daily basis. Our values are the fabric of the Company’s unique culture and are central to our success. In fact, they are our competitive advantage in the marketplace. Associate pride and our “orangeblooded” entrepreneurial spirit are distinctive hallmarks of our culture.
• Taking care of our people:The key to our success is treating people well. We do this by encouraging associates to speak up and take risks, by recognizing and rewarding good performance and by leading and developing people so they may grow.
• Giving back to our communities:An important part of the fabric of The Home Depot is giving our time, talents, energy and resources to worthwhile causes in our communities and society.
• Doing the right thing:We exercise good judgment by "doing the right thing" instead of just "doing things right." We strive to understand the impact of our decisions, and we accept responsibility for our actions.
• Excellent customer service:Along with our quality products, service, price and selection, we must go the extra mile to give customers knowledgeable advice about merchandise and to help them use those products to their maximum benefit.
• Creating shareholder value:The investors who provide the capital necessary to allow our company to grow need and expect a return on their investment. We are committed to providing it.
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• Building strong relationships: Strong relationships are built on trust, honesty and integrity. We listen and respond to the needs of customers, associates, communities and vendors, treating them as partners.
• Entrepreneurial spirit:The Home Depot associates are encouraged to initiate creative and innovative ways of serving our customers and improving the business and to spread best practices throughout the company.
• Respect for all people:In order to remain successful, our associates must work in an environment of mutual respect, free of discrimination and harassment where each associate is regarded as a part of The Home Depot team. (Home Depot, Inc., n.d.-‐ b)
Financial Posit ion Today, 33 years after Home Depot went public on the NASDAQ, the company is showing strong continued financial growth and it has boosted its expected earnings for fiscal year 2014 (Home Depot’s profits, 2014). On August 29, 2014, Home Depot was trading at 93.5 on the New York Stock Exchange; almost double its closest competitor in the home-‐improvement industry, Lowe’s Home Improvement (NYSE: LOW). In addition, sales were up 7.5% in 2013, which means Home Depot’s US sales have rebounded to pre-‐financial crisis levels and the outlook for future growth is positive, especially given the continued recovery of the US housing market (Home Depot, Inc., 2013, preface). That said, much of Home Depot’s financial growth is dependent on a domestic housing market that some economists are concerned about a contraction in the market due to the combination of high housing prices and low wage growth (Howley, 2014). If economists’ negative predictions are borne out by the market, Home Depot will need to find ways of expanding its services to customers other than new construction market. A potential alternate focus may be in the home remodeling market since that area is positively impacted by rising home prices and therefore, expected to continue to grow (McCluskey, 2014). Competit ive Landscape Although Home Depot is currently the United States market leader in the area of one-‐stop retail home-‐improvement stores, it operates in a highly competitive industry and competes in numerous market segments with many different types of businesses. The Home Depot’s major national competitors include:
• Lowe’s Home Improvement (NYSE: LOW) • Ace Hardware • Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) • Menard, Inc.
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In addition to its national competition, in most geographic areas that Home Depot operates in, it faces competition from other home improvement stores, general retailers, and home improvement contractors, all of whom provide services or products in one of Home Depot’s primary market segments. Despite Home Depot’s leading position in the home improvement market, these other businesses can provide stiff competition for many reasons. A primary consideration for many customers is whether they will leave the store with a feeling of confidence in their ability to complete the project they went in for products or help with. This confidence requires not only friendliness but also technical expertise on the part of store associates. Unfortunately, despite the emphasis placed on customer service in Home Depot’s corporate values, the brand has developed a reputation for poor customer service. (Hoovers, 2014). This weakness enables competitors – particularly smaller or niche businesses – to position themselves as a superior customer service alternative because they are not part of a faceless conglomerate. Home Depot will need to improve its customer service efforts, potentially placing greater emphasis on hiring associates with technical home improvement expertise, to ward off these threats to their business model (Castellanos, 2012). Another reason customers may avoid patronizing Home Depot stores is the perception that supporting a “big-‐box” store will drive smaller local businesses, many of which have been parts of the local community for years, out of business (Walsh, 2014). This is a perception that Home Depot must be sensitive to if it wishes to be welcomed into communities.
Products Another area in which Home Depot differentiates itself is its partnerships with top product manufacturers (Home Depot, Inc., 2013, p. 4). While other home-‐improvement stores have developed store brand product lines as a means to provide added value to their customers, Home Depot has opted to provide exclusive access to top name brands including:
• Husky® hand tools and tool storage • Defiant® door locks • Everbilt® hardware fasteners • Hampton Bay® lighting and fans • Vigoro® lawn care products • RIDGID® and Ryobi® power tools • Glacier Bay® bath fixtures • HDX® tools, hardware, storage and cleaning products • CE Tech® audio-‐visual accessories • Behr® interior and exterior paint
Equally important in providing the customer with a superior product selection is Home Depot’s focus on localized store inventories allowing each store to focus on stocking the products customers in that geographic area are likely to want, at prices the local market can bear, a strategy that seems like it should make shopping more relevant for customers.
