Hardware Report: Exclusives Build the Store's Brand

For marketers tweaking their merchandising presentations to meet home center requirements, the remodeling dust has begun to settle. Now that companies are familiar with the rules, the challenge is to find ways to make their products and off-shelf promotions stand out to buyers. Exclusive, account-specific programs and innovative P-O-P is what gains space, they say. "Research shows people want to go to one store to complete their projects," says Brian Miller, vice president of consumer marketing for the Intertape Polymer Group in Bradenton, FL. Helping consumers decide which store that will be is now the key battleground, and creating exclusives that help build that store brand is a major goal.Indianapolis-based Aearo Inc. created the Rivet line of safety eyewear under its AOSafety line exclusively for The Home Depot this March. The three-SKU line features three colors exclusive to the chain and was introduced with a custom display to 1,000 of the retailer's stores nationwide. "Exclusives are nice to be able to develop," says Deb Walker, senior brand manager for consumer eyewear. "That approach definitely will get a product and display into the store."If the product or display isn't quite exclusive to one account, a display will be customized. "I think everyone will say that they are doing account-specific projects today," says Mary DaRif, director of marketing services for The Sherwin-Williams Co., Cleveland. "I don't think there's even a dump bin that you can be sure that everyone will accept. There are too many variations in requirements for signage or sizes or language."DaRif adds that a true partnership has developed between suppliers and retailers as both the retail base and the number of marketing companies shrinks. "We're working to ensure our products fit into their environment, because they have spent a lot of time and money to understand their customers and create their own store environment and message. So we integrate our messages with theirs."Retailer Guidelines Direct ProgramsThe major chains -- The Home Depot and Lowe's -- revamped the channel several years ago with exacting guidelines for what is acceptable in-store and what is not. With each new guideline, marketers must make adjustments. The Home Depot, for instance, currently is doing store resets with some new signage pieces. "It's not a big deal, but it requires us to create signage to fit new beam pieces," explains one marketer interviewed for this article. "That's a cost we hadn't anticipated when we set our budget for the year."Marketers aren't grumbling too much about the guidelines because most agree they seem to work. "When the chains can show us research that indicates that the changes will increase sales, it makes it a lot easier to go with their changes," says Karen Hager, director of national accounts for Senco Products Inc. in Cincinnati. "Their key goal is to get rid of the NASCAR look to the aisles. They want to simplify the graphics and the clutter, and that's a good goal." Most marketers agree that if you follow the guidelines, merchandising pieces flow through the process fairly smoothly, although even then it can take some time. "But they've become really strict about it," Hager says. "If your display doesn't have the code showing that it was approved, it will get ripped down. That's new."Some marketers say that buyers can speed up the slow approval process -- or even circumvent it if they feel a display or deadline is exceptional. One marketer told of a presented display that "violated every regulation the retailer had. "We went back and forth on it, and the buyer thought it was a fabulous display. So he just approved it as is -- and now it's been in the stores three times. Now, we just say, 'it's been approved before, so we don't have to go through the process this time.' If the buyer thinks the regulations are standing in the way of a great display, they'll bend the rules."Adds Aearo's Walker, "It's harder these days to get a display on the floor, but the ones that do go through the process are very successful. And it helps the next one if the last display was very successful when it was in the aisle.""The store manager is king," says Scott Yaw, managing director of Deskey International Branding, a consulting firm in Cincinnati that works with many home-center products. "He's responsible for profit and loss, so he rules the roost. "Store-support programs are critical for building rapport with store managers and getting in the door. I've seen managers building their own displays in their tool corrals, and that's not unusual." These decisions tend to be made at the market level, marketers say, rather than at the corporate level, with some authority falling to the individual store managers."There's a crunch for space everywhere," says Joe Guarino, general manager for the distribution channel of residential products for the flooring division of Armstrong World Industries, Lancaster, Pa. Guarino works with independent specialty flooring retailers. To give his customers the flexibility they want, Guarino uses modular displays that allow retailers to expand or contract their SKU presentation quickly and easily.If you can