Goal
To reach the female DIY
Target consumer
Women mid 30s to 49
Consumer Insight/characteristics
‘Our bull’s-eye is that 35- to 40-year-old urban female professional who is still very ‘house proud,” says Mark Wilson, VP group account director at Initiative. Home Depot marketing manager Jason Reilly adds that women now influence 80% of home improvement buying decisions. And increasing numbers of them are taking on light projects around the home.
Media touch points
* Online community
* E-newsletters (to subscriber base of Chatelaine and Flare
Execution
Domestic Divas, which launched last fall, is accessed through the Chatelaine Web site. It was created by execs at Rogers and Home Depot is content sponsor. To encourage initial sign-up, a $30,000 kitchen reno and gift cards were offered as incentives. Regular contests offering Home Depot product are used to generate response, and content is refreshed monthly by Chatelaine staffers, says Reilly.
On the print side, there were two 16-page supplements in Chatelaine, says Wilson focusing, for example, on holiday makeovers.
Reilly says Home Depot is considering bringing the program in store. Adds Wilson: ‘We’d love to use it for events, a TV program or webisodes.’
Results
* One of the initial promotions, offering 5,000 Home Depot gift cards of $10 once the target registered, was sold out in 12 hours, says Wilson
* Today, 35,000 women receive the monthly newsletter
Credits
Initiative
Mark Wilson, VP group account director
Home Depot
Jason Reilly, marketing manager
David Stoller, media supervisor
Chatelaine
Kerry Mitchell, publisher, Chatelaine and Châtelaine magazines
April Burak, account manager, marketing solutions, Rogers Publishing Corporate Sales
Lianne Warne, program manager, marketing solutions, Rogers Publishing Corporate Sales
UNDERSTANDING DO-IT-YOURSELF – Mark Wilson, VP, group account director, Initiative
After 20 years in the business, Mark Wilson looks to his work on Chrysler as a model of what the media research understanding of the Home Depot consumer, one of his clients at Initiative, will look like.
A handful of years ago when he had the car manufacturer as a client, he says the research profiled its various consumers so deeply, that he was able to understand the media touch points as early as six months into the buying process, down to when only a few items about one model remained on that consumer’s shopping list.
‘From a car perspective – at least from a media perspective – we know what influences car purchases,’ he says. ‘We’re getting there on home improvement. [For instance] when putting in a deck, because it’s a traditionally male thing, is it ‘Mark’ putting it in. Or is it that Mark is talking with his wife? And how do they decide if he’s going to put it in with some friends or just hire a contractor?’
He says the agency is currently working with a company called eRespond to get to a depth of understanding that will help to better tailor media plans, similar to the campaign that the renovation giant has forged with Chatelaine surrounding its Domestic Divas push.
‘We think most of the decisions are shared, but want to find out why, how and when they decide.’