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Services In addition, as Home Depot expands its focus beyond simply selling products to providing home-‐improvement services, they have found several interesting ways of inserting themselves into even DIY projects. These tactics range from providing in-‐store workshops for do-‐it-‐yourself customers to in-‐home installation of products purchased at Home Depot through the store’s installation service, or through its national contractor network. Here are just some of the services provided in Home Depot across the nation:
• National installation & repair services • Dedicated contractor services desks • Direct to job site delivery • Contractor loyalty programs • DIY how-‐to clinics • Kids workshops • Tool & truck rental
Of course, like so many other companies today, Home Depot’s primary area of expansion is in the area of home-‐improvement e-‐commerce, specifically in what the company refers to as interconnected retail. Over the past four years, Home Depot has been developing a retail experience that weds e-‐commerce with the company’s physical stores and services. In addition to drastically expanding inventory on HomeDepot.com, the company’s online store and seeking to provide a seamless mobile experience through the Home Depot mobile apps, the idea of interconnected retail has led to the implementation of new online shopping delivery services that use Home Depot’s 2000-‐plus stores as support and distribution centers (Home Depot, Inc., 2013, p. 2). The new delivery services are:
1. Buy Online, Ship to Store ("BOSS") – 2013 2. Buy Online, Return In Store ("BORIS") – 2013 3. Buy Online, Pick-‐up In Store ("BOPIS") – 2011 4. Buy Online, Deliver From Store ("BODFS") – 2014
Not only will these new services support Home Depot’s expanding e-‐commerce traffic and improve the online customer experience, they will have the secondary effect of bringing online customers into the stores and reinforcing the value of the in-‐person experience for the online shopper.
Current Marketing Communications Binding together the tangible and intangible elements of the Home Depot experience is the brand itself – the Home Depot name, the ubiquitous orange logo, and the company’s longtime slogan of “You can do it. We can help.” These elements of the Home Depot brand are displayed throughout the company’s marketing communications Home Depot logo
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program on channels spanning the breadth of the promotional mix.
Advertising Home Depot advertises across all traditional media types from newspaper ads and inserts to radio and TV spots, and outdoor ads in order to reach the widest number of potential customers and stay in the public consciousness. Home Depot continues to utilize a wide variety of direct marketing strategies including traditional mediums such as direct mail; however, its primary area of marketing growth is in the area of digital and Internet marketing.
Home Depot: "Manhattan Direction Wallscape2" Outdoor Advert by The Richards Group
Direct Marketing and Digital/Internet Marketing Home Depot continues to expand its direct e-‐mail marketing system, at the same time increasing the visibility of homedepot.com as a primary direct sales location. Further blurring the lines between Home Depot’s traditional communication strategies and it’s adoption of digital and Internet marketing techniques is Home Depot’s strong emphasis on localized web content which connects the consumer with the stores closest to them and the products available in the stores. This focus on a localized customer experience compliments Home Depot’s growth in the area of mobile marketing. Not only does Home Depot provide individual apps customized for the retail and contractor clienteles, the company has gone to great lengths to tailor the content of these apps to the individuals geographic location, shopping history, and level of home improvement expertise, in the process reinforcing Home Depot’s message of giving their customers exactly what they want.
Content Marketing and Social Media Unsurprisingly for a company that exists to help people build new things and fix old things and convince them to do so using Home Depot products, Home Depot is strong in the area of content marketing, particularly through their large portfolio of social media channels. Home
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Depot uses its social presence to build relationships with their customers and let them know what can be done with the products available at Home Depot rather than making a sales pitch.
• Blog -‐ http://ext.homedepot.com/community/blog/ • YouTube -‐ https://www.youtube.com/user/homedepot • Facebook -‐ https://www.facebook.com/homedepot • Pinterest -‐ http://www.pinterest.com/homedepot/ • Twitter -‐ https://twitter.com/HomeDepot • Twitter (Sale Promotions) -‐ https://twitter.com/HomeDepotDeals • Tumblr -‐ http://homedepot.tumblr.com/
According to a 2011 AdAge article, Home Depot’s social media program is run not out of corporate headquarters, but from sales floors in Chicago, Atlanta, Orange County, and Boston, where some of the company’s best store associates develop content for distribution on social media (Zmuda, 2011). This is an interesting concept because it means the individuals creating the content that attracts customers to the store and sparks new ideas are the same people who spend the rest of their time on the sales floor handling new products, helping with customer projects, identifying trends, and learning what their customers are doing outside the store. This helps them create timely, authentic content like this how-‐to blog post for a yard game they posted right before Labor Day:
Sales Promotion Although Home Depot seeks to maintain ongoing competitive pricing in relation to its competitors, it does provide additional consumer targeted sales promotions through weekly ads – both online and in-‐store. Other promotional strategies include price matching guarantees, product rebates, daily Special Buys, and periodic sweepstakes publicized on its website, in print, and across social media, often in relation to major holiday and sporty events.