arrange it, maintaining your own displays is helpful. Self-maintenance by suppliers has decreased in recent years, as the big boxes require most vendors to use one of their existing service providers. To create a local presence, however, Senco funds its own in-store service personnel. "It's a humongous asset for us," says Hager. "They're our eyes and ears in the field. Otherwise, you don't know what's happening. Having a person who represents us directly and knows the store managers has been a big advantage." It also aids service by the retailer's third-party merchandisers, she notes. "They are aware of us because they interact with our people. So our displays are at the top of their list when they enter the department."Servicing displays can impact how they are created and what selling approaches are used, says Dave Johnson, marketing manager at Rain Bird, Azusa, CA. The company recently revamped its merchandisers with stronger graphics and a color-coded approach that leads consumers to the appropriate product faster. A flip chart on the in-line display and a brochure supplement the new system. "If there are service people in the aisles to stock it, [the brochure is] an effective approach," he says. "But some formats don't lend themselves to restocking very well, which is why we provide the flip chart." Keeping Costs DownCost-effective design is vital for many reasons. According to Guarino, Armstrong eliminates pricey extras in favor of to-the-point samples and visuals. "The amount retailers are paying for displays has decreased, so we're finding ways to produce more beautiful displays at a lower cost," he says. Shipping costs also drive marketers to search for new materials. "It's reached the point where it costs me more to ship a display than to produce it," says Sherwin-Williams' DaRif. "We're challenging our suppliers to find solutions that offer better, lighter and fewer petroleum-based options."The challenge is to find materials that are lighter but still durable enough to withstand the significant stress of a home-center store environment. "Instead of corrugated, we use sturdier materials, especially when we want to project a higher-quality image," says Aearo's Walker. "We're always looking at new materials, but the choices have to be driven by the budget and what will stand up in the store environment."Titanium offers more advantages than steel, DaRif notes, while new acrylics provide lighter weight than traditional plastics. "We're becoming better educated and telling our suppliers that we have to be able to afford to get the displays into stores for them to be effective." The home-center's difficult environment also impacts packaging, notes Su Lok, a spokesperson for Scotts Co. in Marysville, OH. The company has replaced its paper bags and cartons with a rigid plastic that is more durable, water resistant and UV resistant. "The products often are right out in the home center's vestibule, so they have to withstand weather and that environment," explains Lok. "At the same time, homeowners were telling us that they needed a package that could withstand storage in the garage for a period of time. This approach aided our presentation and gave our customers a better value, too, so it's a win for everybody." Shipping cases that work as displays, such as cut-cases that can be stacked and opened quickly, are also popular. "Any format that creates a fast display is desired," says Senco's Hager.Getting the Message AcrossTo make his displays more functional, Armstrong's Guarino made adjustments that reflect how consumers' shopping patterns have changed. "There are far more samples and much less 'display,' today," he says. "Consumers are doing more research on the Web, so in-store, they need a simple, effective message and samples that show the products." Cooper Bussman simplified things with its new in-line presentation at The Home Depot. The electrical-parts supplier converted its set from loose products in shelf packs to bagged goods in highly shoppable polystyrene tilt bins. "This program is easier to execute, less confusing to stock and easier to manage for inventory," explains Rose Dygard, marketing and promotions manager for the Ellisville, Mo.-based company. Dane Touchette, director of retail sales and marketing, adds, "The design makes the products stand out -- they're not just tucked back in. It creates a big presentation that attracts attention."Co-planned with The Home Depot's staff, the display presents more products in the same space, Touchette says. The bins include four-color header cards with product information and images to explain products. The bagged products also make it easier to scan the items. "We're now using this approach in other chains and even in other channels," he says. Intertape also reorganized its presentation to simplify and explain it better, says Miller. "Research indicated that the names and types of tape products were confusing to the consumers, so they'd leave the store and go to a specialty store to ask someone which product they needed. We had to set up a system to direct them to the right products to complete their specific projects." The new display emphasized clear messages about each product's application. Color