The Heinzeroth Blog

Would you shop at a retail store that didn’t implement some sort of safety measures to protect its customers from Covid-19? Do you notice when someone inside the store is improperly wearing a face mask (or not at all)? Do you look for the hand sanitizer station when you walk in or perhaps note if there are “Social-Distancing” floor stickers at checkout?

For any of us that have worked extensively over the years on packaging design, planograms, POP messaging and other in-store tactics, the dramatic shift toward online sales is a crystal-clear call for omni-channel thinking. It’s evident that we must present products in the best light for sales conversions “everywhere” while certainly not forgetting a continued strong focus on brick and mortar stores. To make the most of this new shopping landscape, there are some emerging best practices worth noting.  

When it comes to retail trends, no single organization has done more to change the way that people shop in recent years than Amazon. This remarkable company is innovating at a faster pace than everyone by improving the shopping experience with rich, easily searchable content and by adding the immensely popular Prime. Sellers who ignore the impact of this marketing juggernaut run the risk of missing a huge opportunity to reach a constantly growing number of customers who shop online first.

 

If your company manufactures do-it-yourself products, chances are good that new product development is a key part of your strategic plan. New products often serve as the life-blood of DIY categories that have come to expect a continual flow of new choices. As you look at current revenue and profits, you might ask how much of that financial performance was due to products you've introduced in the past 5 years alone. In many categories that number can easily exceed 50%. To make sure your new product development process is doing all it can for company growth and your brand position at retail, here are some practices we have noted to be successful in the DIY channel.

View These Winning Designs Announced At The 2016 NRHA Awards Program

If you are considering an update to your packaging and in-store POP merchandising, there are some great idea starters represented in this year’s awards program sponsored by the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA). Full disclosure: because the top packaging honor went to Heinzeroth Marketing Group for a Rain Bird package, we have a special interest in this awards program. But despite that small qualifier, we do think all of the winning designs are worth sharing.

In Part 1 of this blog post, we discussed why it’s time to start marketing home improvement products to millennials. This post is dedicated to exploring how we can effectively reach this important audience with media, messaging and merchandising strategies that build relationships and, ultimately, drive sales.

Millennials (adults 20 to 34) represent a massive consumer audience with growing economic might. They are 74 million strong, accounting for 25% of the U.S. population and representing $170 billion in spending power. They grew up in a time when there has always been an internet, so their on-demand access to information and social networking has formed who they are as human beings and consumers. They represent the future of our industry… a world where marketing is a two-way ongoing dialog and the consumer has equal weight in the equation. 

Online shopping continues to escalate in the home improvement channel. In fact, 70% of online buyers actually prefer to shop online versus in-store, according to The Farnsworth Group 2015 study: “Online Purchasing Behavior for Home improvement Products.”

When someone moves into a home, their purchases that follow can represent a huge opportunity for marketers of home improvement products. DIY product and service providers must be constantly looking for innovative ways to reach these recent movers. Here is an opportunity to not only make the sale, but also forge customer loyalty and retention.