Public Relations and Publicity Another way Home Depot continues to strengthen its reputation with the public is through ongoing support of environmental sustainability initiatives throughout its supply chain and for the store’s customers. Home Depot is actively pursuing environmentally conscious consumers
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through targeted blogs project ideas and information that makes going green using Home Depot’s products and services simple and beneficial. At the same time, Home Depot’s previous commitment to sustainability is about more than selling products by improving energy efficiency in its own operations. Not only does Home Depot hold its suppliers to the Corporation sustainability standards is also moving forward by building new stores that meet or exceed LEED certification requirements and retrofitting many existing stores to decrease water usage (Home Depot, Inc., 2013, p. 6). Home Depot also contributes to its local and national community through strategic partnerships and sponsorships of various sports and philanthropic organizations that are in line with its values and goals through The Home Depot Inc. and the Home Depot Foundation. Current Home Depot sponsorships and partnerships include:
• Home Depot Racing (NASCAR) • Red Cross • Good360 • Atlanta Braves (MLB) • Atlanta Falcons (NFL) • Georgia Aquarium • College Football Hall of Fame • Peachtree Road Race • Major League Soccer
o Mexican National Team (MNT) o Major League Soccer (MLS) o New York Red Bulls o Los Angeles Galaxy o Seattle Sounders FC o Houston Dynamo o Chivas USA
• ESPN College GameDay • Team Depot (military veteran support)
Direct Sel l ing and Relationship Building Rounding out The Home Depot’s marketing communications strategy portfolio is the one type of communication that makes the rest of the company’s message meaningful – the service and sales skills of Home Depot’s associates. For several years, customer service was an acknowledged weakness in Home Depot stores (Hoovers, 2013). Customers complained about the lack of available staff to system; however, once the company recognized this weakness in their service model, they responded by re-‐organizing their store associates’ responsibilities so that, by the end of fiscal year 2013, 60% of employee labor hours are dedicated to customer service. In addition, the company’s ongoing Customer First training has been augmented with additional segments on how to support the new interconnected retail services the stores are providing (Home Depot Inc., 2013, p. 2). These training programs should help repair negative customer sentiment regarding service at Home Depot and reinforce the brands message that it is the best, most welcoming store experience for do-‐it-‐yourselfers of all experience levels.
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Target Audience Profi le
Meet Madeline and David Stark. This couple is going to be the target of Home Depot's upcoming IMC campaign. Home Depot has a store within five miles of their home and we would like them, and couples like them to become active customers. Although we are marketing to the couple, we will be targeting Madeline as our primary potential customer.
Madeline, who prefers to be called Maddy, and David have been employed full time at West Virginia University (WVU), in Morgantown, WV since 2011. Maddy is a tenure-‐track associate professor at the School of Social Work while David works in the Office of Student Affairs. Before coming to WVU, Maddy spent two years as a lecturer at the University of Iowa where she obtained her PhD in social work. That is also where she and David met while he was completing his Master's of Higher Education Administration. Before that, Maddy obtained her Bachelor of Arts in English and Communications from Grinnell College. Currently, both Maddy and David are salaried WVU employees that work a minimum of 35 hours a week and often more during the peak months of academic activity, which are from August to October and April to May.
Maddy is 33 and David is 35. David's parents moved from Salzburg to Virginia before he was born so his father could join an international relations think tank in the D.C. Beltway before he was born. He is their only child and, having grown up in a dual-‐culture family, speaks fluent German. Maddy's mother was a homemaker, who cared for Maddy and her three siblings while her father served as a police officer in the vice department for 25 years. Neither of them is particularly religious; however, both have Protestant Lutheran roots.
Unsurprisingly, Maddy and David share many of the same political and social opinions. Both Maddy and David support a strong social net for members of society who cannot support themselves, global human rights, and are deeply opposed to corporate and government exploitation of developing nations. Both are strong supporters of self-‐sufficiency and civil liberties. In addition, Maddy is a strong supporter of anti-‐drug legislation, likely due to her father's experiences on the police force and David has taken his parents support for a strong E.U. defense program and transferred that to supporting a strong U.S. military defense program.
Maddy and David married in 2010, a year after they met in a restaurant in Iowa City where David played guitar in a band with friends from the University of Iowa. Their meeting place is indicative of Maddy and David's shared interest in the local music and social scene. Since coming to Morgantown, David has found a new group of friends to play with and he and Maddy spend many evenings traveling to local clubs to perform or hear their friends perform. For vacations, which only occur over the summer months when the University is less active, the
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couple visits their parents, all of whom live within a 10-‐hour drive from Morgantown or go to Myrtle Beach where they meet up with friends from graduate school.
When they moved to Morgantown, the couple bought their first house, a small-‐ish 20th century Queen Anne in the South Side neighborhood where many of the university's faculty and administrators lives. The Morgantown housing market is limited for single-‐family homes because the majority of new housing in Morgantown is high-‐density apartments for the students at the university so Maddy and David feel lucky that they found their home at a reasonable price. Maddy loves their new house and neighborhood. Not only is the South Side well known for its tight-‐knit community, this is the first time since she left home that Maddy has been able to have a garden, which is her primary hobby and allows her to grow most of the produce she and David use during the summer and fall. Another interest both she and David are able to indulge since they are not planning to move again is collecting antique furniture to complement their home. They have done some basic restoration on a few pieces but both of them would like to learn how to handle larger projects. Their Queen Anne house has given Maddy and David another source of entertainment, albeit one that is unevenly welcome. The previous owners had not kept the house up and most of the rooms lacked up-‐to-‐date amenities and decor so Maddy and David spend a significant amount of their free time rehabbing various parts of the house. Neither of them have a construction or home improvement background so they are learning how to complete the projects as they come up.