coding also created a Good-Better-Best approach across all categories, while other colors were used to tie products to specific applications. The program introduced a small dump bin and two sizes of power wings to support the changes. "Tape is not a big department for off-shelf displays," he says. But the company's research and updates convinced buyers to give them a try. Interaction is another growing trend, notes Jeff Rozenzweig, vice president of sales at Fisher Design in Cincinnati, which works with a variety of home-center suppliers. "We're seeing more kiosks certainly, but it depends on the profit in the program and if the client can afford it. But more interactivity to explain the products is critical. You have to get the customer involved." Tweaking PlanogramsRedesigning planograms in conjunction with buyers also has taken on more emphasis, says Rozenzweig. "We're trying to create a presentation across multiple bays at The Home Depot or Lowe's for some companies, not to dictate what items will be in the set, but where the products will be located in the set," he says. The goal is to establish key items in a central position and work left or right "to create a store-within-a-store concept."Those concepts are worth discussing with buyers, he notes. "The chains think they understand where items should be placed, but they sometimes miss the mark. They want to put high-velocity items at eye level and at ends of aisles. But sometimes there's a benefit to drawing the customer into the aisle to gain add-on sales. If there's a strong strategy behind it, resetting products can pay off." Paint is one category where sets are changing, but unlike some others, the category is growing, particularly for the color presentations, says Sherwin-Williams' DaRif. The larger footprint, however, allows the whole presentation to change, she notes. Rather than strips of gradient shades of a hue, the systems include larger chips of one color, coordinating colors across a palette and die-cut and pop-out windows to allow a comparison of fabrics or other materials. "We're giving customers more and better tools that let them get a sense of the color on the wall," she says.Attracting Non-Traditional Customers: Women & HispanicsSherwin-Williams' displays address another growing trend at home-center stores: attracting female customers. "Retailers understand that whether the female customer is buying the paint or even applying it, she's choosing the product in 80 or 90% of the cases," says DaRif. "And she has to be inspired by what she's seeing." "The ideas we bring to retailers that are geared to women are being well received and listened to," agrees Senco's Hager. To attract more women to its pneumatic tools, Senco has created more application photos showing how the tools work and encouraging women that they can use them. But marketing hardware products to women takes more than painting a hammer pink, warns Dan Marshall, manager of new business development at Aearo. Marshall spearheaded a new line of female-oriented safety products, called Select -- Safety Designed for Women. The products are being introduced this summer with several power wing and floor displays headed by TV's Trading Spaces carpenter, Amy Wynn Pastor. The line features eyewear with smaller and lighter frames and other adjustments for women's bodies, he explains. "This is a readily available market with no competitors right now."Cooper Bussman acknowledged female electrical shoppers with its new graphics. "We assumed that customers knew what they were looking for when they shopped our products, but we discovered that's not always true, especially as women begin doing more of these projects that they're unfamiliar with," says Dygard. In response, marketers added more application photos and other information to the bin tags to explain the products better. The surging Hispanic market is also a target, addressed most often with bilingual packaging, a standard application across all products. Senco goes further by supplying Spanish-language brochures and producing signage with English on one side and Spanish on the other. "With an estimated purchasing power of $600 billion, the Hispanic population will only become more important to retailers and marketers in the coming years," says Rob Cappiello, industry vice president of the National Hardware Show.He noted several cultural factors that are increasing the Hispanic do-it-yourself market, including the fact that more than 20% of all construction jobs in the U.S. are being filled by Hispanics, providing a high skill level that drives D-I-Y projects. He also noted that Hispanics traditionally are "very attentive to their homes and take on home-improvement projects for beautification or room-addition purposes."He also points out that many Hispanics are not assimilating to U.S. culture. "They are in constant contact with their home countries and languages and will often purchase imported products that cater to their specific tastes and preferences." In addition, statistics indicate that 50% of Hispanic consumers used the Internet to gain information about products.

Hardware Report: Exclusives Build the Store's Brand

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