Stanley Tools Showcases Sure-Bite Screwdrivers

The battle between hardware stores and warehouse home centers requires a fine balancing act by manufacturers. The sometimes cutthroat pricing practiced by the biggest chains leaves smaller retailers searching for a distinctive way to feature a new product. And each has its own ways of displaying products that won't work in the other kind of store.Marketers at Stanley Tools took those distinctions into account when they created a display for its new Sure-Bite anti-camout screwdrivers for hardware-store accounts. "Hardware stores have more counter space, while home center stores need each product individually bar coded and pegged," explains Kate Donley, product-line manager for fastening tools. As a result, the New Britain, Conn.-based firm offers the tool in a six-piece set to home centers, while supplying it to hardware stores in individual units inside a self-selling, pop-up merchandiser.Composed of corrugated and designed by Stanley's packaging department in conjunction with Oneida Container in Vernon, N.Y., the unit stands 13 inches wide and 7 inches deep. Topping out at 16 inches, the four-color header on the back features a fierce-looking dog to emphasize the "biting" grip from the screwdriver's special serrated tip. The display is shaped like a workbench, with holes in the flat top to hold the individual tools upright. This allows the customers to see and touch the large, colorful handles.The display's design previously was used for the firm's Thrifty and Neon products, Donley says. "This version doesn't have the same graphic approach, but the design and format are the same."The unit ships flat, she adds, and can be assembled easily in the store. It comes with 32 products -- eight each of a 1-point Phillips, 2-point Phillips, 3-inch cabinet and 4-inch standard screwdriver. About 2,000 displays have been produced, but that's only the initial order, she says. "We'll continue to produce them as demand requires and the product continues to sell."Although no advertising is planned for the product individually, Donley says that a number of warehouse stores, including Home Depot and Kmart, are featuring the screwdriver in six-piece kits.

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