They are planning to have their first child within the next 1-‐2 years, which should coincide with Maddy passing her first stage of tenure review, leading to greater job and financial security for the couple. Currently, both Maddy and David make between $52,000 and $70,000 per year plus full health benefits and a mandatory matched-‐contribution retirement plan. Although Maddy and David are relatively confident in their financial security, they are concerned about the rising cost of insurance and household necessities, and how adding a child to their family will change their financial situation.
Maddy and David would not consider themselves heavy spenders. Besides their house, they own two vehicles -‐ one mid-‐size car and a small SUV, both of which are about three years old. They are planning to replace the car next year; however, since the SUV is mostly used in the winter when four-‐wheel drive is required, it will probably last several more years. Other than those purchases, Maddy and David's major spending occurs related to their various home improvement and restoration projects. When they do make purchases, they would rather pay more for products they feel will be durable and retain their value over multiple years. They are not attached to name brands unless that brand is strongly associated with quality and reliability. When they find brands of products or stores that provide them with the level of quality and service they demand, they are loyal as long as service and quality remains high; however, they will not tolerate poor service in the name of loyalty.
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David hates going into stores and only goes shopping when he cannot find the item online. His only dislike related to online shopping are the limited options for shipping and returns. He may talk about his latest project or where he is performing tonight with his friends, which he will usually do in-‐person or on the phone but he is not a major social sharer. He uses Facebook to keep in touch with college friends and share pictures with his parents, but he has become annoyed with the company's manipulation of his News Feed and avoids the platform when possible. His primary social media platform is Twitter, which he appreciates for its free-‐form content and straightforward operation. He will engage with brands on Twitter, provided he feels like there is a value to that interaction.
In contrast, although Maddy jokes that she should have her iPhone grafted to her hand and she shops online several times a month, she still prefers having experts available to provide advice on the best products and techniques to use in her various home and garden projects. If she can get this personal connection through on online retailer, she will use them, but she usually ends up going to the store for help with large or novel projects. Her desire for a personal aspect to her projects extends to her social media habits. She remains close to her college friends who she communicates with primarily using Facebook. When she isn't texting them, she can always find work and internet friends on Twitter and Instagram, which she enjoys for their ease of sharing news, images, and accomplishments including her antique finds and garden produce. Her newest social media addition is Pinterest, which she uses to find and collect interesting images and ideas for new projects. She likes the way professional and personal images mix on her wall and is happy to pin from brands when she likes the pin. She is aware of other social platforms like tumblr, but lacks the time or willingness to engage on yet another platform.
Both Maddy and David use Apple devices exclusively outside of work. They appreciate the ease of setup and relatively seamless interaction between their various devices as well as the inference of quality and community that is part of the Apple brand experience. Despite their adherence to the brand, they would not qualify as early adopters. They upgrade their phones only when the newest version offers a significant improvement in features and speed over their current model. They both have MacBook Pro laptops; however, for casual internet surfing and non-‐work travel, the couple uses their iPads more than their computers.
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SWOT Analysis
Internal
Strengths • Strong brand recognition as the leading home improvement store in the U.S. • Caters to wide range of home improvement and construction customers, making company
less vulnerable to economic stresses • Early involvement in high tech appliances and home device market (Phillips, 2014) • Exclusive access to well-‐known product lines increases customer traffic • Focus on eco-‐friendly products • Interconnected retail strategy allows company to compete against e-‐commerce exclusive
stores • Home improvement customers prefer in-‐store shopping (Erwina, 2013) Weaknesses • Reputation for poor customer service • Weakness in perceived levels of home improvement expertise in store associates • Customer data breach leading to decreased customer confidence and involvement in legal
proceedings • Perception in communities that big box stores drive small local businesses out of operation • Dependence on third-‐party product installers for DIFM customers • Season and weather-‐dependent nature of home improvement projects decreases year-‐
round sales consistency • Limited online presence in comparison to competitors such as Amazon
External
Opportunities • Improving economic outlook resulting in increased home improvement activity • Growing public interest in home automation opens new market for tech-‐oriented home
improvement projects • Customers seek in-‐person guidance on completing home improvement projects • Growth in Maker Movement encompasses many aspects of home DIY (Maker Market Study.
