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May 2007 - Strategy Magazine
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Brand experience
Renovation retail: The taming of the screw

by Will Novosedlik
page 57

On any given evening, you will find my wife watching at least one home improvement show. Reality TV seems to have found the perfect bedfellow in home makeover shows. Whether we are talking about Anna Simone or Glen Peloso or Steve and Chris, suddenly there are designer people in my home every day using my wife as a medium to repeatedly deliver the same message: This House Sucks!

She is apparently not alone. According to a recent survey conducted by U.K.-HQ'd Synovate, 27% (or 3.5 million) of Canadian households will be renovating or remodeling in 2007. That represents $12 billion at retail for all types of home improvement projects, with bathrooms and kitchens at the top of the list.

And where will they spend that money? Primarily two stores, with a third on the way later this year: Home Depot, Rona, and soon, Lowe's. So when the TV program is over and the kitchen fantasy is actively building in my wife's imagination, we head out to Home Depot and Rona, just to "look at stuff."

Rona positions itself as the "Canadian how-to people." Home Depot says: "You can do it. We can help." Lowe's says: "Let's build something together." To me, this all sounds pretty much the same, except one is Canadian. So there really is only one thing left to differentiate them. You guessed it - experience.

Rona's current TV spots turn Do-It-Yourself into Buy-It-Yourself, wherein a young couple see a bathroom reno display and like it so much that they fold the bathroom into a shipping crate and roll it out of the store. This little piece of hyperbole reads like a "See ya, raise ya" jab in the kitchen and bath display wars with Home Depot, in which the two duke it out for the attention of people like my wife.

Therein lies the secret behind the big box reno retail business. It's becoming a woman's world. And what a brilliant idea that is. Why would you target the weekend do-it-yourself male who might want to come in and play with the power tools when it's his wife who is at home hatching a plot to tear the kitchen apart and build a new one? You're going to follow the money.

As retail consultant Paco Underhill has written: "The retail hardware industry has gone from an 'Erector set' mentality to a 'Let's play house' approach." So the kitchen and bath sections are designed for women. Men can go to the lumber section and the Tool Zone. They like to get in and out quickly, so these areas are functional and mechanical. But the model kitchens and bathrooms are for shopping, which is something women do a lot better. And many of them are managed by design-savvy women, who, as consultant Tom Peters loves to point out, are much better salespeople than men. They listen. And that is important when you are making such a high-involvement purchase.

So what, if anything, sets these brands apart? Rona and Home Depot follow very similar formulas. Warehouse space, tall industrial-strength shelving, concrete floors. Experienced and knowledgeable salespeople. Everything from the tools to the finished product, depending on your interest and ability.

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