p. 12) • Growth of online and mobile shopping makes it possible to serve consumers at time and
point of need Threats • Dependent on volatile US housing market (Howley, 2014) • Operates in concentrated and competitive industry, limiting potential profit margins and
pricing ability (Phillips, 2014) • Niche businesses positioned as superior customer service and expertise options • Changes to national or regional wage laws
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Marketing Campaign Objectives & Strategies
Goal: Position Home Depot as leading resource for planning and completing DIY home improvement projects Objective 1: Increase preference for Home Depot over competing brands in target market by 30% over 12 months • Expand owned media program to support DIY activities by target audience
• Create media campaign demonstrating unique features and benefits of Home Depot products and services to target audience
• Expand reach of marketing efforts through promotional and public relations programs
Objective 2: Increase amount of per-‐visit sales by target customers by 30% over 12 months • Create promotional campaigns encouraging DIY project-‐related purchasing by target
customers
• Create in-‐store and advertising campaigns highlighting inventory and support for popular DIY home improvement projects
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Creative Strategy Statement
Your Home, One Project at a Time
Choice: Building your home, one project at a time
Rejected Ideas: 1. Expert help for all your home project needs 2. We’ll help you do that 3. For when you can “almost” do it yourself 4. Your ideas, our experience
*See Appendix 1: Creative Strategy Diagram
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Creative Brief
Client: The Home Depot Date: 9/13/14 Type: Online Commercial
Why are we advertising? To position The Home Depot as the leading resource for planning and completing DIY home improvement projects in our target market
Whom are we talking to? Married, well-‐educated middle class women in their mid-‐twenties to early thirties who work full-‐time, and enjoy renovating their homes, working in the garden, and other DIY types of projects in their free time. The projects they work on with their spouses provide a sense of accomplishment and self-‐sufficiency outside of work and are major pastimes for these couples. They are technologically adept, though not early adopters, active on social media, and expect a high level of quality and service from the stores they patronize.
What do they currently think? The Home Depot is just one home improvement store of many, all of which provide the same, often unremarkable, products and services
What would we l ike them to think? The Home Depot is the best place to go for the products and support that will help them make their houses into homes.
What is the single most persuasive idea we can convey? Your Home, One Project at a Time
Why should they believe it? The Home Depot has the best products and people to help them complete their home improvement projects.
Are there any creative guidelines? 60-‐90 second commercial
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Sample Creative Execution – Online Commercial Setting:
● Suburban neighborhood, historic houses (old, not wildly flashy), wide sidewalks, trees & grass lining the roads
● Background sounds: kids playing, cars (a few) passing, dogs barking, people talking away from our scene
● Music: needledrop jazz or blues -‐ medium energy Scene 1
• car (Volkswagen Passat, Mazda6, etc) pulls up to curb, parking. o couple gets out -‐ woman is driving o both dressed in business casual clothes (no suits)
● Couple turns to face house (View switches to house from couple’s perspective) ○ house is older Victorian style. well-‐kept, not run down but not pristine. Shows
wear (crumbling retaining wall, uneven front stair, etc.) ● semi-‐opaque thought bubbles appear, overlaying scene
■ bubbles indicate completed projects (re-‐seeded lawn, installed new faucet in bathroom, hung pictures in living area) and and future projects (repair front step, tile bathroom floor, re-‐paper upstairs hallway, etc.) using orange check marks in to-‐do style boxes
■ no more than 7 bubbles total to avoid clutter ■ older boxes fade as new ones appear
<cut to couple still facing house> ● couple looks at each other, indicating recognition of the bubbles’ content (shrug, raised
eyebrow, etc.) and heads into house Scene 2
• inside house, couple (camera facing couple) standing in living area or foyer ● wife searches for “weekend home projects” on her phone
○ search engine auto-‐suggests do you mean “the home depot”? ○ clicks link to HD website, opens showing a banner ad for weekend projects
● Woman looks over at husband, and asks, smiling, “So, what are we doing this weekend?”
● Husband pulls out phone & starts tapping things (holding phone so both people can see screen)
○ semi-‐opaque task list slides in from his side of screen (implication that that is what’s on phone screen) ■ different tasks highlight like someone is scrolling through them, stopping
at: tile bathroom floor
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Scene 3
● Couple with cart in Home Depot store, standing in front of tile display with Home Depot associate gesturing and clearly explaining something regarding tiles
● Cut to all three people around computer screen watching homedepot.com training video from website as woman points to screen and asks questions of associate
● Cut to couple checking out with loaded cart ○ women takes picture of cart & posts to Instagram® #LetsDoThis #newproject
#tiling #before Scene 4
● Couple standing in bathroom doorway, looking happy, tired, and a little grubby (grout streak on clothes, dusty, etc.)
● Wife pulls out camera and takes picture of room (which is behind the camera) and posts to Instagram hashtag #tiling #after #beautiful #thxhomedepot #LetsDoThis
○ show picture of sparkling bathroom on camera screen as woman types hashtags ● Husband opens phone, to-‐do list from earlier re-‐appears on screen
○ task: tile bathroom floor is checked off/struck through Close
● White background ● Caption in The Home Depot logo font: Your Home -‐ One Project at a Time
○ followed by checkbox, which checks (with pencil sound) as we watch ● The Home Depot logo, hashtag, and website information at bottom
END
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Advertis ing Media Plan OBJECTIVE 1: Use local print and OOH media to reach 75% of target market at least 4 times during 12 month period. Strategy 1: Place billboard ads near major shopping areas and traffic hubs to reach target market during commute and while running errands
Tactic 1: Billboard placements for 1-‐3 locations for 2-‐3 month periods on rolling basis. Flighting; Placements will be present in target geographic area for full 12 month period
Rationale: Placing billboard ads near several major traffic centers will increase the likelihood of being noticed by target markets while the 2-‐3 month flighting plan will prevent the ads from becoming stale.
Strategy 2: Run ads in newspaper(s) serving target market’s geographic area
Tactic 1: Run bi-‐weekly flyer in Dominion-‐Post Sunday editions to reach target market on weekend days Flighting; March – June, August
Rationale: Weekends are the days the target audience is likeliest to have time to read the newspaper and will also the days likely spent on home improvement and DIY projects, making the placement timely.
OBJECTIVE 2: Use online media to reach 70% of target market at least 4 times over 12 month period Strategy 1: Run 30-‐second ads on streaming radio stations that reach target market
Tactic 1: Run advertisements on Pandora and Spotify during typical working and commute hours Flighting; peak times beginning late Q1 through Q3 to coincide with home improvement/DIY season
Rationale: Pandora and Spotify are the most popular streaming radio stations for the target market and during work hours, our target market is likely to spend long periods on the computer with internet radio turned on while they work.
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Strategy 2: Run 60-‐second commercials on streaming television platforms during shows viewed by target market
Tactic 1: Run ads during primetime televisions dramas and lifestyle shows including Once Upon a Time, Scandal, The Blacklist, Manhattan, American Pickers, and So You Think You Can Dance streamed on Hulu Flighting; during traditional Fall broadcast season (Sept-‐May)
Rationale: Target audience members are major viewers of named shows; however, due to work schedules, broadcast television is not a primary viewing method. Streaming allows unscheduled viewing and use of mobile devices, both of which are major entertainment traits of the target audience.
Strategy 3: Run ads on primary social media vehicles used by target market
Tactic 1: Use ‘promoted’ content advertising on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to reach target market Pulse; continuous advertising increasing near end of school year, and around major holidays
Rationale: The named social media platforms are the primary social communication and sharing tools of the target market and therefore the platforms most likely to reach them with the Home Depot advertising.
*See Appendix 2: Advertising Media Plan Flowchart
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Public Relations Plan OBJECTIVE 1: Increase positive brand interactions (brand interactions meaning “likes,” “pins,” or “tweets” as appropriate for the platform) related to published content with brand followers on owned social media platforms by 100% on average (across platforms) within 12 months.
Strategy 1: Implement 24/7 social media monitoring and response program to ensure conversation between The Home Depot and public is continuous
Tactic 1: Re-‐pin from and comment on exemplary home improvement and DIY Pins from across Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube
Tactic 2: Seek out individuals on Twitter talking about home improvement projects and engage them with tips and information
Tactic 3: Develop and publish media on owned media channels including Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook related to The Home Depot DIY home improvement products and project instruction. Media may be original and unique to a specific platform, or linked to The Home Depot product pages, events calendars, and publications on other owned media channels
Strategy 2: Moderate quarterly Tweet-‐chats re: home improvement questions with celebrity home improvement figures like Genevieve Gorder (HGTV’s Genevieve's Renovation) and Amy Matthews (HGTV’s Renovation Raiders)
Tactic 1: Provide event announcements to relevant media outlets (like HGTV) and featured home improvement figures for use in their own promotional campaigns
Tactic 2: Promote events across owned media platforms through tweets, pins, promotional images, Facebook events, and related interactions
Tactic 3: Create Storify of each event and re-‐post to social accounts and other owned media to continue conversation after event is completed
OBJECTIVE 2: Create 20,000 positive traditional media impressions related to the promotion in target geographic areas over a 12-‐month period.
Strategy 1: Create promotional PR campaign for print media
Tactic 1: Create press release for instructional flyer for home improvement or DIY projects and distribute to print media of interest to target market
Strategy 2: Offer a wider range of female-‐targeted in-‐store DIY workshops
Tactic 1: Develop press releases highlighting new workshop series and distribute to local media relevant to target audience
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Tactic 2: Make local store managers and workshop coordinators available to press to talk about motivation for workshop series.
Strategy 3: Sponsor booths at community events of interest to the target audience, such as the WV Women’s Extravaganza and Morgantown Home Show, focusing on The Home Depot’s ability to support home improvement and DIY-‐ers.
Tactic 1: Publicize list of future events in local stores encouraging HD customers to visit the booth
Tactic 2: Invite local members of the press to stop at booth and try out exhibits
OBJECTIVE 3: Increase the number of positive social media mentions by 40 percent over 12 months based on use of the #LetsDoThis hashtag. Strategy 1: Run sweepstakes based on customers reviewing products purchased at The Home Depot on the brand website and sharing their review on social media along with the #fromHD hashtag
Tactic 1: Solicit entries based on company’s database of recent purchasers
Tactic 2: Publicize sweepstakes on owned social media platforms
Strategy 2: Expand #LetsDoThis campaign on Instagram and Twitter to encourage customers to share their The Home Depot-‐related purchases and projects on social media
Tactic 1: Integrate campaign information onto store receipts to encourage participation after purchase
Tactic 2: Educate store employees about campaign so they can encourage customer participation
Tactic 3: Create in-‐store signage near store exits soliciting participation from customers
Tactic 4: Solicit participation directly from brand followers on owned media platforms
Tactic 5: Embed multimedia feature on Homedepot.com front page that features select #fromHD posts to website visitors and notify individuals that their posts have been selected to appear, increasing enthusiasm for participation.
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Direct Marketing & Sales
DIRECT MARKETING OBJECTIVE: Increase the number of active names in Home Depot’s customer database for the target geography by 60% in a 12-‐month period.
Tactic 1: Increase customer participation in Home Depot text message alert system through in-‐store signage, website advertising, and mobile app features that incentivize participation
Tactic 2: Based on target market demographics, develop new mailing list and distribute promotional postcards announcing various sales promotions, events, and benefits of registering for mailing lists, online accounts, and other brand communications*
Tactic 3: Offer one-‐time 10% off promotion through website, stores, and mobile app to customers who sign up for Home Depot text message alerts
* See Sales Promotion Tactic 3 SALES PROMOTION OBJECTIVE: Achieve 50% discount redemption by target customers over 12-‐month period.
Tactic 1: Create 20% off next purchase discount incentive for customers who attend an in-‐store Home Depot DIY project workshop. Coupons will be coded for identification with the workshop(s) they were distributed at for better measurement.
Tactic 2: Distribute free DIY-‐related branded premiums (a mini tape measure, screwdriver set, color wheel, etc.) to individuals who visit the Home Depot PR booths at area community events including WV Women’s Extravaganza and Morgantown Home Show along with scratch-‐off discount (value between 10-‐40% off) coupon for in-‐store or online purchase. Coupons are coded for identification with the event(s) they were distributed at for better measurement.
Tactic 3: Send 5x7 full color postcards announcing in-‐store event schedule, related sales promotions, and other The Home Depot features (early access to sales through mailing list subscription, in-‐store flash discounts for logged-‐in mobile app users, etc.) to households fitting target market profile*
* See Direct Marketing Tactic 2
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Measurement Tactics MEASUREMENT TACTIC 1 (QUANTITATIVE): Utilize analytics tools from the targeted social media platforms to develop ongoing social monitoring program that will track the relevant interactions (“likes,” “pins,” “tweets,” etc.) to track brand activity based on pre-‐campaign baseline statistics. Reports will be distributed to the marketing team on a monthly basis. Baseline data which will be gathered prior to implementation of this campaign using the analytics download features available through the targeted social media platforms’ business analytics tools. Based on gathered data, related tactics can be adjusted to increase engagement on a rolling basis. Special attention will be paid to social activity related to special events like Tweet-‐chats.
Target – PR Objective 1: Increase positive brand interactions (brand interactions meaning “likes,” “pins,” or “tweets” as appropriate for the platform) related to published content with brand followers on owned social media platforms by 100% on average (across platforms) within 12 months.
Measurements:
PINTEREST ANALYTICS (n.d.) • New followers (by board and for whole account) • Audience Analytics
o Country o Language (according to Pinner account settings) o Metro Area o Gender
• Pin Analytics o Impressions: number of times a Pin linked to the brand’s website or Pinterest profile
has appeared on Pinterest homefeeds, category feeds and search o Repins: The number of times an existing Pin originating on the brand’s Pinterest
page or website was added to a user’s boards. o Original Pins: first-‐time Pins created from the brand’s website using methods like the
Pin It button, browser extensions, and manual Pin uploads. o Avg. monthly viewers: average number of unique impressions of Pins per month o Avg. monthly engaged: The average number of people who engaged (repinned,
clicked, etc.) with Pins each month.
FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM INSIGHTS (Lee, n.d.) • Post Likes • Post Clicks: number of clicks other than Likes, Comments, or Shares • Number of Shares • Total Page Likes Over Time • Net Likes: What Changed (Unlikes, Organic Likes, Paid Likes, Net Likes) • Where Your Page Likes Came From (On Your Page, Page Suggestions, Mobile, Your
Posts, Others)
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• Hashtag #LetsDoThis tracking (Instagram-‐only measurement)
TWITTER ANALYTICS (Benson, 2014) • Individual Tweet performance • Impressions (times a Tweet is viewed by anyone on Twitter web and Android or iOS
apps, including logged-‐out users) • Retweets • Engagement – Cumulative score of Replies, Re-‐tweets, Mentions • Replies • Favorites • Mentions • Account Follows • Link clicks • Embedded media clicks (videos, images, etc.) • Use of brand hashtag #LetsDoThis
Rationale: The mentioned measures are those most indicative of increased positive interaction by potential consumers with the brand’s social media content. Since the brand’s posted content is designed to provide viewers with increased exposure to The Home Depot’s products and services related to DIY Home improvement, engagement with the content will encourage viewers’ positive impression of the brand and, ideally, increase brand preference, one of the campaign’s primary objectives.
MEASUREMENT TACTIC 2 (QUANTITATIVE): Utilize scanner data and online purchasing records to track the redemption of coupons distributed as part of the campaign over time and by product. If possible, as in cases of online shopping or when the redeemer is in the marketing database, correlate the customers to the target audience profile to determine if we are reaching our target.
Target – Sales Promotion Objective: Achieve 50% discount redemption by target customers over 12-‐month period.
Measurements: • Ratio of coupons distributed to coupons redeemed • Locations and times of redemption • Size of purchase with discounts in comparison to past purchases • Length of time between coupon distribution and redemption • Redemptions in relation to the activity coupons were distributed at/for (based on
unique codes) • Type of coupons most redeemed based on discounts, products, and physical or digital
medium Rationale: Coupons are a known method of encouraging product trial and repurchase. In this case, the product being promoted is The Home Depot itself through inventory-‐wide discounts distributed
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to produce increased purchasing by the target audience. Based on that, using redemption tracking in concert with The Home Depot’s CRM database system should help marketers track which of the distributed coupons and discounts are most popular with consumers as well as which venues are best for distribution.
MEASUREMENT TACTIC 3 (QUALITATIVE): Pretest of commercials meant for airing on streaming media via Theater test. Theater test will allow marketing team to determine strength or weakness of the commercials designed for placement in streaming television programs. In order to achieve the most realistic possible viewing environment, test participants will view the programs and commercials in their own homes rather than a central location and will provide feedback via touchscreen interface. Participants will be selected based on the campaign’s target audience profile in order to provide responses reflective of the target’s likely actual responses (Belch and Belch, 2013).
Target – Media Plan Objective 2: Use online media to reach 70% of target market at least 4 times over 12 month period.
Strategy 2: Run 60-‐second commercials on streaming television platforms during shows viewed by target market
Measurements: • Visibility of ad (was it noticed) • Preference for different editions of advertisement • Brand awareness (was brand memorable based on advertisement) • Persuasion (specifically does the advertisement make the viewer feel more likely to
purchase from The Home Depot) • Brand enhancement (attitude towards brand based on advertisement)
Rationale: The overarching purpose of this campaign is to increase preference for The Home Depot as a brand and increase sales among the target market. Pre-‐testing advertisements with carefully selected test participants will allow the marketing team to make adjustments to the ads based on their feedback and provides a greater likelihood that the ads will interest and resonate with members of the target audience.
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Conclusion The Home Depot has a thirty-‐plus year history of giving its customers the tools and skills they need to repair and improve their homes. Thanks to that mission, The Home Depot has grown from two stores in Atlanta, Georgia into the largest home improvement chain in the world, spanning four countries and two continents.
Despite the brand’s current market leadership, the home improvement industry, and the profile of our customers is changing rapidly and The Home Depot must adapt its marketing accordingly in order to maintain its position. Fortunately, the company’s marketing program is strong and we have the luxury of adding to and expanding on our marketing rather than playing catch-‐up. The IMC plan for the “Your Home, One Project at a Time” campaign addresses an important demographic for our company’s future with a comprehensive and measurable set of goals and strategies for success that will set the tone for our marketing to similar markets in the future.
Our target market for this campaign are the female partners in young suburban professional couples who want to care for their homes themselves but sometimes lack the knowledge and confidence to tackle the projects they want to. These couples value ease of use, high-‐quality products, and customer service more than brands or low prices, which makes them a valuable and natural target market for The Home Depot’s products and services. Further, the pervasiveness of technology use by these couples provides a vast array of opportunities for us to provide them with content that will help them pursue their goals and will draw them into a closer brand relationship with The Home Depot.
This plan will allow us to reach our customers where they live, work, and as they go about their daily lives. Our mix of traditional and digital advertising media increases our ability to reach consumers through the information mediums they choose to interact with, and the ones they cannot avoid in their daily lives. The public relations plan builds on the social mediums our customers already enjoy and rely on for new home improvement ideas and sharing as well as our ability to produce DIY home improvement ideas and training through workshops and instructions that will bolster our customers’ self-‐confidence. Finally, the promotional and direct marketing tactics we will weave throughout the rest of our campaign will increase our customer’s connection to the brand and create loyal customers for years to come.
By highlighting the company’s DIY expertise through expanded content marketing, advertising, and public relations outreach using a mix of digital and physical marketing methods, we will drive home to our customers the value of The Home Depot as a brand and encourage their involvement in DIY home improvement knowing that our company is there to provide them with products, support, and new ideas whenever they turn to us.
We look forward to working with you to implement the “Your Home, One Project at a Time” campaign and help The Home Depot continue to grow and reach new markets.
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References Background Castellanos, D., (2012, August 15). “Customer service push at Home Depot, Lowe's and rivals
paying off.” Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/15/business/la-‐fi-‐home-‐improvement-‐20120815
Hoovers, (2014, Aug 29). The Home Depot Inc profile. Retrieved from http://hoovers.com
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ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=63646&p=irol-‐reportscurrent
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us.” IBISWorld. Retrieved from http://www.ibisworld.com
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communications perspective (10th ed). New York, NY: McGraw-‐Hill.
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Appendix
1. Creative Strategy Diagram 2. Advertising Media Plan Flowchart